Dems and socialism

I’ve been a Democrat for 40 years and reaped the benefits of the party’s socialist principles from the time I was a child. So I have a few thoughts on state Rep. Dom Costa’s view of socialism in the May 7 article “Dem Challengers Lean Leftward in Races to Unseat Two Costas.”

When my father died, leaving my unemployed mom with seven children, Social Security was there to help her. Did she pay into the system as much as we collected? Impossible. And who created this socialist system? The Democrats.

When I went to college, Social Security and veterans’ survivor benefits helped cover my costs. Whose ideas were those? Democrats’. Had I paid in as much as I took out? Not a chance.

When I went to work as a single mom, day care subsidies and the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children filled in financial gaps. Democratic programs, both of them.

I’m grateful for all the unearned support I had early on. Democratic-socialist principles enabled me to become self-sufficient and, for the past 35 years, pay into the system to help others reap the same benefits.

Medicare is on the horizon, and I’m looking forward to sharing these pooled resources in my retirement. Thanks, Democrats.

Mr. Costa said, “I don’t know how you can be a Democrat and a socialist because they’re two different things.” I’d like to remind him that people called four-term President Franklin Delano Roosevelt a socialist.

It’s not a slur; it’s a statement of Democratic values. MAUREEN BYKO

Cranberry