I guess I'm a socialist after all.

When I was a teenager I heard Norman Thomas speak at a church in Oak Park, Illinois. Six times Thomas had been a presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America. He was also a Presbyterian minister, had pastored a church in East Harlem, New York. He was a social liberal, a pacifist, a conscientious objector, and of course was a highly controversial character. He always denied being a Marxist and described himself as a 'Christian socialist.' I came away from hearing him not convinced that I could call myself a socialist as it seemed only a few steps away from communism which in my mind meant total government ownership and in Russia was a form of fascism, I believed. Though I found Mr. Thomas to present himself as a rather mild and gentle person with a twinkle and sense of humor. In our lifetime in America socialism hasn't been seen as a viable political factor or force in our politics, until now that is. Now I hear my conservative friends describe the president's proposed budget as a renewal of socialism. We hear that the free market system will be destroyed and business will be severely limited by confusing and restrictive government regulations. All of this is centered around proposals to find solutions for the financial crisis which is conceded to be epidemic.

The issue is whether the government making new regulations to control the excesses of the banking and lending institutions, ordering the way we do business can be called socialism.

The term ’socialism’ is a label or flag. I guess I might have to call myself a socialist because I believe in civil government and the idea that a democratically elected government can as ‘we the people’ regulate ourselves. Traffic laws are illustrative of this - without some orderly system of moving traffic on our roads and highways there would be total chaos. Intoxicated and reckless drivers need to be disciplined and punished if they commit crimes. But we all need speed limits, stated ways of proceeding in traffic, etc. So in the conduct of public business, financial transactions, banking, borrowing, mortgaging, advertising and selling products, making promises by contract and all the other transactions of daily living need order and rational sense. When we buy pajamas for our infant children we take comfort in knowing government regulations prohibit the manufacturers from selling materials that could be easily flammable.

Careful and thoughtful regulation of society is not the same as government ownership and the denial of private property and personal freedom. Is this some wild eyed subversion of society. or simply social order based on an intelligent ordering of our common life?