Socialism: Not dirty word GOP claims it is

Re: “As Dems drift, watch out for opportunists like Howard Schultz,” (TNT op-ed, 3/20).

Caleb Heimlich, chair of the Washington State Republican Party, wants us to believe the Democratic Party is out of touch with working-class voters and too far to the left.

This, apparently, for espousing radical notions like government-funded health care, reasonable gun laws, affordable higher education and meaningful action on climate change.

The truth is that Republicans are the party of extremists. Just look at their policies: locking up children, banning abortion at 6 weeks gestation, allowing health care costs to spiral out of control to protect profit-driven hospitals and drug companies, permitting companies like Amazon to pay zero in taxes, promoting wage and tax policies that favor the 1 percent, extreme gerrymandering.

And this is only a partial list of their far-right agenda.

In this next election cycle, Republicans will try to frighten voters about “socialism.” Democratic socialism is practiced in most of Europe, and many of our own country’s assets, like national parks and Social Security, are inherently socialist in nature.

I ask voters who reflexively fear “the far left” and terms like socialism: How has capitalism worked for you?