During his State of the Union address back in February, Donald Trump rebuked Democrats for openly embracing many of the Far-Left policies of the growing socialist movement within their party with these words:
“America was founded on liberty and independence and not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a Socialist country.”
Republicans applauded, and with the help of the faux conservative media types like Sean Hannity, Trump and the GOP seized the issue to create another reason to vote Republican in 2020 because #notDemocrat and #notSocialist.
In reality, Republicans are directly responsible for the growing popularity of socialism due to their fecklessness and broken promises, not to mention they have begun embracing a kind of socialism-lite that I’ve come to call “conservative socialism.”
Since Trump’s State of the Union, we’ve been given some insight as to what this looks like with the GOP’s push to advance Ivanka’s paid family leave and the recent effort by the party to create a Republican version of the Green New Deal. These efforts have intensified as the Party, desperate to win in 2020, develops their campaign strategy.
The word socialism has become a dirty word but GOP fear mongering over the word is hypocritical. However, it’s not unique. In fact, as Republicans try to rebrand socialism into some form of “conservative alternative,” far-left Democrats are suggesting that socialism be called “Capitalism Plus.”
In a recent episode of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the host, recognizing the stigma attached to the word socialism, proposed rebranding the word as a way to achieve the same success he has seen in “socialism-friendly” countries, including: Finland, Denmark, and Norway.
Instead of socialism replacing capitalism, Maher said socialism could be added to capitalism to ease crushing economic pressures in areas such as healthcare:
“The right has a hard time understanding the concept that we don’t want ‘long lines for bread’ socialism. We want ‘you don’t have to win the lotto to afford brain surgery’ socialism.”
Is it just me, or does this sound a lot like Medicare for all? And didn’t Trump recently promise “the Republican party will soon be known as the party of healthcare?” Could the “Capitalism Plus” approach to healthcare set the stage for Trump, a fan of socialized government-run healthcare, to chalk up another socialism-lite victory for the GOP?
Heck, if he follows Maher’s lead, Trump could marry the efforts of Republicans and Democrats to rebrand socialism by calling his healthcare solution a “conservative capitalism plus alternative” to Obamacare. Ivanka and unibrow Washington would eat it up.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative. His politically incorrect and always “right” columns are also featured on NOQReport.com.
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