Socialism vs socialism
Pick the lesser poison
There is a lot of fallout from the Michigan election this week on both sides of the aisle. Republicans are salivating at the chance to label Democrats as socialists and play the Islamist card after the nomination of Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive congressional candidate who bested a Democratic establishment incumbent, while Democrats are panicking about the progressive surge and how it will affect their midterm chances.
A new Gallup poll shows that socialism is less popular than free enterprise and capitalism by large margins. Although they like the idea of equality and safety nets, they dislike the inefficiency, government control, and disincentive to work.
A few weeks ago, I wrote, “Democratic primary voters are not playing it safe, when that’s what they really should be doing if they want to ensure that Trump is blocked from implementing his authoritarian agenda.”
In some cases, that seems to be holding true. In others, not so much. For instance, you probably have not heard about how in another Democratic primary this week, Wesley Bell, a moderate congressman, defeated former representative Cori Bush in Missouri for the second time. And there are other moderate Democrats like Roy Cooper in North Carolina and Jon Ossoff in Georgia who won their primaries and seem ready to cruise to general election victories. Ossoff is even picking up Republican endorsements.
Two things can be true at once. The Democrats do have a socialist problem, but they also have a strong moderate faction. The big picture is that Democrats are showing some diversity of thought and nominating candidates of different ideologies in different regions. Only about a third of Democrats identify as democratic socialists.
Contrast that with Republicans, where Trump approval is still at 80 percent, even though only about 20 percent of the party is enthusiastic about the remainder of Trump’s term. On the surface, that seems like some major cognitive dissonance, but I suspect that they don’t blame Trump for his failures. As others have said, Trump can never fail; he can only be failed.
But the Democratic problems don’t necessarily mean that Republicans have clear sailing for the midterms. For starters, they have their own albatrosses. Democrats dumped Graham Platner, better late than never, but Republicans are sticking by Max Miller, an Ohio congressman accused of illegal drug use and domestic violence that includes throwing hot water on his wife, threatening her with a gun, and physical abuse of their two-year-old daughter.
Republicans have also given Democrats ammunition to fight back on the socialist label. For example, a sound bite this week that accused oil companies of “making too much money” from the Iran war came from Donald Trump rather than democratic socialists.
"[It's] too much money. You're surprised? I'm saying it. I'll say it loud and clear," the president added.
Even more damaging, the US government is now a shareholder in 30 private companies, up from zero prior to Trump. In some cases, the government has a controlling interest in these companies.
On Thursday, Trump told reporters, “We’ll have a big percentage of the [computer] chip business by the time I leave office,” before once again casting doubt upon whether he plans to leave office in 2029. What could go wrong with government central planning and control of the computer chip industry?
By definition, socialism is “governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods,” so by definition the Republican Party is now a more successful socialist organization than the party of Bernie Sanders and AOC.
To make matters worse, Trump’s socialism comes with the things that Americans don’t like, such as government control and inefficiencies, and not the things they do, such as free education and healthcare. As someone pointed out, Republicans made a long-term strategic error by labeling popular free government services as socialist.
In attacking socialism from Democrats, the vice president is now saying that the “last forty years of bipartisan economic policy has failed.” For those of you doing the math at home, that means that JD Vance is disavowing everything back to 1986. That includes the largest economic expansion in world history, the Reagan boom of the 1980s and 1990s, not to mention admitting that Trump’s first term was an economic failure. Vance’s statement is both historically and economically ignorant.
Vance goes on to defend Trump’s economic policies, which include protectionism and the aforementioned socialist takeover of a growing number of businesses. Vance credits Trump with saving American manufacturing and “making it possible to own a home and have a family,” but manufacturing jobs have continued a 70-year decline under Trump (the culprit is automation; manufacturing output over the same period) and affordability is a major issue this year because prices are rising thanks in large part to Trump’s policies of tariffs, trade wars, and energy crises sparked by literal wars. Home ownership has declined in Trump’s current term.
The state of the economy is illustrated by the recent online debate about whether it is possible to feed a family of eight burritos for $20.. It may technically be possible, although probably not with meat, but when the party in power is arguing that consumers need to cut back and be more savvy shoppers, it’s an election red flag. That’s especially true when the party in question promised lower prices.
The Republican attacks on democratic socialism are also a bit disingenuous. In Wisconsin, Francesca Hong’s campaign filings show that she has spent exactly zero on television ads in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Instead, Hong’s campaign is being boosted by Republican ads attacking her despite the fact that she hasn’t won the nomination.
This tactic can work by elevating an easier-to-beat opponent, but it can also backfire. Hillary’s campaign boosted Donald Trump in 2016, a decision that the entire party has long since come to regret.
Socialism rising in the Democratic party is not a good thing. I’m hoping that more Democratic voters choose electable moderates over DSA radicals, but the current state of the nation and the highly unpopular policies of Donald Trump and the Republican Party make it likely that radical Democratic candidates are not only going to get nominated, but elected.
The socialist surge in the Democratic Party won’t wipe out the Democrats’ chances in the midterms, but it might reduce the margin of victory. At the same time, the New Democrat majority is likely to be more leftist due to the DSA influence.
Trump’s incompetence and corruption are fueling Republican popularity that is making it possible for democratic socialists to rise to prominence. Republican dysfunction may end up ushering in a larger socialist faction among the Democrats because the alternative is an authoritarian nationalistic socialism from Republicans.
Horseshoe theory is a real thing. The answer to preserving our republic and economy is not to veer to either left or right, but for bipartisan moderates to unite across the aisle and reject the radicals of both extremes.
BIRTH CITIZENSHIP II: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO Apparently believing that the Supreme Court was just fooling, Trump signed new Executive Orders limiting with the aim of limiting birthright citizenship. Upon closer inspection, however, the Orders seem more a restatement of existing law.
DETAINED MILITARY FAMILIES The AP reports that dozens of military spouses and parents have been arrested and detained by ICE.
CHRISTIAN HYPOCRISY HURTS A recent survey of Gen Z adults by the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center Research Institute found that half of respondents said that Christian support of Trump makes them less likely to church.
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