What Are The Differences Between Communism, Socialism and Democracy?

Op-Ed by Catherine J. Frompovich

As an “out of the box” thinker and a voter who is registered as an INDEPENDENT, I have spent much time, thought, research and energy in formulating the decision of not labeling myself with any political party or persuasive “…ism” of any type.  Why?  Because labels don’t suit me nor my style!

Labels, in my opinion, are needed by those who apparently are blind followers of philosophies and party-politics loyalties often ginned up by self-perpetuating control freaks.  Check out history, if you doubt that remark.

However, recently an email came across my computer desktop that struck my fancy since it seems obvious other free thinkers before me have given much thought to dissecting political labels, which I thought I’d share with my readers.

Ayn Rand
Russian-American Writer & Philosopher
1905-1982

“We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality.”
[Now that’s a true “reality check,” in my opinion.]

Personally, I find Ms. Rand’s definition of the difference between Communism and Socialism, i.e., “Communism proposed to enslave men by force, Socialism, by vote” seemingly strikes the bull’s eye center on, specifically during the current “upside-down times” we in the USA are living through.

However, the Founding Fathers of this Great Nation also had their thoughts and consequential remarks about Democracy, something Americans value but, in my opinion, don’t understand how to participate in correctly, e.g., it’s not mob rule on the streets nor in Congressional caucuses.

It is rather interesting what Thomas Jefferson had said about democracy being mob rule: 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%!  Ouch!

How did John Adams come to his decision there never was a democracy [as of Colonial times] that did not commit suicide?  Hasn’t Adams been proven correct during recent times?

Alexander Hamilton explicitly stated the United States was a republican government, which most folks probably really don’t realize what that means.  It has nothing to do with the Republican Party.  Here’s the real explanation:

A republican government is one in which the political authority comes from the people. In the United States, power is given to the government by its citizens as written in the U.S. Constitution and through its elected representatives.

Source Study.com

So why is there an emerging Leftist / Progressive agenda to do away with the U.S. Constitution?  Could it be that the republican government “format” does not fit in with their definition of Democracy, which actually is found in the governance structure called “republican government”?

See how labels can be confusing and even cause civil unrest and ‘soft coups’?

Source: Personal email forward

The best method or system for Americans to understand who we are as a country is to bring back Civics courses into elementary, secondary and college level education curricula before it’s too late, and we lose the most perfect experiment in government that has lasted since 1776.

Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.