Americans and the word socialism
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John Kiriakou argues that American political vocabulary has decayed to the point of uselessness, and illustrates it with two exchanges he was party to.

The Thanksgiving conversation

During Donald Trump''s first term, at a relative''s house for Thanksgiving, he was seated beside a woman in her eighties with Fox News on. "She says to me, ''it looks like we''re turning into a communistic country.'' And I said, ''yeah, you think so?'' And she said, ''all this socialism.''"

His reply was an attack on Social Security offered as agreement: "''You know what, you''re right. This socialism, like Social Security. What is Social Security, after all? It''s free money for old people who were too stupid or too lazy to save for their old age. I''m against this kind of socialism.'' And she looks at me and she says, ''I live on Social Security.'' I said, ''but that''s a socialistic program.'' And she said, ''well, I think we need programs like that.'' I said, ''oh, well then maybe it''s okay if we''re turning into a socialistic country.''"

He has told the story more than once, and the second telling differs in what the woman said and in how far he took the list. There her line is "I think the country is turning into a socialistic state" rather than a communistic one, and he says outright that he decided to "have some fun with this old lady", beginning again with Social Security as "welfare for old people who were either too stupid or too lazy to save for their own retirements", and, when she objected that this was not at all what she meant, widening it: "But Social Security is socialism. So is public education. So is the interstate highway system, Medicare, Medicaid." That telling ends on the distinction the first leaves implicit, "It''s all socialism, but it''s not communism", which is the point he was making against Mike Rogers''s campaign advertisement calling Abdul El-Sayed a communist. Bernie Sanders, he adds in the same passage, "is not a communist. He''s a socialist, a democratic socialist, which really is capitalism light."

The comment thread

The second case concerns a popular Mexican restaurant in his home town, reported in the local paper as keeping its customers'' tips for the owner rather than passing them to the staff. A commenter beneath the article wrote: "that''s socialism for you." Kiriakou replied: "Actually, that''s capitalism. Socialism would be if the workers owned the restaurant", and then, by his own admission, "I took a shot, I couldn''t help it": "it sounds like you''re in need of a sixth-grade government class if you don''t know the difference between socialism and capitalism. But that''s America. That''s just the way it is here."

See also

- Kiriakou and third parties
- Islamofascism
- Washington political culture
- Progressive taxation
