THE BILL OF RIGHTS IN 4 TWEETS
If he were alive today, James Madison would have had to send ten tweets to publish the Bill of Rights. Here’s how he could have done it in just four tweets.

Amendment I. The Federal government may not obstruct a person’s ability to:
- Express and publish opinions
- Protest in a group
- Ask the government to fix problems
- Practice any religion.
Amendments II and III. The Federal government may not interfere with any State militia’s weaponry or provisioning.
Amendments IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII. The Federal government may not hamper the fair treatment of accused criminals by:
- Banning unreasonable searches of an individual or their property, or seizures without just compensation.
- Requiring that a grand jury initiate serious criminal charges, and that accused persons be informed of charges, be allowed to avoid self-incrimination, face accusers, present witnesses in defense, be represented by a lawyer, and not be tried twice for the same offense
- Requiring trials that are fair, timely, open to the public, and decided by an impartial jury of peers
- Forbidding excessive bail, fines, or inappropriate punishments.
Amendments IX and X. These are not the only rights of individuals and States that the Federal government may not interfere with.
Rewriting the Second Amendment
Does it really matter?
There is no topic that generates quite as much hysteria as gun rights. Not even the quality of soccer clubs. Opinions cut across age, race, religion, and even political ideology. If you were raised with firearms in your home, gun ownership is a God-given human right as important as freedom of thought, speech, assembly, and religion. If you weren’t raised with firearms in your home, gun ownership is something that needs to be regulated in order to protect society, just like automobiles, dangerous chemicals, tobacco, and playground equipment.
What People Think About Guns
If you ask people what they believe the Second Amendment of the Constitution means, or should mean, they’ll tell you bluntly with total certainty. Cut through the high-tension rhetoric and you’ll find rationales that expose much about our society.
One approach to assessing the attitudes of society about firearms is to ask people how they would rewrite the Second Amendment. That question was asked by the Los Angeles Times in 2017 and by Quora in 2018 via the internet. No adjustments were made for demographic information in these surveys (i.e., they are not statistical polls). The responses were all open-format.
Responses from the LA Times did included information on whether the respondent said they owned any guns. 64% of the comments came from individuals who said they did not own any guns and 36% came from individuals who said they were gun owners. (For context, other surveys indicate that about 30% of American adults own one or more guns.) The tenor of some of the responses suggested that the gun-ownership data are not entirely reliable.
All of the responses were categorized into six common themes plus a separate category for unique responses. Although neither of the sources represent a statistically-designed survey, the comments are interesting. Results are summarized in the following table.
The proportions of responses in the seven categories are similar for both sources. Furthermore, the proportion of responses that want to expand gun ownership (EXPANDED and TYRANNY) is about the same as the proportion of responses that want to limit gun ownership (REPEALED, REGULATED, and MILITIAS). About 13% of responses indicated that no change in the Amendment was needed.
Of the 270 responses (in the LA Times survey) from individuals who said they did not own a gun, 28% would clarify the need for regulation, 23% would clarify or expand gun ownership rights, 21% would clarify the role of a militia, 10% would leave the Amendment as it is, and 9% would repeal the Amendment.
Of the 153 responses from individuals who said they owned a gun, 41% would clarify or expand gun ownership rights, 18% would keep the Amendment the same. 17% would allow some regulation, usually for mental illness or criminal history, and 7% would repeal the Amendment.
The “unique” responses were unique; they couldn’t be categorized. Two responses said that the right-to-vote and the right-to-an-education should not be infringed. I can’t argue with that. One response said that the Amendment should be limited to water pistols. Another said the Amendment should prevent men from owning guns.
Repeal the Amendment
Respondents who would repeal the Amendment say it has outlived its usefulness. Like the Third Amendment, it no longer applies in today’s society. The late SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia said, it is “debatable” whether the Second Amendment as a whole is “outmoded” in a nation “where our standing army is the pride of our Nation, where well-trained police forces provide personal security, and where gun violence is a serious problem.” 7% of the respondents didn’t think it was so debatable.
Guns aren’t essential survival tools needed to defend against wild animals, Indian attacks, and most importantly, invasions by foreign armies. Those functions have been replaced by local animal-control, law-enforcement, and the U.S. military. Personal firearm ownership now has nothing to do with the defense of the nation. There are no more militias that need individuals to bring their own guns with them in the event that their States call them into service. Today’s militias, National Guards, provide all the firearms and provisions necessary.
Moreover, membership in an 18th century State-militia wasn’t all voluntary, like modern militias. You could join independently but most participants were conscripted. Each State militia had geographical subunits, all under government control. Citizens were required to register with their local officers, and the officers were required to maintain the lists of eligible white men. Militiamen were required to participate in training and musters during peacetime, and report for active duty when needed. They were under considerable government regulation.
Respondents reasoned that because there is no current need for militias, the Second Amendment should be repealed.

Regulate Gun Ownership
23% of respondents want to rewrite the Second Amendment so that it is easier for governments to regulate gun ownership, and thereby, safeguard its citizens. Types of regulation that were mentioned include:
- Individuals who have been convicted of a felony should not possess firearms
- Individuals with a history of mental illness should not possess firearms
- Firearms may be used for training, marksmanship, and hunting at any time at authorized locations. Use of a firearm for self-defense should be restricted to in one’s own home.
- Weapons must have a safety device that will allow usage only by the owner.
- Arms should be limited to no more than 7 bullets.
- Every weapon should have a 4-year-term registration. Any weapon without a valid registration should be confiscated by law enforcement.
- All gun owners should be required to obtain and carry a photo license. Any gun owner without a valid license should have his firearms confiscated by law enforcement.
- Households should be limited to one weapon of a given type and a limited amount of ammunition.
- Gun manufacturers, sellers, and owners should be liable for any harm caused by a weapon they manufactured, sold, or had possession of, including weapons that were stolen and not immediately reported to the police.
- Firearms should be designated for one primary use, such as personal defense or hunting.
- All members of a household in which a gun is stored should complete a sanctioned safety and gun-usage course
- Weapons should be stored, unloaded, in a locked depository when not in use.
Individuals Are Not Militias
Comments involving militias mostly involved the debate over whether the Amendment applied to militias or to individual citizens. 17% of all the responses involved this concept.
At the time the Second Amendment was written, a militia was an official government institution under state authority. Membership in the militia was not a matter of an individual choice or open to everybody as it is today. If you were a fit, white, male, of an appropriate age and the government needed you, you were required to participate. States didn’t have the funds to outfit everyone so you had to bring your own clothes, bedding, personal items, and, of course, weapon.
Furthermore, James Madison, who wrote the Constitution, was proficient in Latin rules-of-grammar and used that knowledge to write the Amendment. The Latin construction of the Amendment requires the first part of the sentence—A well-regulated Militia, being necessary for the security of a free State—to be inseparably connected to the second part—the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. One part cannot exist without the other. Therefore, the Amendment was originally written to mean that one has the right to keep and bear firearms if, and only if, one is a member of a well-regulated militia.
For 200 years, the courts held that the Amendment referred to the rights of states to maintain militias. The Amendment was the Founding Fathers’ way of telling the new central government not to mess with State governments. That changed in the 2008 case of District of Columbia vs. Heller when the court reinterpreted the Amendment to provide individuals the right to keep a firearm in their homes for purposes of self-defense. That decision was championed by the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He was ignorant of Latin rules of grammar and thought that the first part of the Amendment was merely “introductory” and that it could be ignored. The full court voted 5-4 in favor of what has been characterized by historians and legal scholars as a blatantly erroneous interpretation.
There was agreement from many survey respondents that militias had long ago been replaced by standing armies maintained by States or the Federal government. Commenters took this to mean that either:
- There is no longer a need to raise a citizen militia so there is no need for citizens to own arms, or
- There is no longer a need to raise a citizen militia so that part of the Amendment can be ignored.
The first group follows the interpretation of the Amendment from its ratification until 2008 and the second group follows the Scalia interpretation in the case of District of Columbia vs. Heller. Individuals who do not own firearms tend to be somewhat more likely to want to clarify that the Amendment refers to enabling States to arm their militias while gun owners want to delete any mention of militias.
The second interpretation of the Amendment doesn’t make any sense. Imagine if Madison wrote, “A well-funded franchise, being necessary to the establishment of a baseball dynasty, the claim that the New York Yankees are the greatest team of all time shall not be disputed.” No one (except a Yankees fan) would think the second part of the sentence could stand without the first part of the sentence.

Leave the Amendment Alone
Some respondents don’t think there is any problem with the Amendment, based of course on their own interpretation of what it means. About 13% of all respondents thought the Amendment should stay as it is. 10% of respondents who said they didn’t own a gun and 18% who said they did own a gun thought the Amendment should stay the same.
Expand Gun Ownership Rights
35% of respondents want to rewrite the Second Amendment to clarify or expand the rights of gun owners. Some of the comments suggested simple edits:
- Remove the reference to militia from the present version of the 2nd Amendment.
- Change “well-regulated” to “in working order
- People shall be able to own whatever they want as long as they don’t harm others.
Some rewrites were more involved:
- The people shall have the right to form well-regulated militias, and possess any type of weapon they choose, in any way they wish, anywhere they see fit.
- All citizens and legal residents, eighteen years of age and older shall have the right to possess firearms. This right shall not be infringed by any State, Local, or Federal government by regulation, statute, law, ordinance, or order.
- All persons shall have the unalienable, natural, and god given right to keep and bear arms and to use force in defense of themselves, their families, their property, and the state.
- The government shall make no law limiting the amount or type of arms, the amount or type of ammunition, nor the capacity thereof, nor shall they make any law requiring the registration thereof, nor any law limiting the possession, manufacture, or transfer of arms to others.
- Any man or woman who is of rational and sound mind and has the right to vote shall have the right to keep and bear Arms after being trained with them in a conscription system intended to establish a trained citizenry to later form militias.
Some of the comments were meant to explain or introduce ideas:
- The Founding Fathers never intended for the American People to be without arms, nor did they intend to restrict ownership of any class of arms.
- Weapons are a category of property and as such shall not be regulated.
- Any object can be used as a weapon. Objects should not be regulated.
- Firearm ownership is about personal freedom.
- Bearing arms means to have one on your person at any and all times
Quite a few comments mentioned what firearms people should be allowed to possess. A weapon was defined by one commenter as “any item, tool, munition, ordinance or apparatus intended to be used in the commissioning of Civil Defense activities, defending of the self, another person or property, hunting game, recreational activities, militia activities, or collecting.” Other commenters said that weapons should include: all type of guns and accessories, regardless of size, caliber, ammunition capacity, or functionality, even guns that haven’t been invented yet; arms in common use by our military including automatic weapons, anti-air missiles, and fully armed attack helicopters; gun powder and explosives; any form or type of propellant; and firearm manufacturing capabilities like 3D printing.
Some of the ideas to expand gun rights defied categorization:
“Those who use their 1st Amendments rights to try to take away the 2nd Amendment rights of others shall lose their 1st Amendment rights.”
“Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon—rifle, shotgun, handgun, machine gun, anything—any time, any place, without asking anyone’s permission.”
“Firearms shall not be subject to Federal or State regulation in any form. No license, permit, allowance, or certification shall be required by any government body. The penalty for government infringement, whether attempted or real, is subject to penalties of up to life imprisonment and fines of your entire government salary.”
“I would make the Second Amendment first. And it should mention that God and Jesus are both pro-Second Amendment, and that they don’t like abortion.”
“All male American citizens, the people of God, the members of His Christian Race, the American Christian Soldiers, may own and freely carry any firearm of their choosing, anywhere, at any time. There is no restriction on type of firearm, age, or ammunition. This right shall not be infringed by background checks, waiting periods, or any liberal laws.”
Prevent Tyranny
5% of the comments involved the idea that the Founding Fathers’ aim in ratifying the Amendment was to provide citizens with means to overthrow the government should it become tyrannical. Three ideas that were presented include:
- The government shall have NO weapons in excess of that of the People.
- Elected officials should have term-limits as they are the reason that we really need guns in the first place!
- Any judge who rules that this amendment may or has been superseded, or otherwise attempts to alter this amendment, will be guilty of Supreme High Treason punishable by summary execution.

Does It Matter?
Actually, no. It doesn’t matter. The Nation is divided on regulating firearms, though not evenly divided. More importantly, the NRA is spending too much money for any amendment to the Constitution to happen. The conservative SCOTUS gave them what they wanted in 2008 when they rewrote 220 years of history in District of Columbia vs. Heller.
History suggests that, without the need for militias, the Founding Fathers would have ignored gun ownership. There would have been no reason to mention guns any more than any other consumer good. Everyone had guns and needed them for hunting and protection. There were already hundreds of laws that regulated their use to ensure the safety of all citizens.
The surveys conducted by the LA Times and Quora indicate that 49% of respondents favor gun-control positions (repeal, regulate, militia) compared to 34% of respondents who favor gun-rights positions (expand, tyranny). Of the respondents to the LA Times survey who said that they did not own a gun, 57% favor gun control and 29% favor some gun rights. Of the respondents who said that they did own a gun, 45% favor gun rights and 34% favor some gun control. It seems that considerable portions of both gun-ownership camps are amenable to the other sides’ positions.
Extremes of individual opinions reflect facts, influencer opinions, sometimes informed and sometimes not, and the media. No one stays on the sidelines. Some individuals want personal freedom. Some individuals want personal safety.
ProCon.org summarizes prevalent arguments about gun rights and gun control. Most of the country’s population favor gun-control. However, gun-rights proponents—gun manufacturers and gun-rights groups—have spent eight times more to advance their cause. It skews peoples’ perceptions of the mood of the country.
Our perception that the divide in gun-ownership positions is hopelessly wide is a product of the most visible proponents—the NRA, the Boogaloo Movement, Chuck Norris, and Ted Nugent for gun rights, versus Gabby Giffords, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence for gun control. These voices are the ones that are most amplified by the media,
Does the second amendment facilitate any of this? Again, no. In some ways, it accentuates the divide by giving people fake targets to argue about. What the Founding Fathers meant by what they wrote over 200 years ago is irrelevant. We don’t care that the Third Amendment is irrelevant yet can’t recognize that the Second Amendment is also. What’s important now, though, is to understand the nature of the divide and stop yelling past each other so something effective can be accomplished.

The Demographics of Gun Ownership
Our national religion isn’t Christianity, it’s weaponry.

Growing up in the 1950s, we played with toy pistols and rifles made all the more realistic by caps. And why not? The TV shows we all watched were westerns—Lone Ranger, Rifleman, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, and many more. Then there were all those war movies meant to resurrect World War II patriotism during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
My father served in WWII, So did my nine uncles. One died in the war. One was an avid hunter both before and after the war. None of the other seven ever touched a gun again. By the time I got to high school, I had lost any interest I might have bad in guns. Now I wonder, why are some people obsessed by guns, either for or against, and others not at all?
Legal Gun Ownership
Americans own more guns per capita than any other country, 1.2 guns for every individual. That’s more than Russia (0.12), China (0.04), North Korea (0.003), Iraq (0.20), Iran (0.07), and Afghanistan (0.12). Only about 0.3% of America’s guns are registered. Half of America’s 265 million guns are owned by just 3% of American adults.
In 2017, the Pew Research Center (PRC) surveyed 3,930 U.S. adults, randomly selected from prior PRC landline and cellphone surveys, on the topic of gun ownership. PRC found that:
- Overall. 30% of American adults own a gun and another 11% live with someone who owns a gun. (For comparison, Gallup independently found that between 1996 and 2020, 29% of Americans own a gun and another 13% live with someone who owns a gun. Those are virtually identical results.)
- Location. 16% of adults who live in the Northeast own a gun, as do 36% of adults in the South, 32% of adults in the Midwest, and 31% of adults in the West. 46% of those who live in rural areas, 28% of those who live in the suburbs, and 19% of those who live in urban areas own guns.
- Firearm Characteristics. 66% of gun owners own more than 1 gun; 29% own 5 or more guns. 72% of gun owners own a handgun or pistol, 62% own a rifle, and 54% own a shotgun.
- Owner Characteristics. 39% of men own a gun compared to 22% of women. 36% of whites, 24% of blacks, and 15% of Hispanics own a gun. 31% of gun owners have a high school diploma or less; 34% have some college education. 44% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents own a gun compared to 20% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. 44% of veterans own a firearm. There is no difference in gun ownership based on income level except for Americans who make less than $25,000/year who are less likely to own guns.
- Owner Mindset. 73% of current gun owners can’t see themselves ever not owning a gun. 15% of those who own just 1 gun, 21% of those who own 2 to 4 guns, and 42% of those who own 5 or more guns say gun ownership is very important to their overall identity.
- Ownership Rationale. 67% of current gun owners say protection is a major reason they own a gun, 38% say hunting, 30% say sport shooting, 13% say gun collection, and 8% say job requirements. Although two-thirds of current gun owners say protection is a major reason they own a gun, a study of crime victims during 2007-2011 found that the use of a gun for self-defense occurs in only 0.9% of interpersonal crimes. It was more common among males, in rural areas, away from home, against male offenders, and against offenders with a gun. It did not reduce the risk of victim injury; 4% were still injured.
Most gun owners don’t become interested in firearms casually. It is a passion that they develop early in life. 67% of current gun owners had guns in their household growing up. In contrast, 40% of non-gun owners grew up in a gun-owning household. 37% of gun owners were younger than 18 when they first got their own gun. 76% report that they first fired a gun before they were 18. Furthermore, 72% of gun owners grew up in a rural community compared to 52% who grew up in a small town, 37% who grew up in a suburb, and 39% who grew up in a city.
Nearly half of gun owners have only one or two guns but14% have between 8 and 140 guns. Their average is 17. Americans who own at least 17 firearms are sometimes “… dedicated collectors with special rooms to display their assortment of historic firearms. Others are firearms instructors, gunsmiths, or competitive shooters, who need a variety of firearms in the course of work or competition. Some gun owners have a survivalist streak, and believe in storing up weapons, as well as food and water, in case of a disaster scenario. Others simply picked up a handgun here, a shotgun or hunting rifle there, and somehow ended up with dozens.” Some Americans also inherit guns from their parents and grandparents. The ownership of so many guns by so few individuals is thought to be similar to patterns for just about any consumer collectible. There are, in fact, more than 120 gun collectors’ clubs across the United States.
I can appreciate this. I’m not a carpenter but I have more than 15 hammers—1 was my father’s, 3 are rock hammers I got in college, 3 are sledge hammers for gardening, 2 are mallets, a is a small hammer I use for crafting, and the rest are claw and ball peen hammers of various weights. Don’t even ask me about my screwdrivers.
So, a current gun owner might have lived in a rural area where he learned about guns from his family, neighbors, and friends. Gun ownership was part of his cultural identity that might have involved hunting, marksmanship, and family traditions. It’s no wonder that belief in gun rights is so deeply ingrained in some people, almost like a love infatuation or a religion.
At the same time, there are people who hate guns and campaign to control them more effectively. They may have been, or known someone who was, the victim of gun violence. They may be deeply affected by gun violence that is reported every day on the news, especially mass murders, serial killings, and school shootings. They might worry about their friends and relatives who may be exposed to gun violence because of where they live or work. They may just not like living in fear of other people who own guns, especially those in their own households and neighborhoods.
Fear breeds hysteria; hysteria breeds irrational behavior. It may cause an otherwise level-headed person to purchase a gun “for protection” despite evidence that guns are not useful for that purpose. It may cause some individuals to purchase more guns because they believe that the government will try to take their guns and their gun-rights away. It may cause a person to assemble an arsenal of military-grade weaponry as defense against a tyrannical government or societal dysfunction. It may cause people to demand that the government enact and enforce rigid gun controls even though the number of deaths attributable to firearms is small compared to the numbers of deaths attributable to drug overdoses and medical malpractice.
Illegal Gun Ownership
The information from PRC’s survey is quite revealing. The survey itself is intriguing, too. It is both statistically-sound and yet deficient. It thoroughly characterizes the ownership of LEGAL guns but doesn’t shed any light on the underworld of ILLEGAL weaponry. Those data are harder to come by.
In 1997 and 2004, the US Department of Justice conducted national surveys of state prison inmates that asked how they obtained the guns they used in their crimes. 52% of the inmates obtained the gun they used in their crime legally (39% from family or friends and 13% from commercial sources). 39% of the inmates obtained their gun illegally (23% off the street, 8% from the black market, and 8% by theft).
In the 13 states with the fewest restrictions on gun ownership, 40% of inmates illegally obtained the guns they used in their crime. In the other 37 states with more restrictive laws, 60% of the inmates obtained their gun illegally. Gun-control does appear to be associated with increased ownership of illegal guns.
For perspective, of the 98 mass-shootings in the U.S. that occurred between 1982 and February 2020, 84% involved weapons that were obtained legally and 16% involved guns that were obtained illegally.
The Religion of Weaponry
The culture-of-the-gun is much bigger than the 3 in 10 Americans who own a gun. It is part of our national identity.
The Military-Industrial-Complex runs our economy, just as President Eisenhower warned it would sixty years ago. The United States was the largest exporter of major arms from 2015-2019. Our country sold about 35% of all the world’s arms exports during that period Our weapon sales was 76% more than the next largest exporter, Russia. 70% of Americans believe that selling weapons to other countries makes the U.S. less safe, but U.S. businesses do it anyway. That’s capitalism.
Weaponry is a cult, both figuratively and literally. It has a system of beliefs relying on the interpretation of an ancient text, the Second Amendment. It has a charismatic leader in the NRA. It has a process of indoctrination through family traditions and peer pressure that is reinforced by organized (military and law enforcement) training.
Weaponry has a very small yet devoted group of followers who want to impose their beliefs on the rest of society. Followers do not tolerate opposing opinions or even critical inquiry. They are convinced that only their beliefs are true even when presented with contrary evidence.
Being members of what appears to be a cult, advocates of gun rights are often ostracized, humiliated, persecuted, and even prosecuted for their beliefs. This makes them even more entrenched in their beliefs and wary of what gun-control advocates, governments, and society might do to them. Their fear is as real as the fear of people who worry about gun violence.
Whether we like it or not, weaponry is the religion that rules us all. Until we learn to respect everybody’s beliefs, both for and against guns, we won’t live in a free country.
America’s Boldfaced Serial Killers
We see them. We know they’re there. We can’t avoid them.

A new breed of serial killer has emerged in America. They are the people who, through their actions and inactions, spread the Covid-19 virus.
They don’t wash their hands or sanitize objects they touch. They don’t wear suitable masks, appropriately, all the time. They don’t isolate themselves or get tested. They ignore any symptoms they might have. They congregate closely with others.
They can’t seem to help themselves. They just want life to be good … for themselves. They don’t believe they are doing anything wrong. They don’t see the consequences of their actions. They don’t believe society has the right to restrict their actions. But their pursuit of happiness comes at the expense of others. They expect those others to deal with the harm they inflict.
They are everywhere — at church, at family events, at political rallies, in public spaces. They shop, eat out, throw parties, bar hop, travel, and vacation. They live life as they always have and make no concessions to the pleas of others.
They target the weak, the aged, the ill, and the unprepared. They don’t seem to know or care that they are dangerous. They don’t even recognize if they leave a target unharmed or inflict their curse. They may even turn their target into an unknowing serial killer.
Some of them might get caught, either in the act or later traced by their movements. A test may even confirm their culpability. But they won’t be punished. They’ll be released with only a warning. They will get away with what they have done and go on to resume their spree.
They may not just kill others, they may die themselves. Most believe they will be unaffected, that they will evade the invisible agents they don’t even believe exist. They think they are stronger, and luckier, and more special than the infectious curse they bring on others. But, not all of them will escape those consequences. Then, as a victim, they will feel regret.
Eliminate Socialism in the U.S.
Americans don’t know what it is but they don’t want it.


Socialism
People in the U.S have been taught to fear socialism. They’re not quite sure what socialism is, but they believe it is bad and they should rebel against anything that smacks of it. They ridicule people who defend it. They vote against candidates who support socialistic programs. So, we should give them what they want. We should eliminate socialism in the U.S.
What types of socialism do Americans want to eliminate? State socialism, democratic socialism, social democracy, or all of them? To many Americans, state-socialism, democratic socialism, and social democracy are all the same thing. They don’t understand the differences, and don’t want to.
State Socialism
Socialism, sometimes called state socialism, is defined as a political/economic system in which the means of production (machinery, tools, and factories used to produce goods for society) are owned and controlled by a democratically-run state but some other private property is allowed. That doesn’t really apply to the U.S. The means-of-production are all owned by private-sector firms operated to generate profit for the owners. So, eliminating state-socialism isn’t really an issue; there is none to eliminate. The only thing that might need to be eliminated is the public’s incorrect perception of what “socialism” actually is.
There are, however, quite a few aspects of the federal government that do have elements of socialism — those involving democratic socialism and social democracy.
Democratic Socialism
In democratic socialism, government ownership is much more limited than in state socialism. Also, democratic-socialist governments aim to benefit the populace rather than the state. There are two types of corporations owned by the U.S government — Federal-government-acquired corporations and Government-sponsored enterprises.
Federal-Government-Acquired Corporations
Federal-government-acquired corporations (FGACs) are organizations that the government found itself unwillingly in possession of because they needed to maintain the operations of a critical business that was failing. Railroads are the best example, such as the Alaska Railroad and Amtrak. Americans seem to want these holdings to be privatized as was done with Conrail. Presumably, people will be able to find other modes of transportation.
Government-Sponsored Enterprises
Government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) are financial-services corporations that were created by Congress to facilitate economic investment and provide guarantees that limit the risk of capital losses to investors. Americans must believe that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, and the Federal Home Loan Banks only encourage bad investments. For the same reasons, farmers shouldn’t receive the support provided by the Federal Farm Credit Banks or the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation. The private-sector could address these needs without having government protections by just increasing their prices to protect themselves. Also, TARP was a big mistake; the economy should have been allowed to fail. Americans want free-market capitalism not socialistic protections.
Social Democracy
In social democracies, ownership is mainly private but government regulates the owners. Resources accrued through taxation are used to benefit the populace. Social democracies develop by minimizing the harsher aspects of capitalism. Social democracy, on the other hand, manifests itself as government support for two beneficiaries — business and people.
Corporate Socialism
Corporate socialism (AKA corporate welfare) involves several forms of support for businesses. The most overt are direct payments to businesses as well as tax breaks and loan guarantees. This support was estimated to be $100 billion a decade ago but most of the benefits are impossible to quantify.
For example, the federal government spends billions of dollars per year on the air traffic control system and grants to commercial airports, mostly small local airports. Canada and Great Britain have made made these self-supporting. Other recipients of corporate socialism include: farm businesses ($25 billion per year); rural businesses ($6 billion per year); energy-related businesses ($4 billion per year); and small businesses ($1 billion per year).
The government manages communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable to control unfair competition. The government owns vast land holdings they use to control mineral, ecological, water, and tourism resources. It also maintains roads, waterways, and ports used by businesses. This is clearly corporate-socialism, which apparently, Americans do not want.
Despite claims to have been making a profit, the Export‐Import Bank has been criticized for unsound accounting practices that hide their actual costs-the-taxpayers being ten times as much. The federal government also provides aid to exporters through the Department of Commerce and the Foreign Military Financing program. This doesn’t even compare to the much more significant benefits of the government’s foreign-trade agreements, tariffs, regulation of imports, and their protections for intellectual properties and foreign operations. War is expensive.
The government also supports a variety of businesses by conducting basic research and providing the results for free. Pharmaceutical and technology businesses are huge beneficiaries. The government also indirectly supports businesses’ ability to pay low wages through the $70 billion earned income tax credit, SNAP, and other individual welfare programs that enable the minimum-wage labor force to survive. Tax-exempt organizations, like non-profit businesses and religions, are also part of corporate socialism. Though unquantified, and perhaps unquantifiable, these socialistic benefits to businesses are unquestionable huge. They are everywhere. But apparently, Americans don’t want them. They’re socialism.
Finally, the 2020 federal CARES Act provided over $1.1 trillion in direct payments and loans to business — $669 billion as loans to small businesses and $500 billion for large corporations. (For comparison, $560 billion went to individual Americans as direct payments or unemployment benefits and $340 billion went to state and local governments.) This is the kind of socialism that Americans fear and want to eliminate.
People Socialism
If you believe politicians and partisan organizations, what really outrages Americans is people socialism — support provided to individuals. However, in 2018, only 10% of Americans recognized this as socialism. Unquestionably, though, there are numerous socialistic programs running in the country, each having it’s own dependents.
Older Americans say that Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are essential. And while their support crosses political lines, Republican politicians have been working on eliminating the programs since their inceptions.
Most Americans believe public education, public transportation, and local law enforcement, emergency services, public parks, and libraries are essential. On the other hand. some Americans believe that federal anti-poverty programs are socialistic programs that have to go. They want to eliminate things like: food stamps, WIC, and school lunches; public housing; child care and educational programs; college/trade school (Pell) grants; job training and employment services; and home energy assistance.
It seems that some people define socialism as any government benefit that someone else gets that they don’t.
Fear, Hate, and Socialism
Americans may not know what socialism is — state socialism, democratic socialism, or social democracy — but they’ve been convinced by politicians that they don’t like it and don’t want it. They’ve been told they shouldn’t w ant: Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid; air-traffic control; essential railroads; publicly-owned financial institutions; support for small businesses, farms and rural businesses, energy-related businesses, exporters and U.S. corporations operating overseas; management of communication airwaves, transportation routes, and natural resources; research on technology and medicine; support for individuals in the forms of food stamps, public housing, child care, educational programs, job training, employment services, and home energy assistance; nor local public education, public transportation, law enforcement, emergency services, public parks and libraries.
It’s tragic that the public’s perception of socialism in the U.S. has been tainted by politicians and misinformed individuals. Maybe the only way to counter their misinformation is to eliminate all the benefits of socialism and to start anew as an unregulated, free-market capitalistic society. Give Americans what they think they want, like with Prohibition. What could go wrong?

The Curse of the Non-Voter
Since 2000, over 40% of eligible voters have not voted. Here is some information about how big an issue non-voting is, why individuals don’t vote, and what we might do about it.
What Do You Mean by Socialism?

It seems like you can’t have a political discussion without someone using the word socialism, sometimes affectionately and sometimes disparagingly. At least with words like Hitler and Nazi, you know the intent.
Socialism is a defined as a political/economic system in which the means of production (machinery, tools, and factories used to produce goods for society) are owned and controlled by a democratically-run state but private-property is allowed. In contrast, communism, implies that all property is owned by the state. In capitalism the means of production are owned by private interests rather than by the state, and they are operated to generate profit for the owner. But what do Americans think socialism is?
Gallup conducted polls in 1949 and 2018 asking what respondents understood socialism to be. The results are shown in the following table. In 1949, about three-fifths of Americans thought of socialism as the dictionary definition of government ownership. One-fifth thought it referred more to equality. By 2018, three-tenths thought of socialism in terms of equality and another tenth thought of it in terms of social services. Only two-tenths thought of socialism in terms of government ownership. Three-tenths had some other unique understanding.

When the word socialism comes up in a political discussion today, its meaning is rarely clear. Sometimes, it refers to the dictionary definition, although not as often as one might suppose. Sometimes it just refers to government control. And sometimes, it takes on a more modern definition of democratic socialism or social democracy.
In democratic socialism, government ownership is much more limited than in traditional socialism. Democratic-socialist governments also aim to benefit the populace rather than the state. In social democracies, ownership is mainly private but government regulates the owners. Resources accrued through taxation are used to benefit the populace. Social democracies develop by reforming the harsher aspects of capitalism.
In the U.S., democratic socialism is limited. The government owns the postal Service (USPS), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Amtrak, the National Parks, and a variety of other non-government entities. But these entities are operated for the benefits of the populace rather than the state as they would be in a traditional socialist government.
Social democracy, on the other hand, manifests itself as government support for two beneficiaries—people and business. Corporate socialism includes: direct payments to businesses; tax breaks; data and scientific research; management of broadcast, transportation, and national resources; maintenance of roads, waterways, and ports; foreign-trade agreements, tariffs, and regulation of imports; and protection for intellectual properties and foreign operations. People socialism includes: Social Security; Medicare/Medicaid; federal anti-poverty programs; public education; public transportation; local law enforcement and emergency services; public parks and libraries; nonprofit corporations, and many more examples.
In 1949, half of Americans believed that some aspects of the government were socialistic. In 2018, only two-fifths believed that despite there being many more social programs. The public perception of socialism in the U.S. has been greatly influenced by opinions expressed by politicians and partisan organizations.
“Republicans, who are overwhelmingly negative about socialism, tend to skew toward seeing socialism as government control of the economy and in derogatory terms, while Democrats, a majority of whom are positive about socialism, are more likely to view it as government provision of services.” – Frank Newport, Ph.D., Gallup, Inc.
So if you are going to talk about SOCIALISM, whether good or bad, be sure you explain exactly what you mean by the word. You might save yourself from getting some nasty replies.
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