As Al Gore said in his fabulous revolutionary book, "The Assault on Reason", "a radical right 'faction' (I would have said EMPIRE) has taken over our government and holds in utter contempt the very concept that 'a public good' even exists."
These FOEs (friends of EMPIRE) are in for a rude awakening when they get on fascistFOX TV and pontificate about, "the country is going to 'socialism' and will be like France" and try to scare people as they did in the past with Harry and Louise --- to try to turn people against their own economic self-interests. "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto” --- and the old tricks that Thomas Frank exposed in "What's the Matter with Kansas" about right-wing, corporatist propaganda aren't working like they used to, Newt!
'Social Democracy' is not communism nor fascism --- but rather the only successful game in town for all European (including UK) and Japanese democracies that care about their people in this post-WWII (Second Empires War), and in the real, sustainable 'free world' today.
Social democracy is the only success model for a 'peoples democracy' compared to the deadly existential shadow of EMPIRE.
So the real choice for informed Americans is not French socialism vs. American democracy, but rather the peoples success and progress of European/Japan, and world-wide 'social democracy' vs. tyrannical ruling-elite 'corporate financial Empire' (only posing as democracy under the facade of the American looting corporatist/fascist 'consensus system' --- where the 'consensus' is not ours but the corporate overlords).
No-sale!
Let's just talk reason and logic a minute:
Since the end of WWII (the second war of the Empires), the rest of the democratic European and Japanese world has been progressing as a post-Empire world of; reasonable equality, reasonable energy efficiency, reasonable ‘universal’ health-care, reasonable foreign policies, reasonable gun laws, reasonable media balance, and reasonably representative government through ‘social democracy’
Such substantial progress away from Empire and toward pluralistic democracy has been achieved over the last half century in all European countries and Japan (and more recently by many other Asian, South American, and even newer East European countries).
During the first few decades (late 1940’s to 1970’s) of this post-WWII era, the US continued its progress (from the capitalist Great Crash and Great Depression) toward a broad middle-class living standard, albeit at little or no progress on the modern Post-war issues of ‘universal health care’, energy efficiency, public transportation, reasonable (non-imperialist) foreign policy or other issues.
However, in the last quarter century (starting in 1980) the gap between the ‘social democracies’ of Europe and Japan vs. the U.S., the change has been both telling and highly detrimental to us caught in the U.S.:
1. Inequality comparable to the Gilded Age in America?
It's worse now. GINI Coefficient of income inequality (0 to 1, where higher is unequal):
The 'social democracies' of Europe and Japan --- 0.23 to 0.31
‘Our’ United States of America --- 0.49
Mugabe's plutocratic dictatorship of Zimbabwe --- 0.53
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