Because it doesn’t matter. They’ll just call you commies anyway. They even call neolibs commies. Words don’t mean anything to these people and the goal is the same regardless of what you call it. They don’t want us taking their power away from them. They’ll do whatever they need to do to stop that.
First off, FDR’s New Deal was notorious for excluding non-white folks, and even gave rise to the racist practice of redlining. As such, this name would be a total non-starter in DSA circles.
But yes, I have also wondered whether a different name would be better at attracting new adherents to the cause. My thought was perhaps ‘Social Democrats’, since 1) most DSA electeds platform on soc dem policies, and 2) it would avoid the scary ‘s’ word altogether.
However, I raised this in an online discussion with a DSA member the other day and he said that social democracy is basically the foundation that the future transition to socialism builds off from. So it wouldn’t make sense to call themselves something else because a socialist replacement of capitalism through democratic means remains their ultimate goal.
I have no idea why they just don’t call themselves ‘FDR Democrats.’
If you use the term ‘Socialist’ you give the GOP an easy way to attack. “Socialist? You mean like North Korea?”
Because it doesn’t matter. They’ll just call you commies anyway. They even call neolibs commies. Words don’t mean anything to these people and the goal is the same regardless of what you call it. They don’t want us taking their power away from them. They’ll do whatever they need to do to stop that.
First off, FDR’s New Deal was notorious for excluding non-white folks, and even gave rise to the racist practice of redlining. As such, this name would be a total non-starter in DSA circles.
But yes, I have also wondered whether a different name would be better at attracting new adherents to the cause. My thought was perhaps ‘Social Democrats’, since 1) most DSA electeds platform on soc dem policies, and 2) it would avoid the scary ‘s’ word altogether.
However, I raised this in an online discussion with a DSA member the other day and he said that social democracy is basically the foundation that the future transition to socialism builds off from. So it wouldn’t make sense to call themselves something else because a socialist replacement of capitalism through democratic means remains their ultimate goal.