The Green Bay Packers Are Absolutely an Example of Democratic Socialism

I’m 100% grassroots and I need your support!Thanks for your support: 30% off 💙 40% off 💙 50% off 💙 60% offWith the rise of DSA candidates like Francesca Hong, we’re going to see a lot more right wing “red scare” propaganda. The first thing that everyone should recognize is that the only thing Republicans stand for is stealing our property, stealing our healthcare, and protecting child rapists. They also like to fund a masked gestapo that guns down lawful gun owners in the street.That’s the Republican party.To be clear, the United States of America has absolutely no liberal/left representation. Political figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders are actually right of center from a global perspective. You have to understand that the only thing they advocate is using public funds for public good. There are places in the world where the most extreme right wing candidate would never even think of proposing an end to universal healthcare.In the United States we can’t even have a polite discussion about healthcare reform. That’s how extremely right wing our whole country is.Despite that, there are many examples of public funds that are used for public good. We have to start getting in the habit of recognizing every time we go to a gym to watch a local high school basketball game, we’re enjoying the benefits of democratic socialism. Taxpayer dollars paid for the school. Taxpayer dollars paid for the road you took to get there. Taxpayer dollars pay for libraries and the food you eat and the military that protects you. Literally everything good in your life is a consequence of democratic socialism. But all that might be too much to process so let me start with a more obvious example: The Green Bay Packers!I’ve been using the Green Bay Packers as an example of Democratic Socialism for years. Recently, I saw that Francesca Hong has been making the same argument. Predictably the radical right has called her “dishonest,” but at this point we should recognize that when it comes to Republicans, every accusation is a confession.The right is dishonest. In fact, we should start insisting that our public schools teach that the Packers are an example of Democratic Socialism, as are the schools themselves. Perhaps if people started knowing that, red scare tactics wouldn’t be so effective in getting child rape enablers elected at every level of government.For those of you who don’t know, the Packers are the only community owned team. That’s right, they don’t have a billionaire owner. When you stop and think about it, you’ve probably recognized that there’s something a little different about the Packers. The fact that they’re community owned is why a city of only 100,000 people is the home of a major sports franchise.Green Bay just doesn’t fit in with the likes of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and whatnot. It’s almost comical when you go to the stadium. It’s like it’s sitting there in a cornfield. You would have noticed what an outlier is before except that it’s been like that forever and the billionaires don’t like to draw attention to it.“What if other cities demanded that they should own their franchises too?” they say. So they buy up the media and they insist on writing hit pieces against for-the-people candidates like Francesca Hong.When the Packers make the playoffs and have a home game, it’s a huge benefit to the community. The whole weird situation came into play when the Packers got into financial difficulty decades ago and said, “Nah, we’re going to make this brilliant, generous move so that this team can NEVER leave.”That should be the model for the future because it’s PROOF that Democratic Socialism WORKS!For the right to try and suggest the Packers are not Democratic Socialism is absolutely absurd. But the thing is, it doesn’t end there. Even though so many of the teams have billionaire owners, the entire NFL is actually an example of Democratic Socialism.They have a collective bargaining agreement. They practice revenue sharing. That means that whether your team wins the Super Bowl, or whether you lose every game, you have the same amount of money to spend. That creates parity. A team that is terrible one year has a real chance of being a champion the next.Another example of Democratic Socialism is the draft. The team that finished last gets the first pick. Again, player availability isn’t based on money, it’s based on a collective agreement that’s to the benefit of the whole league.Then there’s the stadium costs, and honestly this one irritates me a bit. We all know how much the players make. The contracts are published before the ink is dry. The best players retire with hundreds of millions of dollars. We already know that the owners are worth billions. But who pays for the stadiums?That’s right, the people do.What do the politicians say when it comes to justifying the cost of those stadiums? That’s right, they say, “It’s in the public interest. These stadiums will bring in revenue to the city.”Public funds for public good is the definition of Democratic Socialism. There are a lot of positives to look at when it comes to the model of the NFL. The only exception is that I think the billionaires and players should have to pay for their own stadiums with higher taxes on their millions and billions. Let’s use the public funds for things like education and healthcare… which is what Francesca Hong proposes.But the Green Bay Packers are the crown jewel of the NFL exactly because they’re a community owned team that represents Democratic Socialism. It’s fan owned! That’s as it should be. The same thing is true of our politicians. They shouldn’t be owned by their corporate sponsors, they should be at the service of the people they represent.The people of the Untied States of America are getting sick and tired of being lectured to by corrupt people who steal the profits of our labor and then blame us for not working hard enough. We’re sick and tired of paying the privatization tax that inflates the cost of goods and services for the benefit of a small class of child rapists who own human trafficking islands.We need to make the United States more like the Green Bay Packers. It should all be community owned. We should get more of the benefits of our labor, because we’re the ones doing the work. Francesca Hong gets it. She knows. Now you know. Make sure to spread the word to your friends and neighbors.The Constitution doesn’t say, “We the corporations…”It says, “We the people!” That too is an endorsement of Democratic socialism. It’s so important, the founding fathers put it right at the top of the document. Let’s stop listening to the lies of the right, and embrace a future that actually works.Thanks for your support: 30% off 💙 40% off 💙 50% off 💙 60% offI'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe