Mike Ruskovich's My Turn, "Reagan Legacy No Laughing Matter," drew some predictable fire. There were those who compared Obama to Stalin (totally off topic). There were those who called Mr. Ruskovich a Bolshevik. There were even those who questioned his sanity. All for two assertions: that Reagan was the recipient of a personality cult that makes Kim Jong Il look positively unappreciated, and that President Reagan's policies were more suited to the 1880s than the 1980s.

The next day an editorial cartoon drawn by Daniel Brannan shows the Balance North Idaho group as a high-heeled man carrying a Soviet flag. Clearly, there is a movement to portray anyone to the left of the Kootenai County Reagan Republicans as not just socialists, but as hard core Stalinists. Anyone who holds this belief is either not familiar with Marx and Stalin or ignores the clear differences.

Given Ronald Reagan's personnel, tax, and land policies the same forces that brought about Socialism and Utopian Communism were acting during Reagan's terms. Washington Post columnist Harold Myerson wrote that the destruction of the Air Traffic Controllers union was, "... an unambiguous signal employers need feel little or no obligation to their workers, and employers got that message loud and clear - illegally firing workers who sought to unionize, replacing permanent workers who could collect benefits with temps who couldn't, shipping factories and jobs abroad."

It was similar behavior that led Charles Fourier to propose setting up cooperative working arrangements that would distribute wealth by paying more to those who performed unpleasant work and paid less to those with preferable jobs. Marx, against the contemporary view from the right, did not believe that communism would have a given structure. Instead, it would grow organically from the struggle of the workers to get their fair share of profits.

The right does not realize that Stalin was not a Marxist. Marx believed that Russia would be the last European state to go Communist. Stalin tried to impose a Communist solution. Marx thought that it would grow naturally. Most important, Marx saw revolution coming from below. Stalin tried to impose it from above.

Reagan's tax policies rewarded the rich and penalized the middle class. In his two terms he raised taxes 11 times except for the wealthy. This leads back to the beginnings of democratic socialism which attempted to produce a progressive tax code. That would charge the rich a higher amount of their disposable income than the middle class and the working class.

Democratic socialism is not communism. It is a program that allows the state to take a portion of profit and excess income and use it to accomplish socially worthwhile goals. These can range from infrastructure to medical support. Social Security is not a socialist program. FDR purposefully designed SSA to be supported by premiums so that it could not be cut or rescinded.

Ronald Reagan supported the Sagebrush Rebellion; an attempt to privatize public lands and resources. This was in direct contradiction of democratic socialism. President Theodore Roosevelt, operating from a Progressive commitment to involve government in protecting citizens from monopolistic capitalism, defied almost a century of turning federal land over to private ownership. The Northwest Ordinance and the Morrell Act of 1862 were both designed to privatize federal land. The Progressive agenda led to social ownership of national parks and preservation of public resources for future reserves.

Socialism ranges from the mixed states of the United States and the Chinese Communist capitalist state to the full Democratic Socialist states such as Denmark and Sweden. It doesn't and never has included Stalinism, Leninism, Maoism and the various Communist dictatorships.

Ronald Reagan did many counter-socialist acts, but his tax policies would keep him out of the KCRR. It is ironic that the retired actor conned so many capitalist diehards into worshipping at the feet of a spend-and-tax president.

Jeff Bourget is a Coeur d'Alene resident.

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My Turn

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