Nick Gier’s response (Answering Dale Courtney’s Inquisition on Socialism) to my column (Socialism’s Map Leads Toward Regime Change) spends far more time discussing Doug Wilson than democratic socialism. That’s his prerogative, but it never answers the question I asked.
One factual correction is necessary.
Gier wrote, “I have never used the phrase ‘market friendly redistributionism,’ as Courtney claims.” I read all Gier’s previous editorials on the democratic socialism before writing my column. In his 2019 column defending modern democratic socialism, Gier favorably quoted The Economist’s description of it as “market-friendly redistributionism” supporting the policies he was advocating. I correctly quoted his own published words in the Daily News.
Gier says he opposes several planks of the Democratic Socialists of America’s published platform, including abolishing the Senate, restructuring the Supreme Court, and nationalizing major industries. I welcome that clarification, but my column never claimed he personally supported every DSA plank.
As the University of Idaho’s longtime philosophy department chairperson, Professor Gier taught logic. He therefore knows the difference between answering an argument and changing the subject with a red herring. My question concerned the DSA’s current platform. Instead of answering my question, he devoted most of his reply to Wilson, Rench, Calvinism, Christian nationalism and Christ Church. None of it addresses the question I asked.
The question was never whether Professor Gier carries a DSA membership card. It was whether he still wants Daily News readers to embrace today’s Democratic Socialists of America, an organization that openly calls itself democratic socialist, and vote for its candidates running as Democrats on the DSA platform.