Florida Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy (D) appears to be walking back her remark where she states her offense to the “whole conversation about socialism.”
In a Washington Post op-ed, Murphy wrote about all the attention she has received from “conservative media” for her assertion that she was a “proud capitalist,” and not supportive of the “socialism” term or ideology.
Rep. Murphy, who along with her family escaped Communist Vietnam, says she understands what socialism is, but that the term “has come to mean different things to different people,” and that the current meaning of the term espoused by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) is different from the socialism endured by Cuban and Venezuelan exiles.
Murphy insists the Fidel Castro and Nicolas Maduro socialism is different than the Ocasio-Cortez brand of socialism, saying “it’s like comparing apples and oranges.”
"This term carries historical baggage that can evoke painful feelings in Americans whose families experienced communism or socialism in its darkest form. It’s not easy for me to explain to my Florida constituents who escaped Fidel Castro’s Cuba or Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuela that the socialism proposed by several of my colleagues is different than the socialism they endured. I can argue it’s like comparing apples and oranges. For them, understandably, it’s all poisonous fruit."
The popular “Blue Dog Democrat” congresswoman did manage to fit in a jab at Republicans. Murphy is upset at Republicans for pushing an anti-socialism narrative that brands the entire Democratic Party as propagators of the socialism philosophy. Murphy contends that the ideology “espoused by a small minority of members.”
"While Democrats who accept the socialist label are few and far between, the Republican Party as an institution has conducted itself irresponsibly in this capitalism-vs.-socialism debate. When congressional Republicans and the president don’t like a government program, they flippantly condemn it as sign of creeping socialism.
For partisan reasons, they seek to paint the entire Democratic Party as drifting toward socialism, when the philosophy is espoused by a small minority of members. Arguably, these Republican tactics have done as much, if not more, to normalize the conversation about socialism than anything Democrats are doing."
But while Republicans are exploiting the “socialism” philosophy held by some of her colleagues, Murphy doesn’t mention that Democrats, including herself, are using the construction of the Trump administration’s “Wall” and border security measures as nothing more than racial profiling and division being conducted by Republicans.
Murphy once stated that Republicans “shouldn’t hold Dreamers hostage just to be able to score cheap political points. … I think it’s time we moved past these ad hoc immigration actions.” (Orlando Sentinel)
Many Democrats are also pushing the narrative that President Trump is a criminal and has colluded with Russia, even after the Mueller report stated that collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia did not occur.
Politics is what it is, and it’s played by both sides.
Murphy concludes her post by saying that she will continue to support the existing “system of democratic capitalism,” and believes that “all Americans deserve a fair shot at success,” but did not say if illegal immigrants also deserved that same “fair shot.”
