One Socialist Fragment at a Time
Some who think spending by Arlington County long ago exceeded a responsible amount joke about the Peoples Republic of Arlington, referring to Arlington’s liberal to socialist politics. So it was pleasant to read Melanie Scarborough’s column in yesterday’s Examiner newspaper in which she introduces Normal Thomas, the Socialist Party presidential candidate from 1928 until 1948 (bio from Wikipedia, Bartleby, and Answers.com).
She goes on to list some of the planks from the Socialist Party platform of 1932, including public works programs, minimum wage laws, subsidized housing, health insurance and government pensions for the elderly, and higher taxes on inheritances and income. She wryly notes:
“the Socialist Party platform of 75 tears ago looks positively conservative compared with the modern Democratic Party.”
Scarborough then writes about some of the absolutely leftist proposals such as socialized medicine from Senator Hillary Clinton (D) and former Senator John Edwards (D). She then quotes Norman Thomas:
“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” [emphasis added]
Finally, she observes, “Some of us can see how it’s happening . . . The question is: Can we stop it?”