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The preliminaries for the 2020 Presidential Primary race have begun and regardless of what any candidate for the Democratic nomination may be bringing to the table, the Presidential incumbent and his water carriers are standing by with appropriate colors and brushes at the ready to paint the winner as a Socialist! Uhhggg! How awful. Socialism, the cause of the downfall of Western civilization! Of course, a Socialist would put America on that slippery slope bound for Communism! How unAmerican!
It seems that all the prospective Democratic challengers are fair game for all the usual “tax and spend” slings and arrows from the usual suspects, you know, those whose postures from all indications are wholly fine with their own “tax cut and spend” policies. They have provided all the proof needed that “fiscal responsibility” is only a useful sound byte they put away on Election Night, a characteristic that they only pay lip service to when campaigning and in no way ever intend to practice as an elected official. Oklahoma’s own senior senator put out the word far and wide to a hall of empty chairs and janitors at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference this past week. He was one of many speakers coalescing around a central message that America has never been, is not now and will never ever be a socialist nation. Never mind all the government programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SSDI, SNAP, Workman’s Comp, unemployment insurance, Veterans benefits, FDIC and farm subsidies among many others that are socialist by their very definition. Hmmm, what is a reasonable third party observer to think of such reasoning?
Every time I hear a conservative uberpatriot wannabe launch into their patented tirade maligning socialists and the evils of socialism I get an overwhelming urge to grab them by the shoulders and shake them awake and scream in their face, “DUDE, YOU ARE SOAKING IN IT!”
The inherent flaw of modern conservatism is in its requirement of an evil; a scapegoat, a bogeyman, an “Emmanuel Goldstein,” a blame target for all that is wrong in their World.
In 2019, any well known Democratic politician who delivers a speech to a crowd of any size and articulates anything resembling progressive ideas fills that need nicely.
For the better part of the past hundred years, American conservatism coldly accepted FDR’s New Deal and the Welfare State programs it begat that gained popularity like Social Security. It also accepted demands of organized labor like the Fair Labor Standards Act, collective bargaining, unionization, unemployment insurance and Workman’s Compensation. Despite vocal protests from the usual conservative quarters of programs implemented under later Democratic administrations, it reluctantly accepted Medicare, Medicaid and S-CHIP. Tolerating such things was a very cold arm’s length compromise for the stalwart defenders of traditional American capitalism while standing as a bulwark against the very real threat of global Communism. What made it barely tolerable with American Conservatism was that these programs for the most part directly benefited limited segments of the nation’s population, specifically the elderly, children, the disabled and veterans. In 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down and in 1991, when the old Soviet Union collapsed, American Capitalism celebrated a quiet victory. With the defacto defeat of global Communism as a viable macroeconomic system save a few hard core hold out pockets, the controlling conservative interests in America actively began their efforts to roll back an entire century of social and economic progress in the name of private profits.
As I have pointed out many times previous, history has a tendency to be cyclical. Periods of corporate prosperity where pursuit of profit reigned supreme are often ended by abrupt market crashes followed by periods of economic depression and recession. Such was the case after the 1920s when the higher income taxpayers enjoyed very low tax rates. As the below graph indicates, tax rates increased as government spending increased to confront the economic disaster generated by the 1929 market crash. They continued an upward trend while the nation was fully immersed in fighting a two-theater world war. For anyone squawking about having to pay what they think is the highest tax rate in history let me remind them that in 1944, income over $200,000 was taxed at 94%. Through the 1970s the top tax rate never dropped below 70%. It was not until the 1980s and the Reagan era tax cuts that the national debt began to grow almost exponentially, but that is material for a whole other subject. One other thing I have not missed is how the “Make America Great Again” lobby never talks about the income tax rates concurrent with the time they insist America was great.
The simple fact of the matter is that socialism is an essential economic tool required to save capitalism from its excesses. It exemplifies the spirit of the original American motto, E pluribus Unum (out of many, one). Its concept however fails to glorify the hallowed American values of rugged individualism and self reliance. On a personal level, I refuse to acknowledge any person who has directly benefitted from public education, subsidized loans, use of public infrastructure or public assistance of any type as a “self-made man or woman.” Having known a few, I would be willing to bet that the unemployment line sports quite an array of temporarily embarrassed millionaires who are one lottery ticket away from striking their mother lode.
To be a true capitalist requires a willingness and the wherewithal to cover all one’s own risk and all one’s own loss. From the many who are unable to do this, I seldom hear any criticism of the socialist safety net when it keeps them out of the poor house. That is the one huge downside to freedom in America, the big negative baked into the cake, you know, freedom to fail. As it turns out there are not enough capitalist purists around who will turn down government bailouts if refusing them means liquidating their livelihood even as they lead us in a backwards march into a new Gilded Age. I challenge anyone to find a dyed-in-the-wool conservative who would admit to having any degree of socialist leanings let alone actually liking socialist programs they may be directly benefitting from at any given time. If you know anyone who has ever used their home bathroom, flushed their golden commode and had their sewage go into a city maintained sewer line and have no problem with that arrangement then rest assured they have no problem with socialism on a personal level, in theory or practice.
Regarding the top marginal tax rate: the very rich never paid much of that anyway, since most of their asset growth isn’t taxed at all, and the small portion of it which is taxed often benefits from the capital gains rate. And that’s without availing themselves of any of the more complex tax loopholes. So all the hand-wringing amongst conservatives about AOC’s proposal shows a distinct lack of skill in mathematics, at least tax math, which is admittedly a little idiosyncratic. Decades of conservative misinformation about how tax rates work, and touting trickle-down mythology, has enabled and encouraged that ignorance.
“From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.”
― Karl Marx
Which, as it turned out, became the basis of communism… and there’s a big fat fly in that ointment, from a practical standpoint. Which is: who gets to decide what constitutes the terms ‘ability’ and ‘need’? The proletariat, the bourgeoisie – or should it be the Commissars?
Read that as – the poor, the rich or the bureaucrats, and then the current situation becomes more easily recognized… for if you are of the opinion that government of the bureaucrat, by the bureaucrat & for the bureaucrat is a STEP UP from what we have now, then you’re kidding yourself.
Socialism, Communism and Capitalism are more than just simple “economic tools”. They are ALL methods >of sociological control< over people, and none of them come without adverse consequences sooner or later, to someone.
'Pure' capitalism brings about just as much human misery & evil as 'pure' communism did… and 'pure' socialism would be no better – because every Ideological Purity ultimately contains the seeds of its own destruction within itself. And unfortunately, that is also true of our vaunted Democracy…
There is a huge tendency these days to observe the world in terms of either/or… this or that, us or them, black or white. And the underlying problem with that kind of mindset is that the world consists of more than just a bi-polarity – it is an ever-changing collage, rather than just two fixed opposite extremes.
To depict the world as being essentially bipolar is to denigrate its true nature, and to visualize government (and likewise, politics) along strict partisan lines does no one any good, in the long run.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." A. Lincoln, June 16, 1858.
If only everyone involved in governing the USA could accept the realities you describe and see how it all works together, regardless of how we feel about it (I absolutely love “The simple fact of the matter is that socialism is an economic tool required to save capitalism from its excesses.”), MAYBE/perhaps some unique individuals could dream up a way of life that would build a broader highway for the provision of basic human needs/rights of everyone? I still cling to a thread of Methodist social principles fabric that maintains that there are enough resources in the world for all of us, but true justice is only achieved when those resources are shared equally so no one has more than he or she needs at the expense of any one who has less than he or she needs. You know as well as I do that it would take a miracle for those of us who have much more than we need to actually sacrifice so that all could have at least some of what they need.
I need to go back and read it a third time, Stan, because I barely passed Political Science in college (my brain has to really work hard to see social/civic/group dynamics), and your excellent thoughts send me running to a dictionary to be sure I get the message. You remind me so much of my oldest brother, whose wisdom and dry sense of humor (he is facing retirement in April from a public defender position in Creek county, and boy, does he have stories he cannot tell-and,sadly, a gun in the glove box of his car because of the occasional dangerously disgruntled client) I have always cherished. I may be thoughtfully searching, but I am blessed with hope, knowing you and others like you who care more about people than you do power. And who can see the truth and communicate it. Write on! And Ride on, you Roper!
Excellent piece, Stan! I just love the way you write!