Martin Gardner and Politics

Martin claimed to be a democratic socialist. He didn't express his political views in print very often, but the following passage from page 81 of his memoirs Undiluted Hocus-Pocus: The Autobiography of Martin Gardner (Princeton University Press, 2013) is relevant. It was presumably written in 2009 or early 2010.

"As I type this chapter, democratic socialism is still creeping. In an effort to stimulate a dozing economy, facing a possible depression as a result of George W. Bush's refusal to regulate the stock market, greed took over, forcing a massive shift toward government intervention. 'I overestimated the ability of the market to take care of itself,' said Alan Greenspan in one of his rare intelligible remarks. It's hard to believe, but conservatives have only one remedy for a sick economy–lower taxes on the wealthy!

Right-wing Republicans are right in seeing Barack Obama's plan as creeping socialism. Will the United States manage somehow to return the economy to its previous relatively unfettered state? Time will tell."