The Democratic Underground and the ideology of its members

[Anarcho-Socialist]

I've often wondered how people on DU describe themselves ideologically, as not all of us (though possibly most of us) are Liberal. Vote away, I'll be interested in the results... and post a message if you can.

I find that we're an interesting coalition, in our desire to defeat Bush and ELECT a real President in John Kerry.

[sui generis]

1. what's the difference between a social democrat

and a democratic socialist?

[Wat_Tyler]

2. I split it 50/50. Sometimes I'll be a SocDem, sometimes a DemSoc.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

4. Social democracy v democratic socialism

A social democratic system is whereby capitalism is the favored economic system but is altered enough (via progressive taxation and moderate forms of redistribution) to achieve moderate socialist goals.

A democratic socialist system is whereby capitalism is gradually changed to a full socialist economic system over a period of time.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

38. yeah,, I think Im a social democrat..it worked pretty well in Europe...

,,,for awhile there, at least. Seems like a pretty good system...you get the benefits of the market economy, but the sharp teeth are filed down a bit.

[welshTerrier2]

48. great website about democratic socialism

this website totally blew me away ...

it gives a very clear and detailed explanation of what democratic socialism is all about ... it's very long ... i wish it were even longer ... it's among the most insightful (inciteful ??) position platforms i've ever read ...

here's the link ==> www.dsausa.org/about/where.html

[camero]

5. A guess

A social democrat would be someone who just sees social issues as gov't domain but leave economics as is whereas a democratic socialist would elect to be socialist economically but leave social issues to the individual.

[Richardo]

3. What if you're an unrepentant Marxist?

I'm not. I'd say 'liberal'; but moderate liberal.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

6. I doubt an unrepentant Marxist would find anything of value here

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. Why? Marx is the father of Democratic Socialism.

Or, is that a knee jerk reaction to the demonized term?

[Anarcho-Socialist]

19. I may be wrong, but I never envisioned an old-style Marxist

getting along with Liberals on the Democratic Underground.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

33. Marxists can't be liberals?

Gerhardt Schroeder? Nelson Mandela? Pablo Picasso? Jean Paul Sartre?
Willy Brandt? Albert Einstein? Helen Keller? Steve Biko? Che Guevara? Leonard Bernstein? Diego Rivera?

To name a very few.

[Tamyrlin79]

7. What, no "Progressive"??? n/t

[dr.strangelove]

13. I was looking for Progressive too

[Anarcho-Socialist]

14. Added "Progressive" in place of 'Libertarian' since no one voted for it

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Love Bug]

9. I'm a Wellstone Democrat

in other words, a Progressive Democrat. I don't think much of the DLC.

[Ron Green]

10. The choices in this poll

prompted me to select the overall most important issue facing us as a nation at this point, and interestingly, it's got to be the inevitable exit from a fossil fuel-based economy. All the terrorism, and neo-con Middle East stuff, all the danger of American Empire....all of that is a spinoff of the Big Question: How are we going to design a "lifesyle," for lack of a better word, for the world of the future? No matter how many or few terrorists attack, and where, we are still moving inexorably toward global meltdown due to unsustainability. We're still waiting for the US President who will speak this truth.

[mmonk]

11. Alot of times,

I'm an anti-ideologist (especially with today's right). I need empirical evidence and would govern on best strategies for a better and just society.

[Robbie67]

12. I think of myself as being mostly liberal

but Libertarian Socialist might be a more apt description

[VOX]

15. Proud liberal. And I want that term **back**! It's been made "dirty" by...

right-wing hate-radio, the Hannitys and Rushes, etc. We have Newt to really thank for demonizing the term "liberal," and ensuring all his fellow assholes were on the same page about running it into the mud.

[lastliberalintexas]

16. Libertarian Socialist

Or Socialist Libertarian- take your pick. I don't think the government should have much interference in our personal lives, except to protect us from the actions of *others* (ie, not from ourselves).

I don't think that a truly capitalistic system could actually work, any more than a truly communistic one could. But I don't guess I am a true Socialist in the collectivist sense- mor eof a Euro Socialist. And I don't believe in the legal fiction of corporate personhood.

Not easy to peg on a flat left/right spectrum. :-)

[baby_mouse]

24. A few years ago

knocking those two words together would have made me shout: "Anarchist" and buy you a beer.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Anarchist - Communitarian

I'll go along with Tolstoy, Proudhon, Kropotkin, Goldman, Gandhi, etc.

I've got nothing against Marx & certainly agree with dialectical/materialism and his view of history.

Long past time to get back to caring about people, the environment, and civility.

[d_b]

20. Libertarian socialism

"You are a republican."
-"Republican, yes; but that means nothing. Res publica is 'the State.' Kings, too, are republicans."
"Ah well! You are a democrat?"
-"No."
"What! Perhaps you are a monarchist?"
-"No."
"Constitutionalist then?"
-"God forbid."
"Then you are an aristocrat?"
-"Not at all!"
"You want a mixed form of government?"
-"Even less."
"Then what are you?"
-"An anarchist."


-Proudhon

[AntiFascist]

21. How come this website always logs me out.....

whenever I try to define my ID???? :mad:

[sangh0]

22. Overload?

:shrug:

[Anarcho-Socialist]

23. Thanks to all who voted!

:bounce: :dem:

[Ardee]

25. Its amazing

how many neoconservative Democrats, who completely support the right wing takeover of the Democratic Party, think of themselves as liberals......not that Im suggesting that any here who participated are such as that.....:roll:

[ulysses]

26. just an old-fashioned liberal.

For the most part. :)

[bemildred]

27. Other: non-idiological.

I don't like idiology, I prefer to think things out.

[Bandit]

28. I am a very radical Liberal

Not to be mistaken with Communist or even Socialist though I lean in that direction. I believe people always come first and material things are second. I include money with materialism. I am an old fashioned Hippie. Peace Love Dove and throw the bums out. Flower Power.

[kwolf68]

29. Hell I don't know

I'm a little bit of it all I guess...I didn't vote.

[Maiden England]

30. I'd describe myself as Centrist

or 'fence sitter' as some would say ;-)

[Codeblue]

31. I voted Democratic Socialist

even though I might be more of and Anarcho-Liberal or just a crazy Radical Liberal.

I think we should really scrap most of our system and start over with a new government.

[WoodrowFan]

32. FDR liberal

though I'm still a "gas and water" socialist.

[Mr.Green93]

34. left of Pol Pot.

[mdguss]

35. Moderate to Conservative Democrat:

In the tradition of the DLC...that should've been one of the choices.

[wyldwolf]

36. agree - left of center moderate democrat

[banana republican]

37. CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT

[H2O Man]

39. Groucho Marxist - John Lennonist

I'm not sure many of the old words fit anymore. I think I am a communalist. I love America, but I'm mainly interested in living in my community, raising my family, and respecting other people's right to do the same. But the world we live i does not allow that right now. And so if there is any single philosophy that I believe in and try to do honor to, it would be the teachings of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

[welshTerrier2]

40. how can you be in two places at once ???

[H2O Man]

42. It's easy .....

"All You Need Is Love"

[Robbie67]

46. Hail Fredonia!

just gimme some truth

[H2O Man]

47. All hail

the American Night!

[getoffmytrain]

41. Libertarian.

[Maestro]

43. I really have no idea where I fit

but I am moving farther to the left everyday that * is in power.

[AlbertoMo83]

44. I just consider myself a liberal

Nothing else. :smoke:

[chefgirl]

45. My vote was 'Liberal'

I would call myself a good, old fashioned, garden variety liberal, who happens to lean toward fiscal responsibility, but NOT at the expense of tried and true social programs.

(makes sense to me, anyway) :shrug:

-chef-

[govegan]

49. Like Scott Nearing, I consider myself a radical.

Or like Cornell West, a radical democrat.

Or like Gandhi, a personal socialist - as opposed to state socialist. As in "be the change you wish to see."

As Scott wrote in "The Making of a Radical," in 1972:

Another consequence of natural and social forces operating through the agency of change is the rat race for wealth, prestige, and power which is the central motive of western civilization. At the individual level the wealth-power rat race is carried on by those who devote their talents and energies to getting ahead and keeping ahead. They are not satisfied merely to survive. They strive for recognition, for prestige. Their declared aim is security. Their real goal is the exercise of power. Hunger for power animates them, corrupts them, and finally consumes them. They lead the rat race, enjoy its honors, grow paunchy with its rewards.

The most successful of the rat race leaders constitute a wealth-prestige-power oligarchy, a self-selected minority which initiates policy and directs the appartus of exploitation. The oligarchs aim to gain and keep a monopoly of wealth, prestige, and power and from this vantage point to get a monopolist's share of available goods and services.

Where possible the oligarchy seeks to perpetuate itself, handing wealth and power from father to son, generation after generation, thus converting a ruling group into a ruling, exploiting class, controlling and operating a state apparatus designed to safeguard and extend its wealth and power. Yesterday the process was a rat race, today it is a class dictatorship. If it survives until tomorrow it will have consolidated its position and have become a caste structure, perpetuationg the privileges and prerogatives of those who enjoy privileges and wield power.

*************

On a worldwide scale, this seems not far off the mark. The neofascist elite appears to be struggling mightily for something like a worldwide caste structure. As in selling off Iraq in parcels and packets, because the common person of the land is not good enough to enjoy its fruits, or to be a thoughtful steward of them.

.............................

We shall be obliged to import the timber for our liberty pole--as leafless as it is fruitless--or hereafter splice together such sticks as we have, and our ideas of liberty are equally mean with these. -- Thoreau

********************

So, yes, vote for Kerry/Edwards. And work for a day when the liberty pole is not so barren and fruitless.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

50. I've made a new poll, taking on board requests from DUers

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2540679

I've tried to take on board as many suggestions as possible. I'm sorry if yours didn't make it, but I only had 10 choices available in the poll.

Happy voting :)