Defining Socialism
The ruling elite have decided that Latin America is going in a bad way.
The rise of authoritarianism was under way before the pandemic hit last year, and it’s unlikely to recede after the virus wanes.
Latin America suffers from too much government. Taxation, regulation, weak property rights and corruption conspire against entrepreneurship and self-discovery.
For an audience with several libertarians and anti-socialists present, Moro was quick to clarify that his Podemos label follows Obama’s “yes we can” slogan, not the Spanish socialists...
Despite his respect and preference for Sergio Moro, when Vargas Llosa spoke about Brazil, he presented the probable second-round election as being between Bolsonaro, whom he considers a clown, and Lula, whom he considers a dangerous thief...
the Nobel laureate endorsed Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of his “favorite” villain, former president Alberto Fujimori (still alive but in prison due to corruption and human rights abuses). In the final election, and with a contested result, Castillo edged Fujimori in the final vote (by less than half of a percentage point).
So why is the Left winning in Latin America, but failing in the U.S.? Because there is a critical difference.
Now, after years spent championing the cause of women and minorities, Latin American leftists have veered to the right on social issues, leaning into traditionally conservative positions on gender equality, abortion access, LGBTQ rights, immigration, and the environment. The left’s conservative turn leaves marginalized communities bereft of their traditional political allies and jeopardizes freedom and safety. And if an economically populist yet socially conservative platform continues to prove a winning electoral formula, as it did earlier this month in Peru, regionwide poverty relief may ultimately come at the cost of individual rights.

Comments
Really? Elon Musk considers himself a socialist?
That's pretty laughable
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
-- August Hare
All good points
but Robert Reich's tweet is my favorite.
So simple. So obvious and so effective, if only more of us could see this for what it is.
A door that can be opened and walked through into a better future.
NYCVG
I don't think socialism has anything to do with
...gender identity, racism, drugs, foreign wars, abortion, incarceration, business, foreign policy, or any other type of political nitpicking.
It's merely the eradication of poverty and a modest baseline of economic security that allows the poorest member of society to afford to purchase the basic human rights available to all citizens: Nourishing food, safe adequate shelter, ongoing education, health care, rest, recreation, privacy, and access to information, transportation and communication within the community. In other words, the most disadvantaged will have just enough basic support to become a fully developed personality leading a fulfilled life.
People who love politics can indulge in Politics elsewhere. At no time should politics infringe on, or degrade the affordability and availibility of these basic human rights, necessary to a dignified human existence.
Politics has nothing to do with socialism. Socialism is a simple, transparent, economic commitment between a decent developed civilization and all its human citizens. Society will still have a large number of millionaires and a robust upper middle class. People will just be a lot happier and more secure, with plenty of opportunity for personal development, ambition, entrepreneurship, upward mobility, and the pursuit of happiness. It's an investment that will pay off in a million different ways.