Socialism!!!

In his latest public service announcement, Robert Reich begins by saying he's hearing a lot about socialism lately, "mainly from Donald Trump and Fox News." I guess he doesn't get out much. The "menace of socialism" is in every GOP message, from every Reoublican candidate running anywhere and everywhere-- and from the rotgut Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Did you hear the booing when former Colorado Governor Frackenlooper tried using socialism as a punching bag last weekend at the California Democratic Party convention?

The GOP defeat was so stunning and so overwhelming that HALF of these 10 random losing incumbents didn't even get into the NRCC Patriot ProgramThe NRCC Patriot Program-- which is charged with protecting vulnerable Republican incumbents-- was a total hot mess last year. Of the 30 members included in the program, 20 were defeated.

Two years ago Berniecrat and Democratic Socialist Lee Carter accomplished the "impossible" in Manassas (Virginia's HD-50). He ran, with more hostility than support from the Democratic establishment, against incumbent Jackson Miller, Republican majority whip of the House of Delegates. Carter, a former Marine, was targeted and derided by the GOP as a socialist-- and voters flocked to the polls to vote for him.

The roots of my political beliefs come from my grandfather, who arrived in New York as a young teenage refugee from virulently anti-Semitic Czarist Russian. He didn't have any money but he brought his work ethic, his admiration for education and his socialism with him.

This is good Robert Reich clip. "To the conservative mind," he explained, "the specter of socialism conjures up a society in which no one is held accountable and no one has to work for what they receive. Yet, that's exactly the society Trump and the Republicans are promoting for the rich. Meanwhile, most Americans are subject to an increasingly harsh and arbitrary capitalism.

For yesterday's post, Reactionary Blue Dogs And Wall Street-Owned Corporate Dems Want You To Know They're Not Socialists, we looked at a quote from Texas progressive Mike Siegel, running in a gerrymandered red district that goes from liberal north Austin into the deep red exurbs northwest of Houston. Siegel was speaking at an event with Congressman Ted Lieu and VoteCommonGood leader Rev. Doug Pagitt, a progressive evangelical activist.

Blue Dog Max Rose and progressive Democrat Ilhan OmarIt should be no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention that the Republicans are going to run against Democrats next year by asserting they're all "socialists" who want to turn the U.S. into Venezuela. I asked Alan Grayson about the problem that Democratic candidates will be facing as they endeavor to combat these pernicious tactics.