Reading · The Political Pulse of America

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Lately, you may have heard of Donald Trump and DC Republicans warning about the specter of Communism roaring back to life.

It really is not much different from the time when Republicans would call every Democrat a liberal—even Joe Manchin, a Democrat affiliated with the conservative-leaning group ALEC.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower was called a “socialist” in 1982 for promoting farmers’ markets.

It is a classic scare tactic of the Republican Party going back decades: when you don’t have a logical argument to make on policy, just throw the labels out and hope they hit the wall and something sticks.

Which makes it sound very surprising to many that it was Republican President George H.W. Bush who said “labels are for soup cans.”

Still, unlike a good amount of people, I could not fit in well with the Democratic Socialists of America because of some of their by-laws particularly around an abolition of police departments, the end of prisons, open borders, a complete defunding of the Pentagon, or abolishing the US Senate and Supreme Court.

Not to say they are wrong about the problems we are contending with, whether it’d be a bloated Pentagon budget that needs to be reigned in significantly. Or policing that needs to ensure public safety, but with a radically different culture that respects individual rights and judges people individually and not based on a category or group. Or an immigration system that needs to be humane generally while keeping hardened criminals out relentlessly. Or, finally, ending the failed system of mass incarceration with a more reformed and just system defined by public safety merit and not wealth and privilege.

I just think the DSA by-laws are not practical. Nor are they the best solutions to the problems we are facing. I doubt the controversial by-law items mentioned could get even 2 votes, if that, in the entire Congress.

And yet, the capitalism-socialism spectrum, which is not even an accurate way to measure people’s feelings about government and society, does not tell anything about how the American people are feeling.

Because the fact is you don’t have to call yourself a socialist, or a capitalist, to know that while Donald Trump makes $2.2 billion in office, and Elon Musk becomes a trillionaire, most Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, with millions losing healthcare benefits, becoming food insecure, falling into student loan debt, or even joining the cruel outside world of homelessness.

We’re taking about a wealth gap record decades in the making, by tax cuts, corporate welfare, union-busting, school vouchers, government privatization, wealth redistribution, and stock buybacks.

How many average Americans have made $2.2 billion in the past 2 years?

The federal minimum wage hasn’t increased once since 2009, and the middle class largely stagnated, if not declined outright, even though worker productivity has gone up dramatically.

You don’t have to call yourself a socialist to realize that while Trump and his Crime Family profits immensely from bitcoin and cryptocurrency, it is Americans who suffer the price of noise pollution, environmental degradation, a depletion of basic resources like water, and most of all, utility price hikes from crypto mines.

(Not to mention investors being scammed by the Trump Crime Family).

Likewise with the job-killing AI data centers enriching Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Sam Altman, and Elon Musk, all at your expense from electricity costs and drainage of water and other basic necessities.

Which is why AI companies now want to keep their plans secret from the American people and frontline communities through Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)—sounds a little like Donald Trump himself.

You don’t have to call yourself a socialist when you’re upset that four companies can take over 85% of the agriculture sector, or two media conglomerates take over 90% of all local TV stations. Trump’s state propaganda machine of Paramount comes at a cost not only to democracy, but to film employment, and to us consumers.

Same thing for the airlines, the railroads, and the meatpackers again. Even in Alaska’s trawling-based fishery market.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize something is very wrong with our broken and dysfunctional health care system. We are the only country that pays such high costs to maintain our healthcare system. And what do we get out of it? Subpar, and often inadequate, health outcomes that most countries attain with only a fraction of the cost.

And with all these cuts to Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Social Security, as well as to a Medicare Part D program, don’t expect the problem to get any better soon.

You don’t have to be a socialist to gripe about the takeover of basic life by private equity, often to make more profits by laying off workers and closing down facilities, from journalism and manufacturing, to Bowlero’s bowling lanes and youth sports, particularly minor league baseball.

You don’t have to be a socialist to realize that the US has plenty of money for weapons of war and bailouts for the wealthy, but nothing for childcare and school meals, or even to existing programs like the Senior Community Service Employment Program, world-class university and research grants, public libraries, school mental health, various community nonprofits, high efficiency electric appliances, public broadcasting, or Manufacturing Extension Partnerships.

The Republican Party's Red Scare:

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