Spring Hill, Florida, Saturday, October 18, 2008: Socialist Party USA presidential nominee Brian Moore urged President Bush and the U.S. Congress to “nationalize” the United States banking system and called for a “full governmental takeover of all for-profit industries in the country.”
In response to President Bush’s comments today before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in New York City that the U.S. government would “limit its [financial] intervention in size and scope” and that he [Bush] did “not intend to nationalize the banking system,” the Socialist Party candidate, in a faxed letter to the White and Congress, urged the President and members of Congress to reverse themselves and “nationalize” the entire American banking system. Moore also stated in his letter that the recent intervention should really be the start of a “full government takeover of all American corporations.”
The Socialist ticket of Brian Moore for President and Stewart Alexander for Vice President, is currently competing for votes in eighteen states, comprising more than 270 electoral votes — enough to win on November 4. If the Socialist ticket was able to win a plurality of votes in the eight states where they are listed on the ballot and in ten other states where they are officially recognized as write-in candidates, Moore predicted that they could be swept into office in a tidal wave of discontent. “The American people are hurting and hurting badly,” he said. “The economic system is collapsing before their very eyes and they are beginning to realize that neither major-party fully grasps the severity of the situation. Anything is possible.”
Moore also reported on his website (www.votebrianmoore) this week, that Lars Ohly, leader of the New Left Party of the country of Sweden, publicly endorsed his presidential candidacy on Swedish National Television, with the country’s Prime Minister participating on the same panel of guests. Sweden was a hotbed of democratic socialism from the 1950’s through the early 1990’s, when globalization turned the country’s economic system back to a limited form of capitalism.
The Socialist Party USA platform calls for the establishment of a socially owned, democratically-controlled independent national banking authority, made up of consumers, workers, accountants and economists, who will set national policy. It would be a non-profit national institution, which would operate through credit unions, cooperatives and state-run banks.
Such an entity, said Moore, would provide better access and fairer terms to consumers and citizens in need of housing, education, transportation and small business loans. Much of the nation’s white collar crime would be eliminated by removing the fraudulent actions of the for-profit industries, he added.
The Socialist presidential candidate emphasized that socialism would “operate in a de-centralized fashion,” with limited government, with its public servants, but under the auspices of workers and/or their democratically controlled regional commissions.
In response to the presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York earlier this week, the Socialist candidate criticized the recent $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry and accused his Democratic and Republican rivals of offering little in the way of substantive measures to deal with the growing economic crisis. He charged that both Barack Obama and John McCain had been “bought and sold” by Wall Street. “The two major candidates cannot move, they are imprisoned by accepting all that corporate money,” Moore said.
25 responses so far ↓
1 G.E. // Oct 18, 2008 at 3:11 am
Pure evil.
2 VTV // Oct 18, 2008 at 3:13 am
Hey, I just report it.
3 Trent Hill // Oct 18, 2008 at 3:14 am
…they didn’t reach 270…
No way.
4 Trent Hill // Oct 18, 2008 at 3:15 am
Maybe with write-ins…
5 darolew // Oct 18, 2008 at 3:41 am
It says with write-ins in the article, Trent. =P
“Pure evil.”
Perhaps, though it could certainly be worse — at least these socialists are honest about their intentions and call themselves by the proper name.
6 Gladly Anon // Oct 18, 2008 at 1:45 pm
You can now vote for Brian Moore in 19 states, so, unless you’re too in love with printed ballots, he seems to be among five major minors.
7 richardwinger // Oct 18, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Frank Moore of Berkeley, California, is a declared write-in presidential candidate in enough states so that he, too, could theoretically be elected. But he is not on the ballot in any state. He has done a good job of getting write-in status, in 25 states so far.
8 paulie cannoli // Oct 18, 2008 at 4:25 pm
So who are the candidates who can get 270 votes max., including registered write-in states and open write-in states?
9 Deran // Oct 18, 2008 at 4:30 pm
“pure evil”
LOL!! You really need to get a gig writing stand up comedy, G.E.
While I think the SPUSA’ program is outdated and too industrial age in focus, the sentiment is on the mark.
“Pure evil”, might better describe the crooks and scammers in the banking system and Wall Street, like these:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/17/executivesalaries-banking
Or, the reports that Paulson’s posse initially focused tax payer give aways on political cronies corporations.
That’s evil, not pure evil, like Hitler-evil, but still, very very evil.
Now, I’m not suggesting the crooks that run the economy into this depression should be “Ceausescu-ed” on Christmas morning, but these people should be doing long hard time in Levanworth, not stealing taxpayer money.
I think the SPUSA, and much of the Old Left and 60s-originated-New Left, fail to perceive that a mixed economy, where certain fundamental institutions, like utilities, etc, should be publicly owned, but that capitalism on the small scale, small businesses, it works very efficiently, with socially mandated regulations on workplace safety, and minimum wage etc it is an excellent mechanism for product and service exchange. It’s just once the capitalist enterprises get too big that they turn into corrupt rapacious gangs.
10 G.E. // Oct 18, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Deran – You think I don’t think the “crooks and scammers in the banking system and Wall Street” are “pure evil”?
I’d go farther than you and say the criminals should be Ceausescu-ed. I’ve said so many times.
The difference between Moore and the Wall Street socialists is that Moore has no power and they do. Moore, to my knowledge, has committed no crimes, since voicing evil opinions is no crime at all. The Wall Street socialists have put their evil opinions into action in the name of mass murder and misery, and they should pay for those crimes with their lives.
11 Steve // Oct 18, 2008 at 10:05 pm
“citizens in need of. . .small business loans”?
Why would any citizen get a loan to start a business if every company is nationalized, and thus owning one’s own business is presumably illegal? Seems like self-incrimination to me. Or perhaps since only “for-profit” business is nationalized, the government would allow an entreprenuer to operate only until the venture starts to turn a profit, then they kick down the door take it.
12 ModernWhig // Oct 19, 2008 at 11:15 am
GE, what would you do if I thought being a capitalist was evil?
13 Gladly Anon // Oct 19, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I think it possible to make that argument. You could say Capitalism is just a way to allow your boss to fuck you over, or whatever Marx could think up. Of course, it’s more complicated than that.
14 paulie cannoli // Oct 19, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Both state corporate capitalism and state socialism are evil.
True free markets and intentional communes are not evil.
15 Gladly Anon // Oct 19, 2008 at 2:39 pm
And what’s this true free market? I’d imagine a society where corporations can be ignored and not turned, essentially, into an elite government?
Well, it seems difficult to find one site charting write-in status, but it depresses me that candidates seriously running for office didn’t take the opportunity to have the chance to be elected by more people. It’s an impressive feat by Frank Moore, with the quote “Like party and weed? Vote Frank Moore” on his site.
16 paulie cannoli // Oct 19, 2008 at 2:48 pm
And what’s this true free market? I’d imagine a society where corporations can be ignored and not turned, essentially, into an elite government?
I imagine they would not exist, since they get their corporate charter, corporate personhood, and nonconcensual limited liability (not to mention massive direct and indirect corporate welfare) from…yep, government.
Isn’t the latest trillion dollar corporate bailout by government, or the trillions spent by it on wars on behalf of corporations, not enough for most anti-corporate people to understand – far from being a check on corporations, government is their creator and enabler, destroyer of their small business competition, and guarantor of their profits?
Putting government in charge of policing corporations is truly putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop.
17 Deran // Oct 19, 2008 at 5:03 pm
It depends on what sort of “government” you are talking abt. If you are talking abt what Nader talks abt; a decentralizing, horizontally democratic, transparent, system with no lobbyists, etc, then that government would be ideal to oversee capitalism. A government like what we have here now in the US; not so much.
Nader talks abt making sure the corporations can not dominate the government. This is the sort of social democratic/democratic socialist government that would be most effective in avoiding the recent laisse faire excesses that lead to chaos and barbarism.
I think as the economy spirals downward, the Left will lose majopr opportunities for a broader audience if all they propose is old industrial age ideas; for one, industrialism is over, and two the authoritarianism that came with that old school statist socialism is completely discredited.
18 Trent Hill // Oct 19, 2008 at 5:05 pm
No lobbyists? We don’t have the right to contact and lobby our congressmen to vote correctly?
19 darolew // Oct 19, 2008 at 7:20 pm
“No lobbyists? We don’t have the right to contact and lobby our congressmen to vote correctly?”
Apparently not. Also, in socialists’ perception of reality, it appears the crisis was caused by disastrous laissez-faire policies like 1% interest rates by the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Community Reinvestment Act. (If that’s what laissez-faire means, I wonder why socialists seem to dislike it so much.)
Though, such disagreements are increasingly tolerable the more said socialists support “decentraliz[ation]“.
20 paulie cannoli // Oct 19, 2008 at 8:25 pm
It depends on what sort of “government†you are talking abt.
The coercively monopolized state.
21 G.E. // Oct 19, 2008 at 8:34 pm
I’d ask you what you meant by capitalism. If you said, “what we have now” or “what Marx described,” I’d say, YOU’RE RIGHT.
If you said, “a system where people mix their labor with the land and engage in peaceful, nonviolent voluntary exchange,” I’d say that you were pure evil.
22 VTV // Oct 20, 2008 at 1:09 pm
The question I have for you G.E. is do you support making it illegal for corporate entities to buy politicians? Right now the capitalist situation is empowering free enterprises with enough money to essentially govern our country.
23 paulie cannoli // Oct 20, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I support taking so much power away from politicians that no one in their right mind would waste money buying one.
24 paulie cannoli // Oct 20, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Ideally, there would be no corporate entities as presently understood, and no politicians for them to buy if they existed, which they wouldn’t.
25 paulie cannoli // Oct 20, 2008 at 1:23 pm
More in the short term, do you support the same prohibition on labor unions, concerned citizens groups, etc.?
If so, wouldn’t that give incumbents and mass media (which can never be perfectly objective, no matter what anyone says) inordinate power?
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