Andrew Gillum, who was the mayor of Tallahassee from 2014 to 2018 and the Democratic nominee for Florida governor in 2018, is rather upset that the GOP is accurately describing so many Democrats
‘Socialism’ is a GOP smear. Democrats have to fight back.
A few days after I became the Democratic nominee for governor of Florida, the Republican nominee, Ron DeSantis, visited the historically Cuban neighborhood of Little Havana in Miami and read aloud, in Spanish, from a note card: “El socialismo serÃa un desastre para la Florida.â€
Attack ads and targeted mailers soon followed. President Trump visited Florida three times to amplify the attacks, and his diatribes about the dangers of socialism were broadcast to every home in the state.
The messages used in my race for governor will again dominate the airwaves here and elsewhere in 2020.
It’s time to face a hard truth: We, as Democrats, have allowed it to happen. We have responded to this unfair attack with well-intended, but scattershot, defenses.
Perhaps more than anywhere else in the country, the traumatizing histories of authoritarian socialist regimes are active memories for voters in Florida. For the thousands of Floridians who come from Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua, the word “socialism†is rife with deep pain and anger. Republicans exploit this experience, preying on the fears of immigrants and their families.
If the shoe fits, wear it
Democrats need to make a strong case, and soon, that we are fighting for economic freedom and opportunity — and it is Republican ideas that are diminishing freedom and opportunity for millions.
Now, if you aren’t laughing at that one, I don’t know what will hit your funny bone. This is the party of healthcare run by the Central Government. This is the party that wants to dictate how companies operate and force them to comply with Modern Socialist dictates. They want to control your individual lives via a Green New Deal/climate change policies. They want full governmental control of the energy sector and the economy. They want to take from the producers and give to the moochers. They want government in charge of everything. Excluding abortion, of course. They want no restrictions or rules on that at all.
They want freedom to worship government, and opportunity for them only comes from Government telling others how to operate.
Bernie Sanders is an avowed Socialist. Many of the up and coming Democrats, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are members of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Realistically, they aren’t so much Socialists, per Political Theory 101, as Progressives, otherwise known as Nice Fascists. In true Socialism, the government mostly stays out of our private lives, and voting is very, very open with few restrictions. Democrats want to control our lives, and do not respect the outcomes of votes when they lose. Hence why I call it Modern Socialism, because too few understand what Progressivism is.
Funny how Baghdadi Bunny is forever telling us everything is just a gopher smear.
You don’t suppose…?
I am too old to live under socialism.
I am addicted to luxuries like toilet paper, electricity, food, clean water and shoes.
Lolgf dems
Germany has had free healthcare for over 100 years
Yet they seem not only to have toilet paper but also BMWs as well as free college for all including all non citizens including Americans
Israel and Switzerland also have the free healthcare that you seem to equate to “socialismâ€
Can you name any other country besides the USA that you admire and that does not have state funded healthcare for all?
John,
You are very, very ignorant. None of these countries have free anything, they pay a considerable tax for their privileges. The average American would not tolerate the way these people treat patients and almost all countries with socialized medical care don’t have adequate militaries or defense and most are trying to rid themselves of the socialized medicine. Why don’t you move to Russia like Lee Harvey Oswald. But he hated the system after he got there.
To make your point david, Germany’s tax rates average about 10 percentage points higher than US rates. (Roughly 30% vs 40%.)
If John wants to come out of his mother’s basement and pay more taxes, he is free to donate that amount to the government. He won’t and we all know it.
He wants others to pay and then claim say healthcare is “free.”
John hates economic freedom because all the left has is hate.
Does that include VAT? That is the killer.
That is the tax rates on income.
VAT does not apply to health services in Germany. (see https://www.export.gov/article?id=Germany-VAT)
“Excluding abortion, of course. They want no restrictions or rules on that at all.”
Not exactly true. They want it fully funded by other people, collected from taxes by force. It is just another example of crony capitalism that the Left practices every day. They love funding large corporations like Planned Parenthood in exchange for kickbacks and bribes. It would benefit far more people if the Government were to fund a totally different elective procedure like Lasik. But the reason Lasik exists and that the cost of it keeps going down and getting better results is that it is not interfered with by Government and the rules Government places on insurance companies.
Socialism ?
Does that include things like social security and unlucky funded free education? Public water and roads and streets? Public hospitals ? National Parks?
Or ??
Publicly financed (socialist) universities ?
Is this a cSe of
socialism for me…
But not for thee???
No John,
Socialism includes taking stuff that doesn’t belong to you so you and your friends can live like kings.
John,
A favorite theme of fools who like socialism is that education is free. NO. It is free for a select few who do very well on state testing. You would not pass. Then those who are not selected can not pay to attend. Instead, if your testing shows you would be better digging ditches, then that is what you do.
Social Security? You mean that thing I pay into my whole working life, will never see all that I paid in paid back to me with the excess going to those who refuse to work or into politician pockets? NOT a socialist program.
That ‘free’ education is also paid for by me in the form of property taxes.
Same with those roads, streets and water.
In fact, nothing you stated is free.
John believes that taxing capitalism is socialism.