Michael Moore just said FDR was a democratic socialist.

[wnylib]

55. I'm just being realistic. It is ingrained

in the American psyche to oppose and resist the word socialism.

If democratic socialism really is like FDR's programs, or Scandinavia's mixed economies, I could live with it. In fact, in my early working years, I did live with it. FDR's legacy was still around then. The markets were regulated and anti trust laws restrained development of conglomerate monopolies better than today. Utilities were considered natural monopolies for the sake of efficient, smooth operation, so they were regulated by government oversight but privately owned. Unions were stronger and protected by law.

There was no universal health care. With unions, civerage was cheaper than today. Without a union, you were up a creek. When Medicare was established for seniors, there was a lot of hysteria about "socialized medicine" but people got over it and love it now.

Obamacare is an improvement for many people, but still too damned expensive for a lot of them. At a minimum, there should be a Medicare option. A single payer system like Medicare for all would not destroy us economically. Hasn't done that in Britain, Canada, or Scandinavia. And I don't hear their citizens begging to do away with it.

But attach the word socialism to any program or political position, and Americans conjure up communist Cuba or China and become frightened and resistant. Yet those same people will buy cheaper meds from Canada, even though it's illegal and risky over the Internet snd via mail.

We need economic and health reforms, but I believe that running a presidential candidacy based primarily on large scale reforms will not sell to the majority of people. Too much too soon. Our own party establishment will not support it. Better to make reforms longer term goals to achieve incrementally. In the long run, those reforms will be good for the nation as a whole.