From the 1910s through the 1940s, Socialist Party members served as state legislators, mayors, city councilors and school board members. The Pennsylvania party, with its deep roots in Reading, produced national Socialist leaders, including candidates for president and vice president....
But the dry spell is over. Socialists have been on an electoral winning streak in some parts of the country for a number of years—Socialist Alternative’s Kshama Sawant made her electoral breakthrough in 2013, winning a major race for the Seattle City Council—but the results from western Pennsylvania in the past two years have been particularly striking. And, now, national observers are starting to take note. “Democratic Socialists scores big wins in Pennsylvania,” declared CNN this week, while The New Yorker announced: “A Democratic-Socialist Landslide in Pennsylvania.”
... “We’re turning the state the right shade of red tonight,” declared Arielle Cohen, the co-chair of the Pittsburgh chapter of DSA....
Official logo of the Democratic Socialists of America via Wikipedia.
ADDED: About that official logo. I presume the white and black outlines for the shaking hands are intended to represent white and black people coming together in socialism. Why then is white the color for the outlining of the rose? It seems to convey the dominance of white. You might try to defend the design by saying the socialists want to say that there is white supremacy and it needs to be recognized in order to be fought, but portraying white supremacy as a rose would suggest that it's good. And, in any event, the red rose (according to the above-linked Wikipedia article) is a traditional symbol of socialism. The logo infuses the symbol of socialism with whiteness, the whiteness that is the white hand that shakes the black hand. It seems to say that white people welcome black people into what is a white enclave.
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95 comments:
Sub Rosa, indeed.
It will just end in tears. It always ends in tears.
So far, it seems like the only Socialists that are winning are in Democrat primaries against other Democrats (i.e. other Socialists)
But I hear Maduro won big the other day in Venezuela.
(golf applause)
Your mentors in art history and deconstruction would be impressed and terrified.
Me, I'm just tickled.
"Democracy and socialism go hand in hand" - directly from the YDS web site.
Any time you hear someone going on about 'democracy', you know that their dissonant socialist pitch is not far behind.
It has gained a certain following, just as brainy shows like 'The View' and 'The Bachelor' have a certain appeal.
Yeah.
Bernie lost.
It's not socialism. It's the looting of capitalism. There is a vast difference.
From the tone of those pieces, I thought the reds were actually going to hold elective office. The excitement says more about the respective newsrooms than about the good people of western Pennsylvania.
Socialist Media wants to convince people that Socialists are cool again.
I don't buy it.
“It will end with tears. It always ends with tears.”
If I understand history corrrectly, socialism ends with tears, then a hail of gunfire...
We are so fucked.
I love what's happening in Seattle right now. The rest of the country could use a lesson in the effects of socialism. MOAR!
The left is moving farther left. Good news for Republicans in a right of center country.
The Pennsylvania party, with its deep roots in Reading, produced national Socialist leaders, including candidates for president and vice president...
A/K/A Progressive-fascists
Or progfas.
John Henry
Democrat: You know when we were always telling you that we weren't really Socialists?
We lied.
Winning! Pay no attention to children in Venezuela who dumpster dive for food.
In socialism, the toilet papers you.
I have to remember to save my comment before hitting the publish button. Once again. an error of some sort trashed a comment.
Shorter version: People who believe in socialism ignore the reality of its failures in places like Venezuela. They'll say that isn't true socialism or that socialism will work if the 'right people' (meaning themselves, of course) are in charge. These people serve as the cannon fodder to foment revolutions. However, history has shown that once they achieve their revolution, sociopaths like Lenin, Stalin, and Mao have them eliminated to consolidate power. That's why Stalin called them 'useful idiots'.
The problem with capitalism, are capitalists.
The problem with socialism, is socialism.
It will work this time, we promise.
I wonder what caused the drought after 1940?
And Alger Hiss wasn't really a Soviet spy.
Within every socialist beats the heart of a thief.
There was a group at Charlottesville with a red and black fist logo. Antifa has red and black flags. Wasn't that Al Gore's favorite book?
It's hard to have a red fist or red rose on a red flag.
The black hand was an afterthought. I prefer to think of it as La Mano Nera of socialist gangsters. Don't say you weren't warned.
Tsk, tsk Professor. Clickbait!
"winning streak"
It's an odd moment: socialist parties are collapsing in Europe, and the latest socialist experiment in Venezuela is turning out like all other socialist experiments, as self-described socialists are "winning" in the U.S.
"Why Is There Some Socialism in America?" as Sombart didn't ask.
Winning, as in “Socialism 1, People 0”?
Q. How did socialists light their homes before candles?
A. Electricity.
As usual, the forest goes unnoticed while Althouse examines the trees.
Socialist Alternative’s Kshama Sawant made her electoral breakthrough in 2013, winning a major race for the Seattle City Council
While I no longer live in Seattle, it has come to my attention that Ms. Sawant's days may be numbered. She was recently shouted down in her emotional defense of the 'Head Tax'.
As the wise Mrs. Thatcher once said, "The problem with Socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money".
There are also a lot of brown Americans, are they unwelcome in socialist party?
This is in the Nation after all so there is no need for me to even read it. I think they ran a similar story in 1989...just before the Berlin wall fell.
Trump has changed the Democratic Party nearest its right edge. This is why he won states like PA, MI, and WI. That has carried over into the Democratic primaries for Congress- there were simply less Democrats near that center-line voting in the Democratic primaries. I think the party is in for a big surprise in November if they continue this lurch to the extreme left. They can win the House, but I think they are blowing it by nominating people like that won last Tuesday.
“The black hand was an afterthought.”
You’re jesting, but it almost certainly was. You can effortlessly follow the thought processes of the people who created the emblem. Red, of course. White stands out on a red background. Wait! Too white! Make one hand black. What about Hispanics and Asians? Oh, shit....
Fourth-grade creativity.
Tim Russert single-handedly gave the GOP the left's official color.
Socialists will tax you to death and funnel your hard earned paycheck to those who deserve it more, namely - unaccountable bureaucratic flunkies who we pay to remove our freedoms .
Yay socialism!
“Kshama Sawant”
Winning public office, not with name recognition, but just a name. Seattle doesn’t like to overthink things.
Repeal the Law of Supply and Demand--NOW!
PackerBronco said...
Within every socialist beats the heart of a thief.
No, within every socialist beats the heart of a fascist.
In the military, the red team is the opposing force during an exercise, so Russert was spot on.
Also, he knew he couldn't put red on the Dems because of socialism's use of it.
Sure, success is all around us! There's Venezuela and Cuba and... oh yeah. Nevermind.
Ms. Sawant's days may be numbered. She was recently shouted down in her emotional defense of the 'Head Tax'.
And yet it passed.
And yet it passed.
It did but not in the form she wanted. Even so, this will not bode well for Seattle which has been run by idiots since the 1960's.
I look forward to voting for the Kshama Sawant/Hakuna Mutate team.
@Larry J
Bingo.
"David Blaska said...
Q. How did socialists light their homes before candles?
A. Electricity."
Funny.
"The colour red was chosen to represent the blood of the workers who died in the struggle against capitalism."
The socialists killed lots of workers in that struggle, it is appropriate that their logo run with blood.
I wish them well in primaries. General, not so much.
No one would support any version of fascism, because one version of it, in Germany, resulted in millions of deaths. But many people support socialism, even though several versions of it, in China, Kampuchea, and the Soviet Union, resulted in millions of deaths. Why the difference?
Of course there's the famous opposition between fascism and democracy. But that seems to be just the "faith in opposite values" that Nietzsche described, which identifies one position as Good and the (notionally one) other position as Evil. Really, in fact, fascism and democracy are akin in spirit. Nothing is more democratic than the central symbol of fascism, the bundle of sticks that are stronger bound together than separately, and with the axe in the middle. The current catchphrase "Stronger together" is a perfect fascist motto.
I suppose it will be said that fascism is authoritarian. But what could be more authoritarian than seizing a business for the state without the owner's consent (state socialism) or than coming into a business and telling the owner, in detail, how they can and can't run it, who they can hire and promote, and even what sort of fringe benefits they have to offer (European style state regulation)? That's taking away the freedom that's one of the main attractions of being an entrepreneur rather than an employee. And these days more and more socialists are explicitly hostile to freedom of speech and the press as well, the classic domains of authoritarianism that even old-style leftists recognized. Socialism's claims to be anti-authoritarian were always based on a narrow vision of freedom, and they're even weaker in our current cultural climate.
In the last analysis, socialism, like fascism, is collectivist. And as an individualist I find them equally ugly and equally frightening.
When is Socialism not on a winning streak at The Nation?
The logo is in part copied from that of the Spanish PSOE, which ended up being adopted by the Socialust International.
It did but not in the form she wanted.
They cut the amount in half, was something else changed?
this will not bode well for Seattle
In ten years the tax will either be gone or more than the original proposal. We'll see how stupid Seattle voters are.
No brown? No red? No yellow? Not even a hint of congruency ("="). Yesteryear's national and global socialists.
The rose bloom represents the surface appeal of socialism. The thorns of the rose, wisely excluded from the logo, tell the real story.
[Larry J:] Shorter version: People who believe in socialism ignore the reality of its failures ...
There's no such thing as a good theory that doesn't work in practice.
[whswhs:] In the last analysis, socialism, like fascism, is collectivist. And as an individualist I find them equally ugly and equally frightening.
That. Exactly that.
War of the Roses: House of Lancaster (Red Roses) won, House of York (White Roses) lost. The Socialists are acknowledging that theirs is a losing ideology.
Socialism functions best when restricted and limited by free market capitalism.
Hey Skipper said...
[Larry J:] Shorter version: People who believe in socialism ignore the reality of its failures ...
There's no such thing as a good theory that doesn't work in practice.
"In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is."
- Yogi Berra
Whenever confronted with the many failed attempts at socialism, the idealists claim that "true socialism has never been tried." They will never admit failure because they're so in love with their beloved theories that they can't accept the harshness of reality.
Howard said...
“Socialism functions best when restricted and limited by free market capitalism.”
It only works in Small groups of mutually invested people. Basically families
Socialism works in the military, fire, police, water, sewer, garbage, etc.
@Howard -
That etc. is doing a lot of work.
Howard: In one sense, yes. But you can just as well say it works in business: Every large corporation is an island of central planning. But what makes it work is precisely that it's an island surrounded by a sea of market transactions. That's actually the orthodox theory of the firm, and has been for several decades.
But what doesn't work in having an entire economy controlled by centrally made decisions, for a lot of reasons.
I'd also point out that the military and police, at least (and arguably fire departments, which also operate under emergency conditions), are not engaged in production or trade. They exist to use and threaten force. You really do not want free enterprise in the use of force! Having their decisions bound by strict rules and procedures is a safety measure, one that's basic to constitutional government and the rule of law.
I wouldn't be so hasty to apply that to garbage. I've seen photos of New York with the trash piled up under the windowsills.
[whswhs:] Every large corporation is an island of central planning.
True, but.
Even large corporations have a comprehensible problem space. Compared to the overall economy, they are small, and can, to a large extent, ignore knock-on effects.
But for the economy itself, which is where socialism wishes to exert its power, the factorial of all the interactions explodes.
Socialism is mathematically impossible.
In the last analysis, socialism, like fascism, is collectivist. And as an individualist I find them equally ugly and equally frightening.
That's because fascism is a subset of socialism, and has been from the start.
Even large corporations have a comprehensible problem space. Compared to the overall economy, they are small, and can, to a large extent, ignore knock-on effects.
Also, corporations can fail and go away if they make the wrong decisions. Other corporations will step up and do the job they were doing... if it still needs doing. Capitalists call this "creative destruction".
When that happens to the whole economy... see Venezuela.
Hey Skipper, Yes, that's pretty much what I had in mind in saying, "But what doesn't work in having an entire economy controlled by centrally made decisions, for a lot of reasons." Among those reasons:
The simple sociological difficulty of scaling up bureaucracy to manage an entire economy, which Haldane discussed in "On Being the Right Size";
The economic calculation problem identified by von Mises in "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth," which is that socialism has no substitute for accounting in terms of money and market prices as a measure of value added;
The problem of organizations shifting from external goals (serving the needs of a customer/client population) to internal goals (making the top managers comfortable and prestigious, and keeping the low-level workers from having to make too much effort), which cannot be corrected by having them destroyed by leaner, more motivated competitors;
A variety of other principal-agent problems having to do largely with a socialist industry automatically being a monopoly that can ignore customer dissatisfaction.
The Chinese Communist Party is no longer all-in for Socialism.
Blogger tcrosse said...
The Chinese Communist Party is no longer all-in for Socialism.
Of course they are. Just not in the market place of stuff. In the marketplace of ideas? Well. Better toe the party line.
Howard said...
"Socialism works in the military, fire, police, water, sewer, garbage, etc."
Voluntary associations all.
And to add. None of those organizations are telling their members where to live, how to live and where to park their money. Also. None of which are profitable but rely heavily on other peoples participation in the free marketplace.
Glad I could help.
We don't volunteer to pay, Rusty.
f u don no US is a blended social-democratic-republic then u don no spliff
Howard asserted: "Socialism works in the military, fire, police, water, sewer, garbage, etc."
How you checked the fiscal health of municipal pensions lately?
Socialism plays to the human dislike of unfairness. We think it is unfair that other people have more than we do, even if we chose to not work as hard. I might have been able to get in medical school but chose not to. But out outrage is selective. We don't think it is unfair that basketball players make more because we don't see their height advantage as an injustice. Likewise musicians or movie stars. But we view businessmen who get rich as somehow exploiting someone somewhere, without evidence. Yet none of us has the capacity to run a corporation. Many people voting for socialism have only the vaguest idea what it means (as do many of those even running as socialists). They would deny that it means that government owns all the major corporations. They think it just means "more fairness, more goodies". They are wrong. Socialism is Venezuela, where the government sets prices and screws up everything.
Blogger Howard said...
"We don't volunteer to pay, Rusty."
But you volunteer to join.
You can have just as much socialism as your capitalism can pay for.
Drago: I'm reminded of Margaret Thatcher's famous epigram on the subject.
Howard, all those groups are paid for by external groups, like the rest of the citizenry. Heck, I could be a billionaire if only every American gave me three or four dollars. See how that is not capable of scaling to include everyone in the country? Socialism thinks if everyone gives some percentage of their labor/income/wealth/property to share with everyone else, everyone ends up with more, somehow. Only it never works except to enrich the Castro, the Chavez, the Maduro, rather than everyone. Odd that.
2019 will see Seattle #DraintheSawant. The head tax is the last straw. City government does nothing to control the drug-addicted homeless. It can't build bike lanes without spending $14M per mile for them! The streets are a mess. The Magnolia Bridge is failing and there's no plan to replace it - that's the major access to that neighborhood.
mikee: In the US, government has socialized major transportation, water and power projects that all play a major role in making the US the most powerful economic force of all time.
Drago: You can have just as much too big to fail capitalism that socialism can bail out.
Note that in order to comment at The Nation you must not only log in but also be a paid subscriber. Capitalist fascists. They should be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Howard said...
Socialism works in the military, fire, police, water, sewer, garbage, etc.
Only if you admit fascism = socialism.
Also "works" is subjective.
Achilles, the US swims in an ocean of socialism that greases the wheels of free market domination. Your hung up on the bootstap fantasy born into the richest land on earth thinking you hit a triple. I get it. The socialist machine runs so smooth, you don't notice its there propping your miserable self up.
Howard: When the state bails out businesses on a "too big to fail" basis you've already moved too far from capitalism. What you have then is socialism for the rich, which is just as bad as socialism for the poor. If you're serious about free markets, you want both the distribution of income and wealth, and the success or failure of businesses, to be determined by the market, without the state stepping in to change things.
I realize that you probably lack familiarity with libertarian writings on the subject. But even as intellectually unsophisticated a thinker as Sarah Palin has denounced "crony capitalism" as something that should be done away with. The idea of "crony capitalism" as a problem is hardly obscure—and it's characteristically an idea of what is called the "right wing."
Howard: "Drago: You can have just as much too big to fail capitalism that socialism can bail out."
That makes no sense at all.
[whswhs:] The simple sociological difficulty of scaling up bureaucracy ...
✅
Howard. Free markets are organic. Socialism must be imposed.
whswhs writes: Howard: When the state bails out businesses on a "too big to fail" basis you've already moved too far from capitalism. What you have then is socialism for the rich, which is just as bad as socialism for the poor. If you're serious about free markets, you want both the distribution of income and wealth, and the success or failure of businesses, to be determined by the market, without the state stepping in to change things.
Exactly so. That's what 'crony capitalism' is all about: The hand-in-glove relationship between certain large corporations and Congress and the Pentagon. The answer isn't socialism. The answer is to drain the swamp and keep the government out of the bail-out business.
whswhs writes: Howard: When the state bails out businesses on a "too big to fail" basis you've already moved too far from capitalism. What you have then is socialism for the rich, which is just as bad as socialism for the poor. If you're serious about free markets, you want both the distribution of income and wealth, and the success or failure of businesses, to be determined by the market, without the state stepping in to change things.
Exactly so. That's what 'crony capitalism' is all about: The hand-in-glove relationship between certain large corporations and Congress and the Pentagon. The answer isn't socialism. The answer is to drain the swamp and keep the government out of the bail-out business.
Back in the 1970s I was interviewed by a Federal prosecutor about something that had happened in the departure lounge at JFK Airport.
A waiting passenger was handed a flower box by a stranger and on the top of the flower box was a red rose.
The passenger then immediately fled the departure lounge.
I did not see this because I arrived later than the scheduled departure (I didn't miss my flight because it was delayed) but that US government investigator was obviously in the midst of a very serious investigation.
When I told this tale to a friend he said the red rose was a way of delivering a Mafia/BlackHand death threat.
In the 1970s I was interviewed by a Federal prosecutor about something that had happened a few days earlier in an international departure lounge at New York's JFK airport.
A stranger handed a waiting passenger a cardboard flower box with a red rose tied to the top of the box. The waiting passenger immediately fled the lounge.
I didn't see this because I had arrived late, nearly missing my flight.
When I told this tale to a friend he said the red rose is how the Mafia/BlackHand deliver a death threat.
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