¡El socialismo o la muerte!—A few words on the right's favorite fear
Yes, that's right: Jeb's son—who, I must remind everyone, is half Latinx—has decided that the threat of perfidious socialism under a Biden presidency is so great, so dire, that he must vote for the pussy-grabbing, racist, sexist, homophobic Vermin who beat his dad like a piñata. Let's just say that any child of mine who chose an enemy over me would no longer be my son.George P. Bush says he'll vote for Trump: "Only thing standing between America and socialism” https://t.co/ahXcMGtCUI pic.twitter.com/G2v0lmROsR— The Hill (@thehill) June 9, 2020
Let's cut the shit, shall we?
Joe Biden is not Vladimir Ulyanov. He's not leading a revolutionary vanguard. There will be no Five Year Plans. In other words, Biden is the furthest thing from a socialist one can imagine. Furthermore, if Bernie Sanders had been the nominee, the same would apply, except with Sanders the argument could stick as he carelessly throws around the word "socialism" without really knowing what it means.
The Vermin isn't, in Georgie P's formulation, the only thing standing between America and socialism. What the Rat is is the only thing standing between Georgie and the unemployment line, as even Texas is in play for November. What Georgie P fears is that if the Rat doesn't pull out a miracle in November, his own chances for higher elective office might also go the way of the dodo.
Yesterday I saw a tweet from Josh Marshall:
I had an inkling that this might happen. To recap for non-Californios: in 1994, incumbent Republican governor Pete Wilson stormed to re-election on the back of the anti-immigrant Proposition 187. To say it was a poisoned chalice would be an understatement. It awoke Latinx political power, and ever since 1998 state government has been in Democratic hands almost exclusively, except for the Arnold interregnum; even that was deceptive, as Schwarzenegger governed mostly as a conservative Democrat, not a Republican. Wilson won a battle, but he almost single-handedly destroyed the California GOP. With victories like this, one should sit out the war.There was always a significant chance that Donald Trump was for the country what Pete Wilson was for California.— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 9, 2020
It's not socialism that people like Georgie P fear. They know it's hogwash. They know Joe Biden and 90% of Democrats aren't Spartacists, working to break up the Union into small anarchist collectives. What they fear is that an activist government can make people's lives better, just like governments did under the New Deal and through the 1960s. Because if people's lives do improve under the sort of government Biden will lead, the scales will drop from their eyes, and the lies of the past 40 years will be hung around the necks of the likes of Georgie P. The GOP isn't afraid of a socialist government; it's afraid of an effective government. It's why it fought former presidents Clinton and Obama tooth and nail. It's why they trot out the "socialism" canard every chance they get. They know they wouldn't win a national election for a generation or more if a truly progressive Democratic regime took hold.
What Republicans fear is their own terminal fate. And, because God loves irony, they selected as their leader the one man who could destroy them from the inside by his paranoia, his idiocy, and his sheer evil. They hitched their wagons to a decrepit horse. People like Lindsey Graham were very prescient in 2016 when they said that if the GOP selected the Rat, they'd lose, and deserve to lose. Against all odds they won in 2016; but this was a mere repeat of 1994. "Pyrrhic victory" won't begin to describe this calamity once the historians get their hands on it. They gambled that the Rat would be able to institute some sort of authoritarian regime. Fortunately, the Founders, flawed men that they were, still managed to build a system which has withstood those attempts. Federalism—the one-time bugbear of the Left—has saved this country. And now we have a fighting chance to take it back in five months.
So, when the likes of Georgie P bleat about "evil socialism", what they actually fear is that Democrats will show voters that government can work for them. It's what happened in California, and voters here haven't looked back since 1998. It isn't socialism they fear: It's competence and empathy.