I am confused by this phrase. MikeWrona identifies himself on another thread as being one. Maybe my confusion lies in the fact that I am sort of black and white in my thinking when it comes to theories of global political science, but to me this idealogy sounds a lot like being "a little bit pregnant".

I am not a student of economics or geopolitics, but my rudimentary understanding of American democracy is that it fundamentally recognizes and protects personal liberty, private property, and freedom of choice and selection of governance. The Founding Fathers also recognized a Public Benefit in protecting the general health and welfare of the populace.

An alternative to democracy (including our representative democracy) is communism and its corollary of socialism. Again, my basic understanding is that these precepts are antithetical to the foundational tenets of democracy. Does not socialism subjugate the individual to the collective and strive toward the common control and ownership of the 'means of production'?

Are not Democratic Socialists really not striving toward a utopian ideal of plain old socialism, either through evolution or revolution? Isnt the cloak of Democracy, just a 'means to an end'?

I often wonder how many of today's unionites recognize the socialistic themes and rhetoric they have been indoctrinated with in the guise of 'empowering' them to achieve the materialistic American Dream of middle class success? I wonder how many unionites would be as enthralled with the "union label" if they also saw the themes of socialism which drive that engine and recognized that pure socialism is in fact working against their middle class ideals.