ANOTHER goddamned "DEMOCRAT" pushing for unnecessary Soc Security cuts - FASTTRACKING THEM.

[Cal Carpenter]

121. Economically, liberalism is not anti-capitalist

Leftists would argue that under capitalism, implementing and protecting things like social security is a neverending battle. Leftists would consider things like a comfortable end-of-life standard of living (and universal health care, and maternity leave, and public education, labor rights, civil rights, environmental safety, etc...) a human right. The "common good", if you will.

Liberals may support these concepts and legislation that addresses them, but they seldom challenge the very system that makes these improbable, short-lasting, or even impossible. Liberals tend to address them as social issues rather than fundamental economic ones.

I'd also like to add a couple bits...

- one - if you poll voters about social security, you won't even find many self-identified conservatives who favor cutting social security.

- two - many people who identify as liberal/Democrats, especially on DU actually have a pretty leftist perspective on some things, even economically, so I do want to contrast that with the majority of the actual politicians. Frankly I think our 2-party system, and our elections based on personalities rather than platforms, fucks this all up. One party is always judged in a relative way against the other rather than on objective policies and their outcomes. It's no wonder so many Dem voters have differing expectations and hopes of Dem politicians when you look at how divisive a primary can be, for example, between people who are in teh same party and are supposed to be supporting the same platform.

I'm not really in a good frame of mind to organize my thoughts well, and I have to sign off for a bit without rereading this again, so I hope that makes sense. Basically at the core is the economic system, and the political system follows from that (concentration of wealth and power that is the inevitable result of capitalism). That's the fundamental difference in the theories of leftism vs liberalism, that's the distinction I make.