Conservatives, more specifically White conservatives, don’t hate Socialism, what they hate is equality; especially with people they see as inferior. Today’s Republican Party personifies this racist view: They do not think that Black, Brown and Indigenous People deserve equality because in the GOP mind, they are not equal. Jonathan M. Metzl M.D. makes this, self-delusion on behalf of the tired myth of white supremacy, poignantly, profoundly, even terrifyingly clear, in his new book, Dying of Whiteness: “How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland, wherein he observes:

When politics demands that people resist available health care, amass arsenals, cut funding for schools that their own kids attend, or make other decisions that might feel emotionally correct but are biologically perilous, these politics are literally asking people to die for their whiteness (18).

Another way of saying this, and this is the terrifying part, is that these yahoos would rather die than share, and that’s an attitude, a posture, a belief about the world. Here then, are some of my ideas of what Socialism means: what it wants, what it demands, what it will do and why White Republican Conservatives hate it. This list is neither exhaustive nor unalterable.

Socialists call for full employment and unionized workplaces. Socialists call for inexpensive mass transit, especially in impoverished communities. Socialists call for universal, health care for all including child care (to age four) elder care and a banning of for-profit health care corporations. Socialists want to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Socialists will provide a weekly income of $600 to the unemployed, the disabled, stay-at-home parents, the elderly and those unable to work. Socialists will repeal anti-union laws, like the Taft-Hartley Act, and trade agreements from NAFTA to the TPP and CAFTA.

Socialists will guarantee all Americans a pension in old age. Socialists support two years of paid maternity leave, as well as shorter workweeks with no loss in pay and benefits. Socialists will repeal the Patriot Act and Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act as well as halt government spying on citizens, along with mass incarceration. Socialists will put into place laws that prohibit all forms of male violence against women and criminalize the trafficking and pimping out of prostituted girls and women, while not criminalizing the exploited girls and women. Socialists support a woman’s right to control her own body. Socialists support full equality for our LGBTQ+ community.

Socialists declare global warming a national and global emergency and will divert our energy and resources to saving the planet through public investment in renewable energy and an end to our reliance on fossil fuels and wars for oil. Socialists would nationalize public utilities, including the railroads, energy companies and banks. Socialists support government funding for the arts and public broadcasting to create places where creativity, self-expression and voices of dissent can be heard and seen.

Socialists will terminate our nuclear weapons programs and build a nuclear-free world. Socialists will demilitarize our police, meaning that police no longer carry weapons when they patrol our streets but rely on specialized armed units that have to be authorized case-by-case to use lethal force. Socialists support government training and rehabilitation programs for the poor and those in our prisons, along with the abolition of the death penalty.

Socialists will grant full citizenship to undocumented workers. Socialists will declare a moratorium on foreclosures and bank repossessions. Socialists will provide free education from day care to university, and forgive all student debt. Socialists will provide free, state-run mental health care, especially for those now caged in our prisons. Socialists will dismantle our empire and bring our soldiers and Marines home.

Socialists do not sacrifice the weak and the vulnerable, especially children, on the altars of profit. And the measure of a successful society for a socialist is not the GDP or the highs of the stock market but the right of everyone, especially children, never go to bed hungry, to live in safety and security, to be nurtured and educated, and to grow up and fulfill his or her potential. Work is not only about a wage, it is also about dignity and a sense of self-worth.

Socialists believe that global problems (climate change, nuclear war, sex and drug trafficking,) demand global solutions, that world peace demands world law. Socialists believe that a strengthened and strong United Nations is better than a weakened and impotent United Nations. Socialists believe in World Federalist Government and the Earth Constitution.