To the editor:
In reply to “Shouldn't we know more about Liberals, Progressives, Socialists?” by Walter Williams, I found his comparison of liberals and progressives to Nazis is a dangerous accusation to throw around, especially when history and political facts are working against his charges.
Yes, the Nazi Party's full name is the National Socialist German Workers' Party, but using the term “Socialist” does not make one a socialist. This is a discussion of complex political issues and Williams is trying to force them into simple terms.
There are several kinds of socialism, the two major forms, or branches, (and most commonly referred to) being communism and social democracy. Socialism, at its core, is not a political party, but an economic system that strives for social ownership – which can mean many things. Communism, in its purest form, is a political movement that aims at a new social order in which there are no classes and no money – total equality of all people.
Communism is related to socialism, but is not the same. Americans tend to be most familiar with the communist forms used by Lenin, Stalin, and Mao – which has led to many problems and the deaths of millions of innocent people. Despite this, communism is a complex ideology, so complex that many communists can hold many different views.
For a variety of reasons, communism has never, and probably will never, succeed in the real world, but that is not to say that socialist ideas are inherently bad. Social democracy, the socialism Americans are most familiar with personally, is a political ideology.
In social democracy, individuals work towards the end of discrimination in its many forms – ability/disability, age, education, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, language, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, social class, and others. We have seen the benefits of social democracy in our country, and many people have seen these benefits in their own lives or the lives of loved ones. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and public schools are just a few of the many ways Americans’ lives have improved because of social democracy.
The Nazi Party, past and present, does not follow socialist principles. In fact, the Nazi Party opposes liberalism and the two major forms of socialism mentioned here. Nazis are not socialists, communists, or liberals. They are fascists. Fascism, in contrast to the other ideologies discussed previously, upholds totalitarian governments in which many people have little to no power. This political belief works to hold one race of people above all others – in the case of Nazis, this race is the Aryan race.
So why have the word “Socialist” in the Party if they aren't socialists? When the Nazi Party was beginning, they had to work to draw followers away from other parties, particularly, communism. Their initial party platforms included anti-big business and anti-capitalism, but later moved to focus on anti-Semantic and anti-Marxist ideas.
While there have been atrocities committed in the name of socialism and communism, all socialists and social activists cannot be grouped together into the category of “evil.” Democracy itself has been the cause of much evil as well – in America we enslaved Native Americans and Africans, committed mass genocide against the Natives, put Japanese Americans in camps during World War II, denied African Americans and women the right to vote, had people executed for holding political beliefs contrary to democracy, and a host of other evil acts – but people do not, generally, view democracy as an evil form of government.
Making comparisons between the past crimes of communists, socialists, and fascists to our current political environment is not only difficult to take seriously, but imprudent.
Jazmine Bjelland
Newton