s/o Elrich & MoCo are Not Socialist

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In response to the types of threads that emerge every few weeks whining about "socialism" and how Marc Elrich is the next Lenin or Fidel Castro...

From an ACTUAL SOCIALIST,
Just stop.

I WISH Elrich was the Socialist you all made him out to be. He has been incredibly disappointing and I voted for him. I plan to not vote this time around.

Montgomery County elected officials are center-right compared to actual elected Socialists around the world. Marc Elrich comes closest to what a moderate social democratic official would be in northern europe, but he doesn't even govern as such.

He said he supported rent control in the county but has taken zero action on proposing or enforcing it.
He expressed no interest in the social housing proposals brought by two of the state delegates
He supports Israel and gave money to an Israeli defense contractor to operate here
He made cuts to services during the pandemic instead of raising taxes on the wealthy

And no, Riemer is not to the left of Elrich, he's more pro-corporate, he's just good at sounding woke and using buzzwords about bikelanes and craft beer and other bourgeois things. Neoliberal technocrat all around.

I want to see someone who will actually take steps to seize more from the ultra wealthy and build up more social programs and democratize more industries. A county executive who just says some nice things about unions and workers does not a socialist make. We need someone who will actually put up a fight instead of break promises and blame others.

Elrich was (still is?) a member of DSA. MoCo has amazing give-away programs both direct and indirect (through the numerous non-profits it funds). A good barometer of whether they are generous enough or not is whether the poor flock here from other places. Based on the swelling numbers of illegal aliens in MoCo, our programs here are probably too generous.

The council and the executive together have a slush fund of over $30 million in grants that are awarded non-competitively to community groups. Many of these community groups, like CASA - who received the most money at $400k, also engage in political advocacy and endorse candidates. A lot of money also goes to religious affiliated groups who also can be important groups to gain political support from.
https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council/Resources/Files/agenda/col/2020/20200513/20200513_6.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Socialism - which frankly I would like to see a bit more of - does not work well on a local level. You just drive out the rich and attract more poor. Socialist policies (like Medicare and social security) work best at the country level.

agreed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Socialism - which frankly I would like to see a bit more of - does not work well on a local level. You just drive out the rich and attract more poor. Socialist policies (like Medicare and social security) work best at the country level.

agreed.

What's to stop wealthy people from moving abroad? Maybe it's a hint that your society sucks if people don't want to be there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Socialism - which frankly I would like to see a bit more of - does not work well on a local level. You just drive out the rich and attract more poor. Socialist policies (like Medicare and social security) work best at the country level.

agreed.

What's to stop wealthy people from moving abroad? Maybe it's a hint that your society sucks if people don't want to be there.

Strength of institutions, mainly courts, to maintain norms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I’m French, have lived in many countries, seen many socialist parties in government, and I concur.

The USA actually has no socialist or communist parties. At most it has “slightly left” candidates. Most candidates are center, center-right, right or extreme-right wing.

This.
I was born and raised in an actual socialist country and whenever I see people in this country screaming 'Socialism!" I can't help but think how poorly educated they are. Sad.