They're both right. The US has been a socialist state in all but name since the Great Depression. It's a centralized, interventionist economy, regulated on some level by government bureaucracies fully as huge as Stalin ran, primed annually by hundreds of billions of dollars in federal and state subsidies both hidden and overt: highway construction funds, defense contracts, porkbarrel projects, to name but a few.
The difference between a European socialist state (like Sweden, say) and the US is that Swedish socialism focuses on providing a safety-net for the middle- and working-classes, whereas US socialism specializes in bailing out the rich; rescuing Chrysler and S&L banks in the late '70s and '80s; Fannie, Freddy and AIG now; doling out tax windfalls for some of the biggest corporations, and for the top five percent of the population.
And you jokers on the "left"--you supported this from A to Z. You bought the ridiculous mantra that cutting taxes, and letting market forces do as they willed, was always jake. You endorsed the idea that what was good for big business was good for America. You never wondered whether it might not be risky to let our lives be run by huge institutions both public and private, when it was clear that the effects of their policies would be far beyond the reach of ordinary political processes. You never thought to ask whether the obsession with growth at all costs might not be somewhat short-sighted in a world of finite resources.
Well, this is what happens when you ride on the back of a runaway mastodon; suddenly we're all stuck with making sure it doesn't run off a cliff.
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