One of the fundamental political weaknesses--however else it may be a virtue--of some Democrats in particular, and of the Democratic party in the aggregate,
I did not grow up in a communist nor in a socialist system. However, I grew up in Scandinavia and the dingbat who interviewed Biden called Sweden a socialist country. She said, with a sneer, that Obama wanted to turn America into a socialist country, like Sweden.
There is a vast, enormous difference between living in Norway, Denmark or Sweden anno 2008 and having lived in Bulgaria, East Germany or Georgia anno anywhere from the 50s to the late 80s.
So, when you talk about those evil European socialist/communist states, what exactly are you referring to?
BTW, the Scandinavian countries are not socialist by any workable definition. They do have very extensive social welfare systems, generous family policies, excellent educational systems, access to health care for all etc but the means of production are squarely in private hands and as we speak both Denmark and Sweden have conservative, right-wing governments.
Even under darkest communism the same was true. Not anyone could attend Moscow or Leningrad U and if you did not keep up your grades you got kicked out. There are a few countries that have open university enrollment, I think both Austria and Italy have some universities that are free-for-alls. Luxembourg has a system whereby rather than maintain their own universities (the country is ridiculously tiny), the state pays for the kids to go to any university elsewhere as long as they get accepted. So, if the kid gets accepted at Harvard, the Luxembourg fisc pays. So this does vary some, however, in most countries whether you pay or not university comes with strings attached.
As far as public school, that IS an instance of spreading the wealth (even if it does not work very well much of the time). If you are well off you pay more taxes, both in real terms and percentage-wise. Those taxes go to pay for public school (among other things) which benefit everyone, including the kids of poor parents. So, your taxes pay for the education of those who can't afford to pay.
Very true, and the Democrat controlled Congress did it after the dems caused the train wreck of our economy starting in 2000 with Bill Clinton and Greenspan before Bush was elected and carried on by fighting legislation by Greenspan, Frank and Dodd.
Now for some ungodly reason many voters seem to think it would be great to have a Democrat for a President, and one who was mentored by an American hating preacher.
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I did not grow up in a communist nor in a socialist system. However, I grew up in Scandinavia and the dingbat who interviewed Biden called Sweden a socialist country. She said, with a sneer, that Obama wanted to turn America into a socialist country, like Sweden.
There is a vast, enormous difference between living in Norway, Denmark or Sweden anno 2008 and having lived in Bulgaria, East Germany or Georgia anno anywhere from the 50s to the late 80s.
So, when you talk about those evil European socialist/communist states, what exactly are you referring to?
BTW, the Scandinavian countries are not socialist by any workable definition. They do have very extensive social welfare systems, generous family policies, excellent educational systems, access to health care for all etc but the means of production are squarely in private hands and as we speak both Denmark and Sweden have conservative, right-wing governments.
Even under darkest communism the same was true. Not anyone could attend Moscow or Leningrad U and if you did not keep up your grades you got kicked out. There are a few countries that have open university enrollment, I think both Austria and Italy have some universities that are free-for-alls. Luxembourg has a system whereby rather than maintain their own universities (the country is ridiculously tiny), the state pays for the kids to go to any university elsewhere as long as they get accepted. So, if the kid gets accepted at Harvard, the Luxembourg fisc pays. So this does vary some, however, in most countries whether you pay or not university comes with strings attached.
As far as public school, that IS an instance of spreading the wealth (even if it does not work very well much of the time). If you are well off you pay more taxes, both in real terms and percentage-wise. Those taxes go to pay for public school (among other things) which benefit everyone, including the kids of poor parents. So, your taxes pay for the education of those who can't afford to pay.
Edited 10/30/2008 3:18 am ET by sild
"A socialist society can be democratic."
Exactly!
Very true, and the Democrat controlled Congress did it after the dems caused the train wreck of our economy starting in 2000 with Bill Clinton and Greenspan before Bush was elected and carried on by fighting legislation by Greenspan, Frank and Dodd.
Now for some ungodly reason many voters seem to think it would be great to have a Democrat for a President, and one who was mentored by an American hating preacher.
Sopal
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Hmmmm....
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