Why Democratic Socialism Is Gaining Popularity In The United States

[Music] socialism used to be a really scary word in the united states it helped fuel the red scare when congress carried out massive witch hunts to weed out suspected american communists and traders after each world war our job as americans and as republicans is to dislodge the fighters from every place where they have been sent to do their traitorous work until recently though socialism had been relegated to the sidelines of american politics and it's taken on more of a positive connotation thanks in large part to bernie sanders from vermont [Applause] when i talk about democratic socialism i am talking about medicare when i talk about democratic socialism i'm not looking at venezuela i'm not looking at cuba i'm looking at countries like denmark and sweden the 2016 presidential contender was a self-proclaimed democratic socialist who tapped into a huge and angry voting bloc of the country's disillusioned youth [Music] financing college for all students in america really resonates with me workers rights climate change he's planting the seed closing the wage gap he cares about black students on this campus this is a movement that's going to exist for many many years to come sanders made socialism cool he also paved the way for the rise of other charismatic politicians like him house representative alexandria ocasio-cortez had volunteered on the sanders campaign before deciding to run for congress herself she was an overnight sensation after her unprecedented victory in 2018. despite the fact that we were running against a 10-term incumbent despite the fact that we didn't have the money despite the fact that i'm working class despite all those things we won aoc fervor has swept the country we are in a moment where socialism is no longer a dirty word because people are affiliating it with those candidates who are already incredibly popular but this well of popularity has also triggered new fervor against socialism democrat lawmakers are now embracing socialism they want to replace individual rights with total government domination so is this political zeitgeist that's upsetting the status quo of fad or the future of politics in america this is what democracy looks like to understand democratic socialism in america it's best to start with the basics capitalism socialism and communism exist along a sort of economic spectrum at one end the government has total control over the economy and at the other little to none socialism is somewhere in between the two it's a system where the government has nationalized most all major industries but unlike communism property and resources aren't owned and controlled by the state instead the government redistributes the wealth to individuals in a way it deems fair and equitable democratic socialism lies somewhere between socialism and capitalism depending on whom you talk to for some this system is pro-market others want to abolish capitalism entirely but they do agree on more government control ensuring things like universal health care and tuition-free college funded through expanded taxes on corporations and the rich much like the kind of system that you see in scandinavia or iceland sounds like socialism to me democratic socialism now what's the difference huge difference but to understand why the debate over socialism in the u.s is so heated you need to know a little history too here's a crash course even before german radicals karl marx and frederick angles released the communist manifesto in 1848 the ideals of socialism had already taken root in the united states after thomas paine's famous writings helped drive patriots to war with the british he soon took on a new cause taxing wealthy landowners to help pay for a basic income for all citizens sound familiar he didn't call it socialism but it checked a lot of the boxes over the 19th century the socialist principles incubated in labor unions and later flourished during the industrial revolution when wealth was suddenly highly concentrated among an elite few in this gilded age capitalism became a common enemy for a population that felt left behind in 1901 a few pro-socialist groups banded together to form the socialist party of america within a decade socialist candidates began winning multiple local state and national level elections by 1912 the party even ran a competitive candidate for president [Music] but then came the first world war the overthrow of imperialist russia and the rise of an oppressive communist soviet union the u.s government cracked down on perceived disloyalty at home in what became known as the first red scare there had been nationwide raids and the public seemed glad to have any type of radical brought to trial american socialism continued to decline in the 1920s and in the aftermath of the great depression precedent fdr's new deal of the 1930s which promoted huge public works projects and programs like social security only further served to steal the party's thunder the rolling ball of economic recovery gathers thousands of men and women every week with the end of world war ii and the fall of nazi germany leaving a huge power vacuum in western europe the democratic u.s and its western allies began a global multi-decade battle against the communist ussr and its satellite states being a socialist was suddenly as good as being a communist which was synonymous with being an enemy of the state republican senator joe mccarthy led the infamous second red scare of the 1950s a man assigned this communist pledge to pledge it was a brutal and public witch hunt designed to identify anyone from communist sympathizers to secret soviet agents no one was free from scrutiny not schoolteachers artists or journalists have you no sense of decency sir let us not assassinate this lad further senator [Music] then the pendulum swung the other way the 1960s saw the start of a multi-decade surge in left-wing politics from the counter-culture to civil rights and the anti-war movement liberal politics became mainstream but even with this resurgence of liberal ideas socialism had faded to the background fast forward to 1989. and we have a remarkable development here tonight at the brandenburg gate on the other side east germans have now come to the wall and many of them have been seen crawling up on the wall being helped across by west germans from this side [Applause] down came the berlin wall and with it at the end of the cold war the atrocities of autocratic communist states were on the world stage and for a couple decades the u.s was happy to promote the win for democracy and capitalism while socialism largely slipped out of the lexicon but then came the 2008 financial crisis lehman here is going bankrupt some of the biggest names in american business are tonight gone along with a lot of money and a lot of jobs as millennials came into adulthood the formative images seared into their minds weren't of the fall of the berlin wall but of a financial meltdown the foreclosure rate in this area right now is over 400 percent it's a war out there i mean these people are losing homes every single day you have people sleeping on the street sleeping on bus stop is that where i'm going to end up stories like these push the country to a breaking point public outrage poured into the streets [Music] [Applause] occupy movements across the country demonized capitalism blaming it for the country's widespread economic inequality burdened by student debt in a tough job market for many millennials it seemed the free market wasn't working many wanted radical reform but it wasn't until bernie sanders ran for president that they found a bigger name for their cause america's socialist movement was reborn [Music] sanders had effectively tapped into a fresh crop of socialists even though his platform wasn't offering anything particularly different to what he had already been talking about for decades in our society theoretically a democratic society you have a handful of people who control our economy you have maybe two percent of the population that owns one third of the entire wealth of america eighty percent of the stocks ninety percent of the bonds and these people have incredible power nearly forty years later sanders vision of a socialist america has finally gone mainstream baskar simkara was one of the early adopters when he launched the magazine jacobin in 2010 it was in theory a pretty bad idea not only was print dying boscar's niche quarterly was going to target america's socialists before the country had actually started talking or caring about socialism again but the 21 year old college student followed his gut and the gamble paid off jacobin struck a nerve and its circulation took off socialism in the u.s has been a marginal force for many decades so i think we're kind of inventing things from scratch down a 2018 gallup poll showed the democrats have a way more positive image of socialism than they do of capitalism if you look at fortune 500 ceos these people have tremendous say over your lives over what you consume over how you work over the future of our country and they're subject to no democratic mandate they're accountable to to no one but their shareholders and there's one group working to change that on the ground the democratic socialist of america bills itself as the largest socialist organization in the country it has its own fire brand version of socialism with some members who want to abolish the senate and get rid of capitalism it's been around since 1982 but it went from the fringe to the mainstream in 2015. dsa membership is up nearly tenfold since bernie sanders came onto the scene and its politicians are winning races across the country at every level of government the dsa has a huge presence in new york every borough has its own branch and brooklyn has three we headed to one of their local meetups in queens to see what they're really like when they meet behind closed doors and to get a feel for what socialist policy actually looks like at the grassroots level jackson heights is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in america it's also part of new york's 14th congressional district which is currently represented by aoc aoc is a card holding member as is the politician you see here new york state senator julia salazar the two women have a few big things in common salazar is 28 years old a graduate of a top university and a fresh face in american politics as democratic socialists we are acutely aware of the racial bias that is endemic in our criminal legal system we're acutely aware of how that racial bias intersects with the criminalization of poverty during our visit salazar was talking about criminal justice reform to help drum up support for fellow dsa member tiffany caban a public defender running for queen's district attorney let's go knock some doors and make some change happen we had the chance to canvas with some of caban's supporters like ryan bruckenthal a new york teacher and veteran activist our ideal version of america is one where every human being is given the things that they need to survive and thrive a place where people don't have to go bankrupt from having hospital bills making sure that good paying union jobs are provided for those who are looking for them making sure that we have a new economy that is sustainable and can continue life on earth as we know it the da race is one of many political battles being waged by democratic socialists intent on carving out a place for the dsa and mainstream american politics hi everyone welcome this is the lower manhattan branch of the dsa at another meetup of the dsa this time across town in manhattan's east village another chapter was planning its own offensive this one centered on ensuring housing as a basic human right through an ambitious universal rent control campaign so the universal rent control platform is a series of nine bills and although they are not sort of like utopian socialism they are by far the strongest offensive use of the law to protect renters that we've had virtually ever some in the room feared media exposure of their meeting could hurt the movement one person raised a motion at the start of the meeting requesting that we leave and we were ultimately asked to turn the cameras off for their strategy session which goes to show just how sensitive this issue still is politically but as the democratic socialist movement gains momentum and even real positions of power in the united states some worries socialism in any form is a slippery slope let's by all means have an argument about whether the united states should have a more progressive tax policy let's by all means of an argument about whether the really broken system of healthcare in the united states which is both the most expensive and the least efficient in the world could be reform but let's not dignify socialism because before you know it you'll be letting real socialism in by the back door and that's that's just a disaster waiting to happen some point to authoritarian leaders who promised the virtues of socialism but led their people down a path of economic despair and limited freedoms now critics of socialism we'll point to examples like venezuela and the ussr where it hasn't played out well what do you say to those critics this speaks partly to the distinction between democratic socialism and socialism more broadly that under democratic socialism it's led by the people there is accountability at every level socialist governments throughout history some of their problems have really been due to a lack of democracy and a socialism that really is driven by the grassroots and by the people the socialism being promulgated by the dsa has somewhat lost the stigma partly because it's dropped its soviet context it's also less controversial since modern day america is already deeply rooted in policies once deemed socialist from five day work weeks to universal public education medicare social security and public welfare programs but perhaps most importantly some say socialism isn't as taboo as it used to be because people don't really care what you call it so long as it results in a more equitable society nobel prize winning economist joseph stiglitz says the policies tend to speak for themselves when aoc or bernie sanders lists the things that they're concerned about everybody having health insurance and education to live up to their opportunity a decent retirement access to a good mortgage or decent housing access to a decent job you ask people do they want that the answer is yes their response among young people if you call that socialist we're socialists if you call that progressive capitalist we're progressive capitalists you know whatever you name it that's what we want and so i think we shouldn't get hung up over these particular words in practical terms politicians like bernie sanders and aoc have a pretty ambitious wish list universal health care in the form of medicare for all a federal jobs guarantee and a higher minimum wage mass unionization of the workforce plus stronger protection for those unions tuition for university some form of a universal basic income the dissolution of ice just to name a few other more controversial and contested measures like abolishing the prison system have also made it onto the legislative agendas of some democratic socialists freshman congresswoman aoc has already begun to aggressively push her socialist agenda on capitol hill just take the green new deal designed to put a stop to the country's dependence on carbon-based energy we are facing a national crisis and if we do not ascend to that crisis if we tell the american public that we are more willing to invest and bail out big banks than we are willing to invest in our farmers and our urban families then i don't know what we're here doing while details for the so-called green new deal are sparse several of the 2020 presidential hopefuls are throwing their weight behind the plan then there's sanders medicare for all build that he formerly introduced in 2017 after stumping for it in the 2016 election i am just very excited about the kind of support our medicare for all legislation is receiving all across this country and right here in the united states senate bernie's single-payer national health insurance plan has garnered support from many democrats vying for the party's bid in 2020. aoc and sanders also back housing as a fundamental right which is still a pretty radical concept in the u.s [Music] policy ideas like these may be popular but there's always that one big question how do you pay for it 10-year estimates from non-partisan and left-leaning groups show that these proposals could add up to a price tag of more than 42 trillion dollars and this number does not factor in the expected 11.4 trillion dollar deficit over the next 10 years that's already anticipated under current law it also doesn't include the green new deal which republican critics say could cost tens of trillions of dollars the plans proposed by senator sanders and aoc are not remotely affordable in the united states any one of them might look affordable in the abstract but when you put them together they add up you're well over 42 trillion dollars over 10 years that would basically double the size of the federal government if you're going to get socialism in america you need substantially higher taxes and not just on the rich but on everybody else if you go to sweden or norway or finland you'll realize that it's not just the rich paying 50 60 taxes it's the middle class aoc has put forward one plan to cover part of that 42 trillion dollar bill she wants to raise the federal tax rate on incomes over 10 million dollars to 70 to put that into perspective sanders 2016 presidential platform capped the top tax rate at 54.2 percent assuming no tax planning aoc's proposal would bring in 700 billion over 10 years medicare for all is estimated to be the single biggest expense on the agenda but it's also one of the policies that democratic socialists say will actually make money in the end well some of the measures let's say for health insurance in fact i believe there'll be a net savings if you cut out some of the private insurance bureaucracies and some of the waste of this management in our current current system so i think medicare for all for example would pay for itself and then some but critics argue the math doesn't work out for a couple different reasons that's not true at all first what senator sanders is proposing is extraordinarily larger than anything the private sector does and it's actually more generous than what other countries do you could basically get any medical procedure you want anytime with no deductibles no co-pays full long-term care for seniors nobody does that because nobody's figured out how to really create a tax that converts every dollar of private health care spending that doesn't bankrupt families and small businesses one major structural shift being proposed totally erasing student debt the college for all act from bernie sanders would erase the student debt of 45 million americans he'd pay for that 1.6 trillion expense with a new tax on wall street transactions but democratic socialism isn't just about advocating for these kinds of expansions of the social safety net the movement is also pushing to give workers more power over corporations sanders wants to create more public ownership over corporate boards under the plan corporations would have to do two big things one give workers a certain number of seats on its board of directors and two contribute stock to an employee-led fund that would pay out regular dividends to the company's workers democratic socialists also want to take on banks in may 2019 sanders and aoc called banks modern-day loan sharks and proposed a dramatic cut to credit card interest rates no bank in this country should have credit card interest rates of over 15 percent we talk about payday lending and in new york we worked very hard to outlaw payday lending but what happens when everyday banks start to charge higher and higher interest rates essentially your credit card becomes a payday loan they're also pitching legislation to cap rates on consumer loans the american bankers association argues this plan would ultimately hurt the consumer by restricting their access to credit but on the whole policy ideas like these are receiving a lot of positive feedback amazon hq2 on the other hand wasn't as clear-cut a case breaking news amazon canceling its controversial plans now it will not build a headquarters in new york the world's biggest company just got sent packing thanks to an unfriendly welcome by new yorkers in february 2019 the company ditched its plan to build one of its two new headquarters in queens the governor and mayor had both backed the deal as had a majority of new york city's registered voters according to a quinnipiac university poll but there was one very notable figure who was against the plan organizers and residents of my community were busting down our doors saying you need to say something about this aoc state senator julia salazar and the dsa along with a coalition of unions and local left-leaning groups opposed the three billion dollars in state and city tax breaks that amazon would have received as aoc celebrated amazon's decision to pull out of new york i mean it shows that every day americans can have more say in this country than the richest man in the world others questioned whether it was a good thing to bid farewell to the promise of 25 to 40 000 new jobs and about 27 billion dollars in new tax revenue to the city and state you know she basically is taking the victory lap while thousands of people lost the american dream opportunity aoc on the other hand saw the pull out as a crucial step in securing a better economy for new yorkers in the long run we say it's not just about any job we need to create dignified jobs jobs that are part of a moral economy and it wasn't just the job quality that drove socialist opposition to amazon's new york hq2 many socialists also argue that the fact that amazon was set to take in billions in subsidies in the first place shows that in some ways we already live in a socialist economy but a deeply flawed one where it's the corporations that get the benefit not the workers but even as the policy ideas of aoc and sanders gain momentum a lingering question remains will that popularity actually count for something when people go to vote or could the growing divide in the democratic party actually cost them the white house in 2020. president trump has already begun to capitalize on this ideological rift by weaponizing the word socialism america will never be a socialist country but the democratic socialists we spoke with think this kind of red scare language isn't driving away their voters they feel their platform resonates not only with more progressive coastal cities but also with the traditionally hard to crack midwest i think that a democratic socialist candidate actually would have wider appeal in the heartland than they do in wealthy cities on the east coast in fact there's a segment of the democratic base uh real estate developers trial lawyers and silicon valley tech types that would absolutely abhor a democratic socialist candidate like bernie sanders halsey hazard is a recent nyu grad a member of the dsa and originally hails from wisconsin both of my parents are republicans you know my dad's ex-military do you think that new york's version of being a democratic socialist can thrive in the midwest i mean when you look at the fact that like bernie won 71 out of 72 counties in wisconsin in the 2016 primary i think that shows that his sort of politics really resonate with a lot of people in the midwest for sure part of what's driving socialism's newfound popularity are the same factors that led to president trump's rise to power trump's no socialist but he won the presidency by promising to shake up the system from within including by challenging notions of free trade and other capitalist priorities so whether you ascribe to democratic socialism or not there does appear to be consensus on one big point about american politics today the free market system in the u.s as it is now needs work free market titans like ray dalio the billionaire founder of hedge fund bridgewater associates agree that serious change is needed because the current system under capitalism isn't working anymore dalio shared his thoughts on linkedin in a 7 500 word essay on the subject he followed up with an april 2019 appearance on 60 minutes where he commented on the dire state of the american dream i think the american dream is lost i think it's not redistributing opportunity we can call it a wealth gap you can call it an income gap it's a huge issue joseph stiglitz also thinks that a lot of what's fomenting unrest among american voters traces back to free market policies a lot of the concerns today are generated because the market hasn't solved these problems redefining and fixing america's free market policies seems to be rooted at least in part in semantics 20th century labels just don't fit 21st century problems here is an economic transition that needs technology that will create new jobs that moves our economy also to hopefully a cleaner and healthier economy and yet we seem to be debating that imperative of change in terms of last centuries opposites of capitalism and socialism it doesn't make sense [Music] so is socialism in the u.s a genuine and lasting swing left of american voters fed up with the free market or is it just a fad the coolest new catch-all for disillusioned people trying to make a stand only time will tell i find it kind of shocking and depressing that the word socialism has crept back into some kind of vogue i really do believe that we should be structuring the economy towards human need and not towards accumulating profit this is horribly mistaken but socialism is always popular among young people uh perhaps more so now it wouldn't solve all of the world's problems but a social society is one in which people are more empowered to have control over their destiny

Channel: CNBC

Views: 2,057,958

Rating: 3.6495099 out of 5

Keywords: CNBC, business, news, finance stock, stock market, news channel, news station, breaking news, us news, world news, cable, cable news, finance news, money, money tips, financial news, Stock market news, stocks, what does socialism mean, what is socialism, socialism in america, democratic socialists of america, does socialism work

Id: BlrDpTGRREA

Length: 26min 22sec (1582 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 27 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/adultswim_antifa]

It always triggers me to see the media hand wringing about mean socialists driving Amazon out of New York City. Tax breaks to bring a specific big corporation to town are pretty much universally panned by economists as bad policy, a race to the bottom that screws everyone but Jeff Bezos. But sure, socialists are the irrational ones.

[u/42GuineaPigs]

Why do they keep calling it (democratic) socialism though, when they actually mean (capitalist) social democracy (judging by the demands listed and examples from other countries given)?

[u/Shaggy0291]

What that man at 18:33 is saying is a lie. That service that he describes as something "no one does anywhere" where all essential healthcare is provided free at the point of delivery? That's the NHS.

[u/BootstrapsRiley]

I wish that they'd hire people from the ideologies they do these pieces on, to act as consultants. It seems clear that they either don't do this, they hire the wrong people, or they just ignore them.

It took them, what, <2 minutes to incorrectly define Socialism and Communism?

[u/Milena-Celeste]

Why Democratic Socialism Is Gaining Popularity In The United States

It's because people hate fascism and the neoliberal system is a total failure, for the poor and middle class, which is literally propped up by a handful of wealthy businessmen. The video doesn't mention this.

There; no reason to watch that hot garbage that would've wasted 26 minutes of your life.

[u/seebrify]

That like to dislike ratio though

[u/TheViewSucks]

Socialism Is When the Government Does Stuff, and the More Stuff It Does, the More Socialister It Is

[u/anastaija]

More like woke liberalism.

/s

[u/Ama98]

This video is making my eyes bleed