But the Republicans call everything that they oppose “socialism.” Most of them don’t even know what it means, just like so many political clichés are not understood by those who use them in their daily repertoire, like liberal, conservative, corporate, and so on.
I visited enough countries that proudly called themselves “socialist” to still consider it a nasty sting, indeed. East Germany in 1974 (as a tourist), Cuba in 1982 (at the invitation of their government), post-Soviet socialist Russia, post National Socialist Germany, and “SINO” (socialist in name only) Yugoslavia several times before it broke up. I had several friends trying to tough it out in the socialist Venezuela of Chávez and Maduro.
I don’t care what the term refers means theoretically. Some black inner city dude has surely heard “with liberty and justice for all,” too. Those terms don’t mean crap if some racist white cop arrests him for something he didn’t do, lies in court to get a conviction, and sends him to jail for 18 months.
That’s the reality of socialism, too. Reality is that an elite is quickly formed at the top, control is paranoid and reinforced by a secret police. The “German Democratic Republic,” by their own definition the “true existing socialism,” needed the death strip and self-automated machine guns to keep its own people inside its socialist paradise. Again, Unamuno’s “Ustedes vencerán pero no convencerán.” I have seen the sting, been in countries that have felt the sting. They were not places you would want to move to or live in. I speak German, Spanish and Russian. I talked with people on the ground. The theories might sound great. They don’t work when implemented by people. At least, they haven’t yet, and I’m not willing to risk a bet on someone who says, “but THIS time, we really mean it!” Been there, seen that. No, they don’t mean it.
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