It's beginning to look quite possible – although, thankfully, not a certainty at this point – that the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) may hold much more sway over Democratic policy positions after the midterms, or if not then, in a few election cycles. I'm not suggesting that most Democrats will openly identify as DSA party members or even acolytes. But you have to be willing to blink reality – or put your head in the proverbial sand – not to recognize that it's likely that policies advocated by Democrats, as a whole, are moving considerably further to the left on the political spectrum than they are today.
This is a consequence of the reality that a majority of self-identified Democrats, in several recent polls, actually favor socialism over capitalism.
What might this mean for communications law and policy?
Nothing good, if the promotion of competition and consumer choice, investment, and innovation matter.
The late Robert McChesney co-founded the leftist advocacy group Free Press and served as the advocacy group's first president. Professor McChesney was an avowed Marxist and long-time editor of the Marxist publication, The Monthly Review.
Below are just a few of Robert McChesney's statements. There are many others to the same effect.
“What we want to have in the U.S. and in every society is an Internet that is not private property, but a public utility. We want an Internet where you don’t have to have a password and that you don’t pay a penny to use. It is your right to use the Internet.” [The Bullet, August 9, 2009. The Bullet is a publication of the Socialist Project.]
”[W]e have a long way to go. At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies. We are not at that point yet. But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control. [The Bullet, August 9, 2009. The Bullet is a publication of the Socialist Project.]
“We need to do whatever we can to limit capitalist propaganda, regulate it, minimize it, and perhaps even eliminate it.” [Interview in with Robert McChesney in the publication Rabble]
My purpose here is not to doubt the sincerity of Professor McChensey in espousing his beliefs. Indeed, if I didn't think his beliefs were fiercely held – and that he and his followers at Free Press and elsewhere were committed to implementing them – I wouldn't worry so much.
Recall that Free Press, which Mr. McChesney co-founded and led, has been the most vocal advocate for the strictest and most radical forms of "net neutrality" – which, in essence, in its iterations to date, mostly amounted to regulation of Internet providers as public utilities.
You don't need to be an expert "reader between the lines" to discern that when the next "net neutrality" campaign gets going at the FCC and elsewhere in government – and it likely will at some point – if the Democratic Socialists of America hold the sway that it now seems possible they may, older versions of "net neutrality" will seem quaint.
The ultimate goal surely will be, as Mr. McChesney put it, "to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and divest them from control." And to exert enough control over the media to "to limit capitalist propaganda, regulate it, minimize it, and perhaps even eliminate it."
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