The Greatest Success In Leftist Politics On America Was Achieved By a Minister Not A Materialist

Every time I go into the history of the atheist "left" as opposed to the real left, the glaring falseness of the phonied up history of the left promoted by them is frustratingly obvious.   If the greatest success of the Marxist-atheist left is their great and widely blared victimization - how many PBS history shows have you ever seen about their successes as opposed to their victimization - their second greatest success is in peddling a ridiculous and false history and ideological set of factoids.

One of the things I will probably be going into is how they destroyed the old Socialist Party which was something the successor Communist - Leninist-Trotskyist-Maoist-etc. successors never were, successful at winning elections and not turning off voters.  The old Socialists under such leaders as Victor Berger were also something that none of the more politically correct Marxists were, successful at governance, doing things that actually improved the lives of people in a democratic context.

One of the greatest virtues of that socialism was that the non-religious socialists worked well with Christian socialists who could be counted on to comprise a majority of any Socialist coalition which could win an election in any city in the country.   The fact is that Milwaukee had probably the most successful Socialist government in the United States,  the successful program of improvements in life derided by those who would never win an election as "sewer socialists".

But even that real - as opposed to total fantasy - success in real governance is quite modest as opposed to the greatest success by a Socialist in American history.  North-American history.  Unfortunately, for us in the United States, at least, the greatest success in leftist governance is not here but in Canada under the leadership of, not an atheist, but a Baptist minister,  Tommy Douglas in Saskatchewan, a founder of the New Democratic Party, most famous as the author of the Canadian health care bill.

While the Communists and other famous idiots and bunglers here were destroying the chances of the left, Tommy Douglas was doing something they never did, he won elections and as a result he could do things.  Here's part of what he is credited with.

As Premier of Saskatchewan he presided over the birth of public hospitalization and medicare. Through his five terms as Premier, Douglas pioneered reforms which made Saskatchewan society both progressive and prosperous.

More than 100 bills, 72 of them aimed at social or economic reform, were passed during the CCF's first year in power. By the end of two years, they had removed the sales tax from food and meals and managed to reduce the provincial debt by $20 million.

New departments were established which reflected the government's priorities. These included the new Deparment of Co-operatives, the Department of Labour and the Department of Social Welfare. To pay for the new departments, all the CCF cabinet ministers took a 28 per cent pay cut.

In 1944, pensioners were granted free medical, hospital and dental services, and the treatment of diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis, mental illness and venereal disease was made free for all.

In 1947, Douglas introduced universal hospitalization at a fee of $5 per year per person. "It is paid out of the treasury. Instead of the burden of those hospital bills falling on sick people, it is spread over all the people," Douglas said. In 1959, twelve years later, when the province's finances seemed to him to be strong enough, Douglas announced the coming of the medicare plan. It would be universal, pre-paid, publicly administered, provide high quality care, including preventive care, and be accepted by both providers and receivers of the medical service.

A Crown Corporation Act opened the way to such achievements as provincial air and bus lines. The Timber Board took control of lumbering, so the industry could prosper without destroying the forests. Later, fish and fur marketing boards were established.

However, no Crown corporation had as big an impact during the Douglas years than the Saskatchewan Power Corporation. Prior to the Douglas Administration, only 300 rural households had electrical power. By 1964, 65,000 farm households had been hooked up to the electrical grid built by SaskPower.

SaskTel provided affordable, quality and near universal phone access across the province.

The CCF introduced the Trade Union Act, which made collective bargaining mandatory and extended the rights of civil servants. The Act was described by Walter Reuther as "the most progressive piece of labour legislation on the continent." Other labour legislation set standards for workers' compensation, minimum wages, mandatory holidays and a labour relations board. Union membership rose 118 per cent in just four years.

Building on the 1944 campaign slogan of Humanity First, the first CCF budget devoted 70 per cent of its expenditures to health, welfare and education. School districts were enlarged to a more efficient size; teachers' salaries were raised; the University of Saskatchewan was expanded to include a medical college.

While it could be pointed out that several years into his political career, he was given the ultimatum of continuing to be a Baptist preacher or a politician and that he chose being a politician, the fact is he was a Christian.   I think what he was doing was just finding a different ministry to more people.   While the glorious history of the official "left" in the United States consists mostly of finding out that so and so was actually guilty of the crimes they were convicted of or were, actually, on Stalin's payroll the history of the real Canadian left is such that Tommy Douglas was voted “The Greatest Canadian” in a CBC poll, in 2004, twenty years after his death.   Compare that to those who were always gassing on about how they were going to throw their opponents on the rubbish heap of history.  Which was rubbish and still is.

Sometimes I think they do all those TV shows and movies glamorizing and romanticizing the total idiots, jerks and failures like the anarchists and Communists here so we won't learn about the actual left that worked in history.   Emma Goldman,  John Reed, The Hollywood 10.   They never cleaned up anyone's water or provided them with healthcare or even a decent wage. Even I.F. Stone, the guy I was praising last week was noted to be a real asshole as a boss.