Sen. Tim Scott believes that unless the Republican Party can be unified behind Trump, the nation is fated to sink into socialism. I wonder what he thinks socialism is? Scott’s assertions are consistent with decades of GOP fear mongering about creeping socialism.
On the one hand, they trot out old the bugaboo of Leninist/Maoist Communism that exists nowhere on earth today: it was an utter failure in Russia and China. Even holdouts like Cuba can do little more than hang on to its ragged coattails out of sheer stubbornness. Nevertheless, the scary old demon of communism retains its ability to frighten some voters the way campfire ghost stories frighten kids. As a political tool, it has its uses.
Laying fear of communism aside, the right wing GOP’s other hand reaches for as much laissez faire as they can get, and that means stopping governments from regulating commerce wherever they can, however they can. I suspect they are convinced that what is good for maximizing profits is good for the nation, no matter how much damage it may do to economic, environmental, and social justice.
Maximizing profits becomes a form of class politics favoring a permanent underclass of compliant workers kept on the edge of poverty, and a nervous middle class anxious about staying middle class. They would never express their intentions out loud, but it underlies everything they do.
Obviously that kind of class politics is repugnant to the ideals of the American Dream. Nevertheless, it’s easily sold by claiming anything government does means less freedom for freedom loving Americans.
History illustrates how easy it is to arouse interclass and racial prejudice to set one group against another, with authoritarian leaders promising they, and only they, can establish a new equilibrium of fairness – for the chosen ones.
The autocratic wing of the GOP believes it can motivate a large portion of the voting public to believe their only hope for preserving their unique freedoms and rights is to surrender the same to the autocratic leadership of qualified oligarchs.
These would be oligarchs gave it a try with the previous administration, but lost control of the effort to radical rightwing white nationalists and neo fascists. It does’t mean they won’t try again.
The way out of this quagmire is unclear. The far rightwing crowd is small compared with the 200 million voters who disagree with them, but the 200 million are averse to loud confrontation. The far left has its own fanatics who can make it appear they speak for all liberals. They speak only for themselves and no one else, but that’s hard to make clear in the public arena.
The nation has faced moments like this before. It led from the brutality of the Civil War to the institution of Jim Crow laws all over the nation, and then to the Gilded Age of unheard of wealth for a few and economic hardship for everyone else. Finally it led to the disastrous policies that brought on the Great Depression. Each time, progressives guided the nation back to a healthier democracy and renewed opportunity for a greater part of the population.
Everyone wants as much freedom to lead their lives as they choose, and to earn their living as they think best. That’s fair enough. Everyone wants a social equilibrium that gives a sense of predictability to life. Neither can be had without constraints on ways of living and doing business that inflict harm and injustice on others. No one’s freedom is safe unless everyone’s freedom is safe.
The balance of freedom within constraints is hard to manage. It’s always in flux as conditions change. Today’s conditions call for a national health care system, guaranteed high quality public education for everyone, and better equalization of opportunity for success in life. It isn’t creeping socialism. It’s robust American democracy as we have always said it should be.
Nice piece, Steve.
Right on brother