In a recent commentary featured in Alaska Dispatch News and The Washington Post, Emily Elkin endeavored to explain why millennials have such a broad affinity for socialism. Her basic points were we want America to be like Scandinavia, and when we actually understand the human and economic costs of socialism, we'll start to sing a different song. As a millennial and Bernie supporter who wrote a college thesis on the democratic socialist features of the New Deal, I'd like to provide a more historical perspective to the question of why us young folks are "Feelin' the Bern."
What does the term "free market" even mean? Ranking countries on abstract measures of economic freedom fails to expose the larger historical trend towards greater regulation of the economy. After the Great Depression, which affected the entire world economy, Western democracies and other forms of government began to regulate industry as it had never before. Some countries turned to radical economic and political reforms, with calamitous effect.
The New Deal was America's response to a global socio-economic crisis. In this country, minor alterations to the existing "laissez faire" capitalist model (Keynesian economics and modest wealth distribution through government programs) resulted in a success: year after year economic growth for decades, and the lowest wealth disparities in American history. It would also be fair to point out that federal taxes were the highest they had ever been, with marginal tax rates topping 90 percent.
Democratic socialism is nothing new to American politics. Did you know America had a Socialist Party, and its presidential candidate won 6 percent of the vote in 1912? After harsh treatment by the American government, many avowed democratic socialists found a home in the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, America's most popular president. Sen. Bernie Sanders would fairly be called our third democratic socialist president, after FDR and Lyndon Johnson.
My generation doesn't see socialism as a dirty word, much to the chagrin of writers like Elkin and many of our grandparents. Our social consciousness was not forged in the crucible of the Cold War. As much as conservative libertarians like Elkin try to equate the them, democratic socialism is not communism. A democratic socialist is still a capitalist, just one who seeks to restrain the self-destructive excesses of capitalism, and channel the government's use of our tax money into creating opportunities for everyone, not just a greedy few at the top.
Millennials face similar circumstances to our forefathers in the Great Depression. Through no fault of our own, we have been thrust into economic conditions that make the American dream seem more unattainable than ever. We have a house worth of debt from school, but don't own homes. We are the first generation in 80 years that will most likely be worse off than our parents.
The generation bashing of millennials as glib, or ill-informed, or overly idealistic, is offensive and fails to acknowledge the stark economic, political, and environmental situation we find ourselves in. And one day soon, this will be our country, and it will be up to us to come up with bold solutions to big problems. Sanders has talked about a New New Deal, and many millennials agree. Is it so radical to look at the past, see what worked, and try to replicate it? I certainly don't think so. Bernie's ideas are different, but they're hardly new, and hardly un-American.
Spencer Bailly is a graduate of West High School in Anchorage. He received a bachelor's degree. in American history from Willamette University, and studies law and government at the Willamette University College of Law.
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