Joe Biden.... Capitalist or Socialist?

[PoetPhilosopher]

I was wondering if the bulk of RF considered Joe Biden a Capitalist or a Socialist.

I heard the question raised once elsewhere, and it got me thinking about the subject.

 

[Lain]

I was wondering if the bulk of RF considered Joe Biden a Capitalist or a Socialist.

I heard the question raised once elsewhere, and it got me thinking about the subject.

100% dyed-in-the-wool capitalist, as are almost all politicians in this nation.

 

[AlexanderG]

If you surveyed average GOP voters on the issue, I really wonder what their consensus definition of "socialist" would even be. It seems to be a word repeatedly applied to every non-GOP politician, no matter their actual platform, to imply that preserving one's in-group identity requires any conservative voter to dislike that person.

The way I've seen the term used, any action of a collective government is socialism. Public libraries are socialist. Highways and police departments are socialist. Any spending of collective resources for the common good is socialist? Under that definition, all US politicians are socialist. Under the traditional definition, I think a handful of Democrats are socialist and Joe Biden is definitely not one of them.

 

[Valjean]

I'd say more capitalist than socialist, though his policies do seem more pro-social than our previous president's.

How social do you have to be, to be a socialist, though? Many of yesterdays Republican leaders would be considered socialist, by today's standards, and the Democrats? -- Shudder

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

If you surveyed average GOP voters on the issue, I really wonder what their consensus definition of "socialist" would even be. It seems to be a word repeatedly applied to every non-GOP politician, no matter their actual platform, to imply that preserving one's in-group identity requires any conservative voter to dislike that person.

The way I've seen the term used, any action of a collective government is socialism. Public libraries are socialist. Highways and police departments are socialist. Any spending of collective resources for the common good is socialist? Under that definition, all US politicians are socialist. Under the traditional definition, I think a handful of Democrats are socialist and Joe Biden is definitely not one of them.

I might agree. Personally I see Joe Biden as a Capitalist with the occasional slight sympathy for socialism. But then again, the pandemic has softened a few hearts to a light form of a few socialist ideas. So it could be the times we live in and the tools that need to be used, that occasionally make Joe Biden as a Capitalist make a few socialist policies. Without making him as a person, a socialist.

 

[AlexanderG]

I might agree. Personally I see Joe Biden as a Capitalist with the occasional slight sympathy for socialism. But then again, the pandemic has softened a few hearts to a light form of a few socialist ideas. So it could be the times we live in and the tools that need to be used, that occasionally make Joe Biden as a Capitalist make a few socialist policies. Without making him as a person, a socialist.

Also note that the shelf life of this term being used as a slur is waning. According to Gallup:

The data also show significant differences by generation. A recent Gallup analysis showed that 49% of millennials and Gen Zers have a positive view of socialism, contrasted with 39% of Gen Xers and a still lower 32% of baby boomers and traditionalists (those aged 55 and older).​

Most people under 40 have seen their life prospects endangered by rampant unregulated capitalism, combined with an escalating threat of cuts to social safety nets and ever lower taxes for the ultra-rich. Socialism sounds awfully appealing in such circumstances.

 

[Valjean]

I think the term "socialist" is used in radically different ways, by different groups. Many on the right seem to be using it as a generic insult or intensifier.

 

[Valjean]

Also note that the shelf life of this term being used as a slur is waning. According to Gallup:

The data also show significant differences by generation. A recent Gallup analysis showed that 49% of millennials and Gen Zers have a positive view of socialism, contrasted with 39% of Gen Xers and a still lower 32% of baby boomers and traditionalists (those aged 55 and older).​

Most people under 40 have seen their life prospects endangered by rampant unregulated capitalism, combined with an escalating threat of cuts to social safety nets and ever lower taxes for the ultra-rich. Socialism sounds awfully appealing in such circumstances.

Reagan's right-wing, "trickle down" capitalism never did raise all ships, did it?

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

I think the term "socialist" is used in radically different ways, by different groups. Many on the right seem to be using it as a generic insult or intensifier.

I'm a Democrat. I use it to mean things like free healthcare and maybe a form of Universal Basic Income, possibly taxing the rich to pay for it. So I can use the term to myself the way I use it, without insulting myself - lol.

 

[Valjean]

From the 1958 Republican election platform:

• Provide federal assistance to low-income communities
• Protect Social Security
• Provide asylum for refugees
• Extend minimum wage
• Improve unemployment benefit system so it covers more people
• Strengthen labor laws so workers can more easily join a union
• Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of sex

This was yesterday's conservatism. Compared to today's Democrats, it looks kinds.... socialist, don't it?

Much has changed, but slowly, so as not to be noticed, and the growing hardships are blamed on "radical socialism!"

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[Heyo]

I was wondering if the bulk of RF considered Joe Biden a Capitalist or a Socialist.

I heard the question raised once elsewhere, and it got me thinking about the subject.

Bernie and Tulsi are capitalist slightly leaning towards socialism. Your Overton window doesn't allow you to think about real socialism. As long as no-one is demanding to socialize the means of production or at least utilities like water, energy or public transport, you don't have socialists.

 

[Nakosis]

I was wondering if the bulk of RF considered Joe Biden a Capitalist or a Socialist.

I heard the question raised once elsewhere, and it got me thinking about the subject.

I suspect Biden, like politicians on the right have to do with evangelicals, give lip-service to socialism because they need their votes.
They may be smaller groups but they get all of the media attention.

 

[Altfish]

100% dyed-in-the-wool capitalist, as are almost all politicians in this nation.

This exactly, there is not n electable left wing party in the US

 

[exchemist]

I was wondering if the bulk of RF considered Joe Biden a Capitalist or a Socialist.

I heard the question raised once elsewhere, and it got me thinking about the subject.

Nobody in the USA seems to have any idea what a real socialist is. It's just a term of abuse, bandied about in ignorance by some people on the Right.

Almost all politicians in the US are in favour of private enterprise and free markets. I have never heard anybody in the political mainstream suggesting businesses should be taken wholesale into state ownership. The furthest left anyone goes in the US is towards a "mixed economy" - something that has been a standard model in Europe ever since WW2. And that is not socialism.

Biden is a bit left of Obama, by all accounts, but that's it, really.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Biden is a bit left of Obama, by all accounts

Oh?

 

[exchemist]

Oh?

I get the impression, from the reports I have read, that he is a bit more of an old school Democrat, favourably disposed towards trade unions, interested in redressing the imbalance of power between corporations and employees, and so forth. But I'm speaking as an overseas observer so I could be off the mark.

 

[shunyadragon]

I was wondering if the bulk of RF considered Joe Biden a Capitalist or a Socialist.

I heard the question raised once elsewhere, and it got me thinking about the subject.

Our economy and government is Capitalist/Socialist, and Biden changes nothing. Socialist programs have been a part of our Country since the beginning.

The main problem with the USA economy is Big (Huge!) dominante corporate rule of our economy and government, and wealth of our country in the top 1%. Rule by oligarchy.

Our current Socialist Medicare/Medicaid program came into our lives in a Republican administration; Bush.

 

[Polymath257]

Nobody in the USA seems to have any idea what a real socialist is. It's just a term of abuse, bandied about in ignorance by some people on the Right.

I was going to say almost precisely this.

Also, almost nobody in the US has any idea what a real fascist is.

Our political philosophy is rather narrow.

 

[PureX]

Correct option: political toady for the capitalists that have owned his sorry a** his whole adult life. And thanks to guys like him, they pretty much own the rest of us, now, too.

 

[Shadow11]

Socialist - take a long look at Justin Trudeau PM of Canada he's even too far left for Bernie.