Liberalism vs. socialism

Mike DeBry: “Ralph Brax often talks of socialism...”

I, a Marxian socialist, have known Ralph Brax since I was enrolled in his first Vietnam War class at AVC in 1986. In 2005, Ralph and I became “backyard neighbors,” meaning our respective home’s backyards adjoin one another.

In those 35 years, throughout many classroom-based conversations and lectures, as well as an untold number of discussions at our homes, (never) has Ralph said or written anything that would suggest his being a socialist.

Although Fox “News” has a vested interest in convincing its viewers that liberals are socialists, it simply isn’t true. Ergo, those who conflate liberalism with socialism make fools of themselves.

Liberalism is supportive of the capitalist system and thus the private ownership of the means of industrial production. Socialism concerns itself with the deletion of the capitalist system and, concomitantly, establishing the social ownership and democratic administration of productive forces.

Unlike liberalism, which promotes a politically-based “representative” government, socialism advances the concept of (industrially)-based government. In other words, rather than electing politicians to represent them, workers in a socialist society would elect representatives from within their respective industries.

Moreover, socialist thought is quite hostile toward liberalism/reformism.

Writing in The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engles wrote, “The [reformers] want all the advantages of modern social conditions without the struggles and dangers necessarily resulting therefrom. They desire the existing state of society, minus its revolutionary and disintegrating elements. They wish for a bourgeoisie without a proletariat.”

Therefore, liberalism is no less a pro-capitalist ideology than is conservatism. And its adherents do not advocate for the social ownership and democratic orchestration of the means of production. Accordingly, liberalism is no less responsible for the American working class’s horrible plight than is conservatism.

Stop making fools of yourselves.

Guy Marsh Lancaster