Kudos to Ronald Aronson who authored this article in The Nation: "The Left Needs More Socialism." Finally, the truth comes out. Aronson admonishes Democrats to

..break a taboo and place the word 'socialism' across the top of the page in a major American progressive magazine ["The Nation"]. Time for the left to stop repressing the side of ourselves that the right finds most objectionable. Until we thumb our noses at the Democratic pols who have been calling the shots and reassert the very ideas they say are unthinkable, we will keep stumbling around in the dark corners of American politics, wondering how we lost our souls——and how to find them again.

Way to go, Ron! And there's more:

Yet the real Marxism, although no longer embodied in movements or governments, has never been truer or more relevant: Most of the world's main problems today are inseparable from the dynamics of the capitalist system itself. With corporate capitalism everywhere in command, the outlook is for increased poverty, more environmental degradation, ever more uneven distribution of resources and the undermining of traditional societies and ways of life, for a culture dominated by marketing, advertising and uneven global development.

But Americans need only glance around the world to see that there are alternatives. The vibrant World Social Forums are an example, under way since 2001 and now envisioning several annual meetings of an immense variety of groups, organizations and networks. Another is the continuing leftward movement of South American governments, now adding Bolivia to Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Chile and Brazil. A third is the continuing European efforts to defend social welfare programs, as evidenced in the German Social Democrats' remarkable reversal of a slide into oblivion to tie the Christian Democratic Party in last September's election, and the unflagging popular support for Britain's National Health Service."

And finally, he adds that people aren't smart enough to make the right decisions and take care of themselves, so we need a good socialist system to do that for them:

The fantasy universe of purely private individuals, for all its lip service to religious belief, is no longer able to inculcate the basic social morality and sense of responsibility any society needs to function."

Well, if he wants to pull back the curtain and reveal the true heart of Democrats, I'll certainly do all I can to help him.

Mike from Kennesaw, Ga.   4 3 06