An opinion piece in Newsweek by Tom Rogers nails it! He writes, “In the United States, while it goes unrecognized, we have our own USSR—a collective of red states that are bound together in our union benefitting from the very socialism they claim to disdain, but which is so apparent they must be termed ‘The Union of Socialist States of Red.’ … However, the real champions of redistributing wealth in a way that takes money from those who pay a much bigger share of the federal tax burden and channels it to those who shoulder considerably less in federal taxes are Mitch McConnell and his Republican red state ‘comrades.’ It is the blue states like New York, California, Connecticut and Massachusetts which pay into the federal government far greater amounts of federal tax revenue than what they get back from the federal government. Moreover, it is states like McConnell’s home state of Kentucky that pay far less in taxes to the federal government than what they actually get back. … What is remarkable is that even states like Texas with a huge economy get back more than they send to the federal coffers. Yet, Texas Senator Ted Cruz throws around the ‘socialist’ attack on blue state Democrats as much as anybody. So, one can surmise the way Republicans see it, as long as you are redistributing income back to their state disproportionally it is not wealth redistribution socialism, but if it is money going to lower and middle-class citizens as part of a social safety net then it is. … Democrats ought to be far better deflecting the all too often used ‘socialist’ attack with the compelling argument that their party stands for fairness for working families, while red state Republicans are advocates of diverting federal funds under a socialist game plan. However, given that key swing states Democrats need are beneficiaries of how income tax revenue is currently redistributed, the argument would need to be put forward in a way which simply points out Republicans in fact support the very ‘socialist’ practices they criticize. This disproportionate levying of taxes on blue states relative to what they get back is one of the key policy arguments in favor of allowing high tax blue states to get a federal tax deduction on their state and local taxes, though at this point that seems like a dead issue.”
I quoted quite a bit of the article, but it was worth the space because he absolutely gets it. This has long been a topic about which I get utterly apoplectic, especially when it comes to dumbass Democrats being abjectly incompetent at deflecting the s-word attacks from RepubliKKKlans back at them. What Rogers rightly pointed out is that American socialism, whereby the richest blue states subsidize poor and rich red states, has been well-known by the Democratic Party leadership for decades. Nonetheless, RepubliKKKlans consistently label Democrats the “Socialist Party,” and, infuriatingly, dumbass Democrats always let them get away with it. Look, there is really only one fervent socialist that caucuses with the Democrats — Bernie Sanders. And so be it! Fine! Whatever! But dumbass Democrats should not be complacent with allowing the label to stick as they have been doing for — again — decades!
For whatever reason morons of America are deathly afraid of the s-word even though they are perfectly fine with the socialist programs already embedded within our system such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. These are s-word programs because people, especially every retired person, definitely use more services than they’ve paid into. Funny how people love the re-distribution of other people’s wealth back to themselves — I’m talking to you red states, RepubliKKKlans, MAGA morons, evil evangelicals, and QAnon kooks — but God forbid liberals or Democrats get anything even though we pay more. F***! Once again, it just demonstrates that Democrats are completely incapable of fighting with the political ruthlessness required to keep America’s democracy from dying. As I say constantly: America is f***ed and our democracy is screwed because RepubliKKKlans want to kill the country and Democrats will let them. Of course! I live in stupid hell! Welcome to stupid America!