Larry Flynt's Blog, page 2

Will Socialism Save Us?

For most of our history, socialism has been a dirty word and an almost un-American concept. But a recent Gallup poll shows that for a majority of 18- to 29-year-olds, socialism is viewed more positively than capitalism. This is a sea change, with candidates like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushing for Medicare for All, subsidized college tuition and a Green New Deal—once fringe ideas now front and center in the Democratic Party.

The Propaganda Machine

Now that Democrats control the House and members of the Democratic Socialist camp have gained a prominent voice in Congress, the conservative oligarchs who control America are terrified, launching an all-out preemptive assault on initiatives like the Green New Deal.

Beware the Speech Police

These are dangerous times for free speech in America. Tech giants now control the news feeds for millions of citizens, and they have begun a coordinated campaign of unregulated censorship. The campaign began in an effort to suppress “fake news” and alleged Russian interference in our elections, but a lot of babies have been tossed out with the bathwater.

The Magic Wall Will Never Happen

Trump made the Great Border Wall the signature rally cry of his campaign. Aides encouraged it as a short, simple sound bite that he could remember and repeat. When the crowds roared after “And Mexico will pay for it!” it became a promise he couldn’t escape. Sensing that his hardcore base was drifting away, he decided to hold the whole federal government hostage, shutting it down for weeks.

Can Trumpism Survive Without Trump?

Pundits and prognosticators are now saying that even if Trump is defeated in 2020—or impeached before then—it won’t necessarily be the end of Trumpism. While dog-whistling racism and pandering to the lowest common denominator certainly helped get him elected, that’s not the whole story.

Hell-Bent on Nuclear War

Three months ago Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987. Trump and his chickenhawk sidekick, John Bolton, alleged that the Russians had violated the treaty by testing a new cruise missile. The Russians countered that Americans had cheated first.

America’s Shameful Criminal Justice System

There are many reasons to be proud of the United States, but our criminal justice system is not one of them. We have the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 2.2 million citizens in federal, state and county jails—a 500% increase since the mid-’70s. And the system is rife with gross disparities and injustices, including a private for-profit prison industry with an extensive record of inhumane abuses and negligence.

Crippling the First Amendment

The First Amendment is the single most important keystone of our Constitution. Without the absolute guarantee of free speech, the Founding Fathers understood that no democracy could survive for long. Thomas Jefferson proclaimed, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Trump’s Obama Vendetta

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to reverse all of Obama’s “unconstitutional” executive orders. The right-wing labeled them abuses of power, but the truth is that Obama issued fewer average executive orders annually (35) than any President since Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s. (FDR holds the record at 307 per year, with Herbert Hoover second at 242 per year; both were dealing with the ravages of the Great Depression.)

High Time for Public Banks

There’s one thing the pirates on Wall Street fear above all else: public banking. Instead of funding the lordly lifestyles of Goldman Sachs bankers, ripping off consumers left and right with deceptive practices (like Wells Fargo), engaging in money laundering for criminals and other shady deals, public banks work for the public interest and small business entrepreneurs, giving them and other civic organizations affordable loans.