You know how there is a communist party during the elections...

@Mugin16 True, especially given the emphasis on class warfare and overthrowing the rich. However, Ho Chi Minh wasn't exactly a Marxist. But at the same time, it isn't like the North Vietnamese were very tolerant of their opposition so that's violence to be fair.

@BlueMetalChick The reason that the Chinese and Vietname Communist parties are still power is that they have been also nationalists. They liberated their countries from foreign rule and made them great again. Meanwhile the Communist parties in Central and Eastern Europe came only to power thanks to the Red Army and only stayed in power due to the Soviet Union. Without their support, they would have been toppled in the 1950s.

North Vietnamese Communists killed a lot of people.

@Mugin16 You bring up a strong point that a lot of people ignore, I’m impressed.

@ReallyTallDwarf With its vast mountain of debt isn't the USA effectively a bankrupt nation already ?

I mean really bankrupt.

@MorbidCynic I thought my post was specific on that and yes there are differences. I know several communists IRL and I'm very familiar with the nuances here.

However, most of the differences between a 'true' democratic socialist and a communist are about political strategy. They (we) share a Marxian analysis of capitalism and of the way power operates. Democratic socialists seek to reform institutions gradually using existing structures. Communists reject that as naive and think revolution is the only way.

I consider Bernie Sanders to be a Social Democrat and not a 'true' socialist because he just wants a more socialistic type of capitalism. I respect the guy a lot actually but he does miscategorise himself:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy

@Burnley123 Right. Reformist Vs revolutionary thought. Is our best bet the best possible capitalism, or an entirely different system with an admittedly bad historical record.

@CountScrofula Two very good questions and difficult to answer.

Its why I and the rest of the Labour left to support a social democratic program within the Labour Party and Britain. In a sense, it's a win-win because social democracy is demonstrably a better and kinder version of capitalism and because its the best actually existing system that has ever worked. Also, supporting these issues can take people with you and build a movement for an egalitarian agenda.

I do think that capitalism is set for more crisis and when that happens, the left needs to be ready with one strategy or another. I do agree that we may someday be faced with the socialism or barbarism choice. Can Keynesianism work long-term in the 21st century if it is based on growth and industrialisation which no longer exist on the West? Can capitalism adapt to sustain the environment? Can you have a society run near fully-automated - which still has property rights and a free market - yet is not an authoritarian dystopia? It's my answers to these questions which have moved me further to the left in recent years.

@therighttothink50 oh lord 😒

@MorbidCynic do you know who is the answer to all the questions below?

https://similarworlds.com/18-Politics/1768522-Who-is-the-one-person-who-is-never-really

@Northwest thank you for your awe inspiring answer

@SomeLikeItHot Trump really is not that much of an aberration as we make him seem. He seems like he is, because of how he behaves and talks and acts. His personal attitude is absolutely an anomaly but his politics really aren't, he painted himself as an "outsider" on his campaign trail, but now that he's elected, he's proven himself to be basically the most establishment republican candidate ever. As where some presidents were the bottom bitch of certain industries, Trump sucks up to pretty much of all of them. The oil industry, the military-industrial complex, fossil fuel companies, big banks, and so on.

@MorbidCynic He's not a new monster, he's a very old monster, but he wears different clothes and so we think he's something we haven't seen before.

@BlueMetalChick
He exploited the lack of popularism that Democrats traditionally promoted and some of Hillary’s past votes were normally Republican stances such as pro NAFTA, pro Iraq war and the ghastly crime bill of her husband in the mid nineties. I found her much more qualified and we would still have a regarded State Deparrment with her. I feel I am inoculated against trump now and from exhaustion I feel the same horror as if I’m in a parallel universe.