Archive for the ‘Socialism’ Category

Counterpoint: US is a socialist nation reliant on a fed bailout – BlueRidgeNow.com

Pundits are speculating on what impact the novel coronavirus pandemic will have on the presidential race, but we know the answer. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., or at least his philosophy, has won.

Our march toward socialism began incrementally decades ago. But our response to the coronavirus will lead to its permanent implementation after elected officials of both parties shuttered businesses, ordered citizens not to go to work and made clear that there would be more draconian measures to come.

The delicate balance between freedom and risk was less than an afterthought as our economy was gutted in a matter of days.

Most disappointing of all has been President Donald Trump. Trump turned the country over to health professionals, who were understandably focused solely on the best medical remedies.

Sadly, no one seemed to worry much about protecting the economy or ensuring civil liberties, which, yes, must be protected even in the face of a communicable disease.

The snowball started rolling, state by state. One directive led to the next. Millions were ordered home, where they wait for their government to tell them it's OK to come out.

Without a doubt, some parts of the country were hit harder and needed to take stronger measures. But a one-size-fits-all mentality was disastrous, and we are only beginning to explore more nuanced ideas for mitigating the risk to seniors and others who are at heightened risk.

In recent days, Trump has indicated he might soon reverse course and lift federal restrictions. It's already too late. The economy can't be turned on and off like a light switch.

We live in a world where politicians of both parties promise no pain and no consequences. That includes the president. As the push for a big intervention began, Trump vowed that hourly wage workers were "not going to miss a paycheck" and "don't get penalized for something that's not their fault."

In real life, bad things happen to us that aren't our fault, but we still have to find a way, usually on our own, to cope and recover. Only in the land of make-believe that is our government would anyone think that no one would miss a paycheck no matter how many businesses were closed or jobs were lost.

Airlines and the hospitality industry can be rescued. Businesses large and small can get bailouts or low-interest loans. Millions of Americans will receive $1,200 checks, maybe multiple times.

Last week, our leaders agreed to devote trillions of dollars to respond to this economic calamity of our own creation. It will be what we do from now on.

In his State of the Union address in February 2019, Trump said: "America was founded on liberty and independence not government coercion, domination and control. We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country." So much for that.

We have crossed the Rubicon. When historians record the moment that the U.S. economy transitioned from free-market capitalism to democratic socialism, they will point to last week.

Watching it all unfold has been like witnessing a plane crash in slow motion. When the smoke clears, what is left will be a feeble relic of the United States we once knew.

For months, the rising influence of big-government liberals such as Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has caused many Democrats to worry that their nominee would be vulnerable to the label "socialist."

They should no longer be concerned. We are all socialists now.

Gary Abernathy, a freelance writer, is a Washington Post contributing columnist.

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Counterpoint: US is a socialist nation reliant on a fed bailout - BlueRidgeNow.com

Cold War Manipulation: Why socialism was branded as un-American to promote the virtues of capitalism – Milwaukee Independent

Sanders is a Democratic Socialist. And the label socialist has been a political liability in American culture. According to a Gallup poll released on February 11 only 45% of Americans would vote for a socialist.

I am a scholar of American culture with an interest in the relationship between political ideologies and popular culture. In my research, I have found that this antipathy toward socialism may not be an accident: American identity today is strongly tied to an image of capitalism crafted and advertised by the Ad Council and American corporate interests over decades, often with the support of the U.S. government.

Business and government solidarity

In 1942, a group of advertising and industry executives created the War Advertising Council, to promote the war effort. The government compensated the companies that created or donated ads by allowing them to deduct some of their costs from their taxable incomes.

Renamed the Ad Council in 1943, the organization applied the same wartime persuasive techniques of advertising and psychological manipulation during the Cold War years, the post-war period when the geopolitical rivalry between the U.S., the USSR and their respective allies raged. One of their goals: promoting the virtues of capitalism and free enterprise in America while simultaneously demonizing the alternative socialism which was often conflated with communism.

Government propaganda at home portrayed the communist USSR as godless, tyrannical and antithetical to individual freedoms. As a counterpoint, America became everything the Soviet Union was not.

This link between capitalism and American national identity was advertised through a sophisticated, corporate effort as efficient and ubiquitous as state-driven propaganda behind the Iron Curtain. The campaigns used the ideological divisions of the Cold War to emphasize the relevance of their message. In a 1948 report, the Ad Council explained its goal to the public: The world today is engaged in a colossal struggle to determine whether freedom or statism will dominate.

Extolling capitalisms virtues

The campaigns started as a public-private partnership. At the end of World War II, the government worried about the spread of communism at home. Business interests worried about government regulations and about the rising popularity of unions. The Cold War provided both parties with a shared enemy.

In 1947, President Truman asked the Ad Council to organize the Freedom Train Campaign, focusing on the history of Americas political freedoms. Paramount Pictures, U.S. Steel, DuPont, General Electric and Standard Oil provided financial support. For two years the train crisscrossed the nation, carrying original documents that included the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

The following year, the Ad Council launched a business-led campaign, called The Miracle of America, intended to foster support for the American model of capitalism, as distinct from its Western European version, which was more friendly to government intervention. It urged increased productivity by U.S. workers, linked economic and political freedom and, paradoxically, asserted capitalisms collaborative nature.

Sure, America is going ahead if we all pull together, read a brochure. Another flyer, Comes the Revolution!, cast its support of American capitalism in the language of global struggle: If we continue to make that system workthen other nations will follow us. If we dont, then theyll probably go communist or fascist.

In its first two years, the Miracle of America message reached American audiences via 250 radio and television stations and 7,000 outdoor billboards. Newspapers printed 13 million lines of free advertising. The Ad Council boasted that the campaign made over 1 billion radio listener impressions.

American factory workers received about half of the 1.84 million copies of the free pamphlet The Miracle of America. One-quarter were distributed free of charge to schools, and 76 universities ordered the booklet. This pro-business propaganda, expressed in the language of Cold War patriotism, had reached roughly 70% of the American population by the end of the campaign.

Cartoon capitalism

The efforts produced more than just print and billboard messages. In 1946, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded by the former head of General Motors, paid the evangelical Harding College to produce Fun and Facts about American Business, a series of educational cartoon videos about capitalism, produced by a former Disney employee.

Between 1949 and 1952, Metro Goldwyn Mayer distributed them in theaters, schools, colleges, churches and workplaces. The films promoted the same messages as the Ad Council campaigns, although they were not part of the project. They continued a decade-long effort by the Sloan Foundation to start, in the words of its executive director, a bombardment of the American mind with elementary economic principles through partnering with educational institutions.

To both Sloan and the movements backers, business interests were synonymous with the national interest. The free-enterprise system was a shorthand for freedom, democracy and patriotism. Unlike in Europe, the videos suggested, class struggle of the kind that required unions did not exist in the U.S.

In the cartoon Meet the King, Joe, the archetypal American worker, realizes he is not an exploited proletarian. Instead, hes a king, because he can buy more with his wages than any other worker on the globe.

Conversely, government regulations of, or interventions in, the economy were described in the cartoons as socialist tendencies, bound to lead to communism and tyranny.

Make Mine Freedom, and Its Everybodys Business presented the state as a perpetual threat. A money-sucking tax monster, the government reduces everyones profits, crushes private enterprise and takes away individual freedoms: No more private property, no more you.

According to an estimate from Fortune magazine, by 1952, American businesses spent US$100 million each year, independent from any Ad Council campaigns, promoting free enterprise.

Peanuts pushes freedom

In the early 1970s, business responded to rising negativity about corporate power with a new campaign coordinated by the Ad Council.

The American Economic System and Your Part in It was launched alongside the bicentennial national celebrations. It was the largest centralized pro-business public relations project thus far, but only one of many independently run by corporations.

The media industry donated $40 million in free space and air time in the first year of the campaign. The Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor contributed about half a million dollars toward the production costs for a 20-page booklet.

That booklet used data provided by the departments of Commerce and Labor and Charles Schulzs Peanuts comic strips to explain the benefits of Americas economic system. The system was again presented as a foundational freedom protected by a Constitution whose goal was to maintain a climate in which people could work, invest, and prosper.

By 1979, 13 million copies had been distributed to schools, universities, libraries, civic organizations and workplaces.

Echoes now?

For four decades, the Cold War provided a simple good-vs.-evil axis that consolidated the association between freedom, American-ness and free-enterprise capitalism.

The business community, independently and through the Ad Council, funded massive top-down economic education programs which shaped American perceptions of business and government and of capitalism and socialism.

The Cold War ended 30 years ago, but its cultural structures and divisions endure perhaps, even, in the responses of some Americans to Bernie Sanders socialism.

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Cold War Manipulation: Why socialism was branded as un-American to promote the virtues of capitalism - Milwaukee Independent

Will coronavirus launch the second wave of socialism? | TheHill – The Hill

Forecasting the aftermath of the current crisis is nearly impossible, but here is one prediction you can take to the bank: However deep the economic carnage and regardless of its source, those who seek to drive this country towards socialism will exploit it for all its worth.

President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump orders US troops back to active duty for coronavirus response Trump asserts power to decide info inspector general for stimulus gives Congress Fighting a virus with the wrong tools MORE recently declared himself a wartime president, as well he should. He is fighting an unprecedented two-front domestic war one a health crisis, the other economic. In the coming days, the economy will further decline, perhaps in unprecedented ways. And since economic upheaval usually precedes political upheaval, he will soon need to fight a third front: the inevitable propagandizing that will flow from forces of the far left who will lay many resulting economic inequities, real or perceived, at the feet of free markets and capitalism.

The catalyst for the ascendancy of socialism in our recent politics was the financial crisis of 2008. In its wake sparked by Occupy Wall St., encouraged by hard leftists and enabled by the media a majority ofmillennials and Gens X, Y and Z now look favorably upon the movement, according to most polls. They were the base that put a Democratic socialist within a hairs breadth of the Democratic presidential nomination. And because political views formed in youth tend to last a lifetime, this voting bloc will be the pig in the electoral snake for decades to come.

If the economic blow of the Great Recession was able to catalyze such a breathtaking lurch leftward, imagine what two in a row in less than half a generation might unleash on our body politic. Socialists and progressives must be salivating at the prospect of the potential for a one-two punch.

So, brace yourself for the emergence of yet another generation of those intrigued by the false promises of socialism. Ominously, this will coincide with the natural decline of the elderly, the last demographic to understand, overwhelmingly, the abhorrence of socialism.

Will Trump rise to such a fight? I am not holding my breath. He is a warrior, yes. It is a source of his appeal. But he thrives on bludgeoning opponents personally, not in nuance and appeals to higher principle which this fight will require.

His adversaries will be nimble and guerilla-like since socialists already live every day on a wartime footing. Whether originalists Marx and Engels, revolutionaries Lenin and Castro, or modernists Bernie SandersBernie SandersHillicon Valley: Apple rolls out coronavirus screening app, website | Pompeo urged to crack down on coronavirus misinformation from China | Senators push FTC on price gouging | Instacart workers threaten strike Overnight Energy: Court upholds Trump repeal of Obama fracking rule | Oil price drop threatens fracking boom | EPA eases rules on gasoline sales amid coronavirus The Hill's Campaign Report: Sanders pushes on in 2020 race MORE and AOC, a common thread amongst them all has been to pounce upon every inequity for maximum political impact.

Inequities on a scale that may exceed the financial crisis will abound in the days ahead. So, look for progressives to seize upon them as the true fruits of capitalism, and re-issue the siren call of socialism. Look for the Trojan Horse temptation of state-sponsored security at the expense of freedom, innovation and growth. Overflowing hospitals? Time for Medicare for all. Joblessness and bankruptcies? Time for Universal Basic Income.

And look for the made-for-Instagram moments where AOC, Bernie and other opportunists will make great hay and stoke class warfare, the rocket fuel of all socialists. When a Southampton socialite is filmed at the butchers counter ordering, in full Marie Antoinette style, to sell me the entire cabinet!, demands for a Wealth Tax and other state confiscations will surely follow.

There will be winners in this mess. Private jet travel, the ultimate self-quarantine, is in high demand. Big Tech is king as remote work and in-home entertainment drive demand for broadband connectivity. Food distribution is humming from servicing a population now eating three meals a day at home. Amazon is hiring thousands to meet demand from folks avoiding stores and malls.

But to the left, winners are not exemplars of a vibrant, nimble private sector providing value and service in a time of great need. They are simply the rich getting richer. They are to be scrutinized, regulated, and gouged of ill-gotten profit.

The most dangerous propagandizing from the left will come if the number of U.S. COVID-19 infections, and our economic dislocations, exceed Chinas experience. That would lend credence to their predictable and seductive yet insidious suggestion that central planners have the best tools to protect humans from themselves. Never mind that the cause of U.S. business dislocations will have been the government and its mandated business shutdown.

As we sit in our homes watching people die and savings destroyed as the economy melts, it may be hard to fathom that this third front might actually prove the more existential fight for our country. But if we lose, and yet another generation falls for what some have called the Big Lie of socialism, then founder Ben Franklins warning of our Republics fragility may prove hauntingly prophetic.

Emil W. Henry, Jr., served as U.S. TreasuryAssistantSecretary from 2005-2007. He is CEO and managing partner of Henry Tiger LLC and Tiger Infrastructure Partners, a private equity firm.

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Will coronavirus launch the second wave of socialism? | TheHill - The Hill

Will Americans’ embrace of socialism wane without Sanders? | TheHill – The Hill

Even though its clear that democratic socialist Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersHillicon Valley: Apple rolls out coronavirus screening app, website | Pompeo urged to crack down on coronavirus misinformation from China | Senators push FTC on price gouging | Instacart workers threaten strike Overnight Energy: Court upholds Trump repeal of Obama fracking rule | Oil price drop threatens fracking boom | EPA eases rules on gasoline sales amid coronavirus The Hill's Campaign Report: Sanders pushes on in 2020 race MORE (I-Vt.) cannot wrest the Democratic presidential nomination away from former vice president Joe BidenJoe BidenFighting a virus with the wrong tools Trump bucks business on Defense Production Act Overnight Health Care Presented by PCMA US coronavirus cases hit 100,000 | Trump signs T stimulus package | Trump employs defense powers to force GM to make ventilators | New concerns over virus testing MORE, a lot of people remain concerned that America is heading in a socialist direction. They may take Sanderss popularity as a sign that others want to change fundamental institutions such as free markets and property rights. But people may want to take a step back. The term socialism has become so confused in this debate that it does not have a clear policy meaning; its use, rather, is a sign that socialism sounds positive to a number of Americans.

When Sanders says, What democratic socialism is about is saying, Lets use the federal government to protect the interests of working families, he probably doesnt mean that the government needs to control industry and abolish private property. He has called for the government to pay for a lot of things through taxes, but thats well short of nationalizing private industry. Candidates in presidential primaries often promote the policies that appeal to their ideal voters andtest the edges of the Overton Window of political possibilities. Or, to put it another way, its difficult to know exactly which definition of democratic socialism Sanders envisions.

It is important, though, to try to understand what people hear, in addition to what candidates intend. And people think several different things when they hear about socialism.

There is a textbook definition of socialism as an economic system: The state controls the means of production. But thats not what everyone thinks of when theyre told about socialism.

A 2018 Gallup poll asked, What is your understanding of the term socialism? The most frequent response was that it provides equal standing, equal rights, or equal distribution, a position held by 23 percent of people surveyed. But thats about equality, not the standard textbook definition of socialism. Given that the most frequently given answer in the poll isnt about who owns the means of production, its hard to say that most people think of state control of the economy when they say they think well of socialism.

The second most frequent response was not to express an opinion. That seems like a smart response when any discussion of a word is packed with misunderstanding.

Other major contenders included 17 percent, with a definition close to the textbook one; 10 percent, with more government; 6 percent, with communism or modified communism; and 6 percent, with being more social. So people understand the term in a number of different ways.

A 2014 Reason-Rupe poll found a similar result in a poll of people ages 18 to 29. It found that respondents were more sympathetic than the overall population to the term socialism. But they still preferred a free-market system over a government-managed economy by a 2-to-1 margin. That is, when they heard socialism, they had a more positive reaction to the term, but they did not buy into the idea that the government should own businesses.

Perhaps that positive association comes from living after the Cold War, when socialism isnt the threat it used to be. Older people, though, still have a more negative reaction to the word.

When politicians and commentators speak of socialism positively, maybe their intent is to appeal to the people who react to socialism positively and disregard everyone else. Thus, it becomes a term that divides people, rather than taps into a common meaning. Socialism is one concept to the people who have a positive view of it, but a different one to people who have a negative view.

This shows up in polling results as well. According to another Gallup poll, 43 percent of Americans think that socialism would be good for the country and 51 percent think that it would be bad. That is not an even split, but given the dispute around the essential characteristics of socialism, it can mean that the term divides people into its supporters and its opposition.

The people on the right may consider socialism to be a snarl term a word meant to convey a negative feeling. To them, socialists should be dismissed as fools who would destroy the American way, as socialism means government control of the economy.

The people on the left may consider socialism to be a purr term a word meant to convey a positive feeling. To them, socialism is where enlightened people want to be headed because it means more government support for the working class.

The word is a tool to distinguish oneself from others and unify allies, but it is not useful to persuade. People have an opinion about socialism, regardless of what others mean by the term.

This ought to be positive news for the people on the right. If socialism is on the rise, it is unlikely that it means what they fear.

There is a lesson for people on the left, too. If they want their ideas to appeal to those outside of the left, they should argue for their policies without using the label socialist. It repels the people they should want to persuade.

People should extend goodwill to others and try to use words in the same way as the people they seek to persuade. And we should also acknowledge that a term may be heard in ways which are unintended. There is a lot of work to be done to bridge the intellectual division surrounding the word socialism.

James M. Hohman is director of fiscal policy at Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research and educational institute located in Midland, Mich. Follow him on Twitter @JamesHohman.

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Will Americans' embrace of socialism wane without Sanders? | TheHill - The Hill

Stimulus? Spell it socialism, by Tom Weldon | Letters To The Editor – The Keene Sentinel

The economy in this country looks to be headed into a tailspin because of the COVID-19 crisis. Government action in the manner proposed by the Trump administration and both chambers of the U.S. Congress looks to be more than necessary for us citizens to keep our heads above water.

But understand this, special loans and payments to small businesses, bailouts to big corporations like airline companies, even government checks mailed to individuals without any requirement for repayment is socialism.

Payouts like this are not part of free-market capitalism. There is no mechanism in pure capitalism to guarantee recovery from disasters. Now, present considerations of payouts from the government are in keeping with socialist democracy, rather than socialist authoritarianism, because those making the decisions about to whom payments will be made and how much should be allotted are elected officials. Im grateful to them and to the ideals of socialist democracy.

So, be ashamed, all you pundits and fear-mongers who contributed to the demise of Bernie Sanders candidacy through red-baiting.

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Stimulus? Spell it socialism, by Tom Weldon | Letters To The Editor - The Keene Sentinel