I believe it should be apparent to anyone with even a basic knowledge of civics and government that the United States is indeed a socialist democracy.

Democracy is defined as a system where decisions taken by the system are voted on by individual members of the system or their elected representatives. The “socialist” side refers to the provision of universally-provided social welfare services, where the government runs social programs such as government administered pensions, health care, unemployment insurance, welfare or other social safety net programs. Therefore a socialist democracy is a system that combines both government regulation and some public ownership of areas of the economy that can be small, vast or somewhere between.

Countries such as Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom are socialistic democracies to an even greater extent than the U.S. Most democracies in the world have at least some modicum of socialism in their government, with nearly all of them offering at the very least a system of universal health care to all citizens.

In fact, every citizen of Canada, England, Wales, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Luxembourg, Monte Carlo, Denmark,Belarus, Croatia, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, Malta, Moldova, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Ukraine, China, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Russia has universal health care.

But not all Americans have adequate health care, or safe housing, decent jobs, a living wage, and enough to eat. I believe that everyone in our country should have those things.

If that makes me a ranting/blustering/liberal/progressive and any other thing Ray Shamlin wants to label me, I am quite fine with it. Just as long as I am never called a conservative, a Republican or a Trump supporter.

Patsy Sheppard

Tar Heel