Republican Francophobia or Why the hell DON'T we just go to Socialism?

[Taverner]

Face it, our banks have failed and they can't be trusted to run themselves. For every bailout check we send them, the hookers may get rich, but other non-CSW Americans won't.

Health Care System has failed. Just watch Michael Moore's "Sicko" if you don't believe me.

So my question is, all this "pump up the fear" rhetoric the GOPpies are giving us about "being like France," I just gotta say "What in the hell is wrong with THAT?"

The French have Health Care for all, their banks are under much more scrutiny than ours, unemployment insurance is guaranteed and not such a hassle to get, and they educate your kids from Pre-School to Grad School for free. Yeah, that sure sounds like the suck :eyes:

So let's nationalize BofA - let's nationalize the oil companies (sorry Dick and Bush) - lets nationalize the school system, or at least kick out the private ones, and the health care industry. Single payer buddy, and if you don't like that, Somalia is always open to new residents. You'll like that whole "no government" thing they're doing over there.

[villager]

1. Indeed! K&R

[librechik]

2. The fiction is that somehow Republicans don't use socialism when necessary

They do anytime they want, and they are never painted as commies. The red baiting is something only they do and only to Democrats.

And we should (obviously) be using socialism to solve some problems.

Don't forget, the GOP took a solemn vow to OPPOSE EVERYTHING OBAMA PROPOSES. It doesn't matter how rational or necessary. They are still campaigning. And of course reaming Obama for doing anything remotely campaign-like.

[Beregond2]

3. Unfortunately, a big proportion of Americans

have no idea what socialism even is. I overheard an arguement the other day where a winger a-hole was going on about how Obama will take his guns, and when the guy he was talking to pointed out that no one in either party has ever made any such suggestion, he called him a "socialist."

Another time, I was talking to a fundamentalist who thought that socialism was another name for atheism. When I explained that it was an economic system where the people controlled the means of production he stared at me blankly.

In this country, "socialism" is a catch-all term for anything one doesn't like.

[Blue_Tires]

8. +1000000 on people not knowing the term

last year my friend called me up duing the primaries "did you know hillary clinton is a SOCIALIST?"
:banghead:

[glitch]

22. I wish. If that were true I would have voted for her. nt

[ColbertWatcher]

20. True.

It seems the GOPers have one catch-all hot-button phrase they use at a time and they seem hesitant to use "gay" anymore.

Granted, they still hate people in the LGBT community, they've just overused the word.

[Bluebear]

4. And brie. Don't forget brie :)

[glitch]

23. LOVE brie. So rich, so decadent. I know it's wrong.

My arteries resent it but my stomach overrides. It's milk products like brie which keep me from going vegan. So weak.

Sorry, what were we talking about?

[anonymous171]

5. Wut? "kick out the private ones"?

[nichomachus]

6. A lot of Americans think France is some third-world country

They've never been out of the US. They know only what they hear on Rush Limbaugh.

Case in point: My sister. My nephew had just graduated from college. He went on scholarship and had zero debts. In fact, he had some money in the bank because he had a good job during school vacations. He was having trouble finding a job. I suggested that he should try to go to Europe and get a series of jobs teaching English. That would give him a chance to see Europe on someone else's dime and get some teaching experience. I wish I had been able to do that when I graduated -- except that I had crushing debt.

My sister's answer came back like it was on a rubber band. "Go to Europe -- and what? Come back dead?"

[Tyrone Slothrop]

14. One of my RW co-workers thinks that France is 85% Muslim

I've even shown him on the CIA World Factbook that France is actually about 90% Catholic -- but he claims that that's wrong too.

One of the many commies working at the CIA must be fudging the numbers...
:sarcasm:

[BR_Parkway]

7. That would only leave optional to buy things to make profit from - what

sort of businessman would you have to be to actually get rich in that sort of market? So much easier to profit off the non-optionals

[Greyhound]

9. It's looking more and more like we will only have two options,

socialism or militarism, and I'm afraid the brainwashing has been pretty thorough.

I was so hoping this wouldn't happen until after I was dead, oh well.

[glitch]

24. I hear that.

I am glad I lived a really fun and interesting life but I feel bad for the young ones. We should be leaving them better off, that's the only reason why I continue the fight.

[NoPasaran]

10. Plus---everybody there smokes

Take that, Lance Armstrong!

[earth mom]

11. We need to go French on their asses! No doubt in my mind!

:grr:

[jtrockville]

12. I'd also like to nationalize our military.

This war-for-profit game KBR, Halliburton, Black Water are playing is SICK.

[alterfurz]

13. bumpersticker:"Socialism: If it's good enough for the bankers, it's good enough for the rest of us!"

[Deja Q]

15. Where? I'll buy three.

[Oak2004]

16. This weekend I was so pissed I reuped my long-dead membership in the DSA

So now I'm a scary member of the frightening "Socialist International" (again).

The Socialist International conspires to elect scary people like labor parties around the world (yes, even the currently moribund British Labor Party, which is still (nominally) a scary part of the Socialist International. The US affiliate is not a party, but, recognizing that the US is a two party system, works with existing parties, primarily the progressive caucus of the Democratic Party. Violent extremists like Sen. Bernie Sanders are card carrying members of the awful Socialist International (he's a thief, Bernie is -- did you see him try to steal those billion dollar bonuses from the poor suffering Wall Street execs?).

Together us scary socialists conspire internationally to frighteningly create a world of social justice, where people are not exploited, or starving, and where everybody is forced to experience terrifying things like universal health care. And we do it through chilling tactics like making sure people can vote, and then counting every vote.

Yep. I'm a card carrying socialist, out to force decent working conditions and housing and health care and democracy and a future onto patriotic freepers and brave centrists as well as the dupes and fellow travelers eager to betray capitalism for such tyranny (which is, oh, 'bout 65% of the country, more or less, depending on how you read the polls on the issues).

Fuck 'em.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Not that France is socialist, and neither does it have single payer health care

"Americans assume that if it's in Europe, which France is, that it's socialized medicine," he says. "The French don't consider their system socialized. In fact, they detest socialized medicine. For the French, that's the British, that's the Canadians. It's not the French system."
...
Americans often assume that when people get universal coverage, they give up their choice in doctors, hospitals and care. That's not the case in France, Dutton says. The system is set up both to ensure that patients have lots of choice in picking doctors and specialists and to ensure that doctors are not constrained in making medical decisions.

In France, the national insurance program is funded mostly by payroll and income taxes. Those payments go to several quasi-public insurance funds that then negotiate with medical unions to set doctors' fees. (Doctors can choose to work outside this system, and a growing minority now charge what patients are willing to pay out of pocket.) The government regulates most hospital fees. This system works collectively to keep costs down.

When someone goes to see a doctor, the national insurance program pays 70 percent of the bill. Most of the other 30 percent gets picked up by supplemental private insurance, which almost everyone has. It's affordable, and much of it gets paid for by a person's employer.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92419273

Neither Chirac nor Sarkozy are socialists.

[Taverner]

18. Interesting - and even the French "Non Socialist" system is better than what we have...

...which is BUTKUS!

[ColbertWatcher]

19. I have a plan. Let's start repeating the GOP message of French-hating starting on July 4th!

And keep it going until, oh, say July 14th.

[pepperbear]

21. and lo and behold, there are rich people in france, too. n/t