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| Socialism = communism lite. Though not too lite |
Read the fine print, Yonden. ("A new trend in US politics that should inspire us all", 10 February).
I've looked at the fine print, at what Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) actually believes. Result: I don't think for one minute that her campaign for punitive taxes and expropriation of the wealthy should "inspire us all".
AOC is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Despite its name, the DLA aim is to turn America our socialist, not just “democratic” socialist. Its strategy is to infiltrate political parties to bend their policies to the far left. So far so good with AOC. But the DSA does not envisage a fluffy-soft Scandinavian democratic socialism. It demands "control of the means of production… control over economic life", the very definition of socialism[*]. It was the control of the means of oil production that led directly to the disaster of Venezuela today. Hugo Chavez also "inspired us all" at the time, just as you say AOC should today. Thank you, but we're not all so naive and forgetful.
As for the Green New Deal, it reads rather like a jejune undergrad essay. Damning it with faint praise, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, called it "enthusiastic". To be fair, working towards a carbon-neutral economy is much to be welcomed. But abandoning air travel? In ten years? Retro-fitting every building in the US? In ten years? Doing away with nuclear? Clean and reliable nuclear? (While super brain Bill Gates promotes nuclear. And: "Sweden has risen to the challenge by building nuclear plants" ).
How to pay for this hundred trillion dollar boondoggle? AOC has no idea. It just…. will… happen. Because.
Calm down, Yonden, take a deep breath, read the fine print. Remember: if it seems too good to be true, it usually is. And in the meantime, please don't presume to speak for us "all". As Mao Zedong said: "one divides into two" (
[Reading Lhatoo's article in today's "This Week in Asia", it's no wonder people get on his case. He's zany…]
Peter Forsythe
Discovery Bay
+852 9308 0799
[*]: "Control over fiscal, monetary, and trade policy", Para 5, here.
