“The Democratic Party has adopted our platform”

Remember Norman Thomas (1884-1968)?  He was the Presbyterian minister, socialist, pacifist (natch), and six-time candidate for President of the United States, beginning in 1928. In a famous speech against socialized medicine from 1961, Ronald Reagan quoted Thomas: “The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism,” quoth Thomas. “But under the name of ‘liberalism,’ they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation without knowing how it happened.”  A friend sent around to his email list a little bulletin with this quotation from Thomas.  It contained a codicil: “I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party.  The Democratic Party has adopted our platform.” Too true, Norman, too true.