Portrait of Benjamin Franklin by David Martin (1767)

On September 18, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced it is launching a six-week, 20-state “Free Enterprise Express Bus” tour to back Republican candidates and “fight for free enterprise.” This big business lobby ignores the fact that, just like “capitalism,” American “democratic socialism” (supported by the voters for generations) is everywhere in our mixed-economy country.

Here is an incomplete list of public goods, services, benefits, and institutions that Democratic candidates can invoke in asking their GOP opponents: “Which one of the following will you tell voters you want to get rid of?”

Public Lands – Parks and National Forests
Public Schools and Universities
Public Transit
U.S. Postal Service
Public Drinking Water Departments
Public Electric Utilities
Public Fire Departments
Public Libraries
Public Roads and Highways
VA hospitals
Mandatory Minimum Wages
SNAP Food Stamps
Unemployment Compensation Payments
Social Security
Medicare
Medicaid
Head Start
Peace Corps and AmeriCorps
Meals on Wheels
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

The list can go on. During the Vietnam War, the Pentagon begged the big drug companies to work on anti-malaria medicines. Malaria was the second leading cause of hospitalization for U.S. soldiers in that undeclared war. Big Pharma refused, saying there was too little profit in one-time anti-malarial shots, compared with medicines soldiers were taking every day. So, the Pentagon chose socialism, setting up its own drug development entity in its two military hospitals. Pentagon scientists and doctors developed three of the four anti-malaria drugs in use and offered them to any........

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