Online, in person, on TV, I hear people throwing around terms like Socialism, Fascism, and Communism, and half the time I don't think they know what the words mean. I knew a bit, but had to research the terms myself to be clear. They're being used to inspire fear and loathing, and it's working. So let's dive into each one a little.
Let's start with democracy. It's a system where every person has a say, where every vote is counted. The United States is not a democracy, although it is a democratic republic.
A Republic allows every citizen to have a vote, but also has a group of "wise people" called Electors that take input from the state's voters and place the only votes that count. This system was chosen initially by the founding fathers of the U.S. because so many citizens may never meet the candidates and understand who they're voting for. No TV, Facebook, or Twitter in those days (and no political ads!). So the Electoral College back then had the power to override the popular vote in the best interest of the country if they thought it necessary. Today, they can't override the vote (trust me, they tried in 2016), so the Electoral College is simply a quaint remnant of the past. Except it can be corrupted by gerrymandering, or re-drawing districts so that a particular party has an easy win.
Socialism is a system where everyone pays into the pot to benefit everyone else. Think of it like dinner with friends, where we all agree to split the bill equally. It works well if everyone orders the same thing - we all get what we put in. But then there's always that one friend that will order the lobster and have 4 glasses of wine when we had hamburgers and soda. We just paid for their greed. And then there's the friend who has fallen on hard times and we buy them dinner. 5 friends splitting the cost of one meal isn't so painful, and it's the compassionate thing to do.
We all pay taxes to fund things like public schools, roads, Social Security and Medicare. That's socialism. It is not democratic socialism, because we, the people have very little say over what our taxes are used for. Our government has been "borrowing" money from Social Security for years, for example, to fund various projects. That's our friend with the lobster meal. The big bank and auto bailouts are another example, Our money (trillions of it) got banks out of hot water after their greed stole billions from individual citizens.
Democratic Socialism uses the same concept as socialism, however it gives citizens more of its own money when they're in need, like our friend at dinner who has fallen on hard times. Our tax money would be used for what it's intended for instead of of paying CEO salaries in bailouts and funding wars. Both socialism and democratic socialism are squishy; both can be good, both can be bad, depending who is wielding the power. Both allow for capitalism, but one is more compassionate than the other. The compassionate sort is illustrated by countries like England, Sweden, and Denmark where taxes are high, but healthcare is paid for, paid leave is generous, and the quality of life can be very good. The bad sort can be seen in countries like Venezuela.
Finally, Fascism. This is the one to fear and loathe. A dictator is in charge, and has the power to control the media. If someone speaks out against the leader, there are real consequences (death, poisoning, you get the picture). If the US was a fascist state, individual states would no longer have any power, all power residing instead with the leader of the US. Italy under Mussolini was the original fascist state, and Nazism is an extreme form of fascism.
Robert Paxton writes, [Fascism is] a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.
So listen to the political banter, but do your homework. It's really easy to win a contest through inspiring fear and loathing. Don't fall for it. Work towards the future you want. Vote.
