Social Democracy: What is it? What are the benefits? And why does American Media Despise it so much?
Social Democracy is a political ideology, centre left on the political spectrum. Further right than Democratic Socialism, and more left than the average Liberal Democrat (UK) or the nominally left wing Democratic (USA). Its goals are for there to be a welfare state, reduce inequality of both wealth and social forms. Common Policies are Universal Healthcare -or single payer- Free college at the point of service, Living wage, No involvement in foreign wars and non-intervention
Social Democracy explanation
So why does the American media and political establishment hate it so much?
Social Democracy is, quite frankly, the bridge between a Capitalist economy, It’s a necessary system that will lead to further left wing economies, and a Socialist economy in future.
What this means for the Establishment is trouble. This will turn the system on its head. They have no coherent argument against it and de-cry it with ‘SOCIALISM!’ ‘VENEZUELA! ‘THE USSR!’ and even from a Republican Senator, Sen. Rand Paul Tried to have his cake and eat it too.
Rand Paul criticised Sen. Bernie sanders from Vermont for saying Socialism works perfectly well within Scandinavian countries, which Rand Paul then correctly points out that these countries are indeed not Socialist. At this point you might be wondering ‘So far you have agreed with the people you are trying to discredit, what are you getting at?’
The Senator from Kentucky is still very much opposed to these policies, and even goes so far to refer to Bernie Sanders as a ‘Socialist’ for promoting these ideas. Rand Paul is usually right on foreign policy and social policy but is so abhorrently bad on economics that he contradicts himself.
This logic is quite well spread throughout the media however, making it abundantly clear that Social democracy is not welcome and will be viciously smeared.
Term differentiation
Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism, are two different ideologies, and two ideologies that should be differentiated between.
The similar names are easy to mix-up and that is exactly what Senator Sanders has done and continues to do. Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also advertises herself as a Democratic Socialist.
To research and get a better idea of if this really mattered, I emailed Professor Noam Chomsky about the discrepancy between the two.
His take was rather interesting,
“I’m not sure how much of an issue it is. The terms are not carefully defined, like other terms of political discourse. At least as I understand ‘socialism,’ keeping to the tradition, neither of these tendencies is socialist. Rather state capitalist.” -Noam Chomsky
What I gathered from this response, Is that he doesn’t really seem sure if it is a major problem in the grand scheme of things. However, the Professor makes a very important point, Neither Social Democracy nor Democratic Socialism are traditional Socialism.
I seem to stray from Professor Chomsky’s philosophy here a bit. I do think it’s a bit of a strategic blunder to identify yourself as a Democratic Socialist rather than a Social Democrat.
My reasoning is, you are giving the Right an even bigger gift than just saying you are a Social Democrat. If you openly admit to being a ‘Socialist’ in anyway, you leave a gargantuan hole for the Right to shoot an arrow through and nail you with ‘facts and logic’ -credited to Right wing extremist Ben Shapiro.
Benefits
The benefits of Social Democracy far exceed your every day example of Capitalism.
Scandinavia, The hot spot for Social Democracy and welfare states, has consistently had the happiest Nations on the planet for many years. This year, in the year 2019, The Top 5 Nations in the World according to Forbes.com, are these following Nations in order of Happiest:
Finland tops the charts once more. Denmark is second place. Norway is third place. Iceland comes fourth place, and the Netherlands comes fifth place on the planet for happiest nation.
All of these countries, bar The Netherlands, are Scandinavian and all are (unsurprisingly) Social Democratic!
The list was compiled of ten Nations: The afore mentioned and the following, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada and Austria.
All of these nations apart from the odd ones out, Austria and Switzerland, are Social Democratic to the most basic extent, Switzerland having an individual mandate for their Healthcare similar to Obamacare. Even Austria, with its current right wing (some people would call Far right) government in Europe -have Basic Universal Healthcare, Free education with 9 years mandatory, and a decent minimum wage for whatever field of occupation you go into.
The List contenders are somewhat consistent over two years, with Finland holding Number 1, back in 2018 according to wildjunket.com and 2017 according to CNBC.com
Funnily enough, America and the United Kingdom are nowhere to be seen on these lists.
Oh, America has never made it to the Top tens ever? That’s strange, I was told to believe America was one of the best and happiest nations on the planet but according to Vox.com in 2019, America is the unhappiest it has ever been, coming in at an astonishing number 19 with its perfect capitalism and its private health insurance, individual mandate system.
What America needs to catch up to the rest of the modern world
Medicare for all, Universal education and free college, a living wage tied to inflation pay rise for everyone making less than $15 an hour + the right to a union, a Green New deal, a New New Deal, Public financing of elections, End the war on Drugs, Penalize corporate outsourcing and incentivise production at home, Universal Basic income, reinstating Glass Steagall, Free childcare and much more is what is needed to bring America back up to speed with the rest of the developed world and all of these are incredibly successful elsewhere on the planet.
Deregulation and Tax cuts for the rich and corporations will not do. Trump and the rest of the establishment (Local Government/State administrations/Media) will resist like nothing ever seen before, a lot more than the current corporate Democrats in office have with Trump, they have been resisting with Moral grandstanding, platitudes and Cliches. They are far from an effective resistance to what they call a ‘Tyrant in Chief’ which is why a political revolution must happen now, this is prime opportunity to implement real change in America rather than Milquetoast, centrist amendments to already existing laws. These are changes in society that Noam Chomsky and Sen. Sanders have been arguing for (till this point, mainly from the political fringes)
Conclusion:
Social Democracy is the way to bridge Capitalism and Socialism effectively, ending the struggles of millions of people in America and setting a fine example of the world that things can get better.
America will always be fear-mongered into resisting ‘Socialism,’ and this will only expose those who lie, and smear the only people in Washington DC that will care, and fight for the American people. It will bring about the end of this era of blatant corruption and mismanagement in America for years.
Bernie Sanders and the Progressive Alliance of Social Democrats and Democratic Socialists are the ONLY ones that can bring about this political revolution, finally putting a bullet into the monster’s heart and birthing a new, better, greener, healthier America and after a while, the whole planet.
