'In a multitude of ways, we're known for having a far weaker social safety net than many other wealthy countries and behind that lies a history in which the Espionage Act played a crucial role.'
Why hasn't our country done better,? There are certainly many reasons, not least among them the relentless, decades-long propaganda barrage from the American right, painting every proposed strengthening of public health and welfare—from unemployment insurance to Social Security to Medicare to Obamacare—as an ominous step down the road to socialism.
Back then—however surprising it may seem today—the American Socialist Party was indeed part of our political reality and, in 1904, it had come out. A dozen years after that, New York Socialist Congressman Meyer London introduced a bill strikingly similar to the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act of more than a century later.
Jubilant Socialists knew that if they did equally well in the 1918 midterm elections, their national vote total could for the first time rise into the millions. For Wilson, whose Democrats controlled the House of Representatives by the narrowest of margins, the possibility of Socialists gaining the balance of power there was horrifying.
Spectators gasped as the judge pronounced sentence on the four-time presidential candidate: a fine of $10,000 and 10 years in prison. In the 1920 election, he would still be in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta when he received more than 900,000 votes for president. Also taking their cues from the administration in that wartime assault were local politicians and vigilantes who attacked socialist speakers or denied them meeting halls. After progressives and labor union members staged an antiwar march on the Boston Common, for example, vigilantes raided the nearby Socialist Party office, smashed its doors and windows, and threw furniture, papers, and the suitcase of a traveling activist out the shattered windows onto a bonfire.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
In Alaska's Fat Bear Week election, there's no party like a salmon partyIf hypocrisy in politics turns you off, the election you need is in Alaska, where the candidates are voraciously out for themselves. You can vote beginning Wednesday.
Read more »
In Alaska's Fat Bear Week election, there's no party like a salmon partyIf hypocrisy in politics turns you off, the election you need is in Alaska, where the candidates are voraciously out for themselves. You can vote beginning Wednesday.
Read more »
Beyoncé Threw A ‘Secret Party’ In Paris And The Stars Turned OutThere's no better way to close out Paris fashion Week than with the biggest celebrities in town.
Read more »