(Dobbs) "Socialism?" The Republicans' Shameful Strategy

But divided Democrats could lose to a lie.

This week, denouncing the Democrats’ designs on infrastructure, Mitch McConnell said they are “ramming through partisan socialism as fast as possible.”

Does this guy even know what socialism is? 

I know he’s well-traveled, but did McConnell ever set foot in a foreign land— especially one steeped in socialism— and actually get dust on his shoes, which might mean that he got down in the weeds and saw how the place was run, that he actually saw what socialism really is? My guess is no. 

So for Mitch and his minions, who make the bogus charge that Democrats are “ramming through partisan socialism,” here’s a primer.

Socialism is Venezuela, under Hugo Chavez, nationalizing and operating the oil industry.

Socialism is North Korea, under Kim Jong-Un and his family before him, owning every single newspaper and TV channel in the country. Not to mention the TVs themselves.

Socialism is Libya, under Colonel Gaddafi, collectivizing almost every retail business in the nation. (Many years ago when I was reporting there, the only businesses still independently owned were bakeries and barber shops.)

Socialism is Cuba, under Fidel Castro and then his brother Raul, owning and overseeing almost all of the nation’s farmland.

Socialism is the Soviet Union, under a string of Communist leaders, owning everything from the nation’s auto plants down to the kit and polish of a man who used to shine my shoes out in front of the Kremlin.

Had Moscow Mitch ever gotten dust on those shoes of his, he might have met the man too.

Socialism is government ownership of a nation’s means of production: the factories, the farms, the refineries, the mines, the stores, the services… including something as simple as a shoeshine.

As for China, despite a shift toward a capitalist economy, socialism arguably is still alive and well too, because all rules about how a business runs come from the leaders of the Politburo, and all verdicts about how a business behaves come from judges appointed by the leadership. China’s government doesn’t own all the means of production any more, but it still has total control. And it allows no dissent.

The United States, Mitch, is not China. 

It’s not the Soviet Union, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, or Venezuela either. So to say that the Democrats aim to change that is disingenuous. To say that they’re out to make this a socialist nation is a scare tactic (unless Mitch really doesn’t know what socialism is, which is even scarier). But for many on his side of the aisle, living in a bubble, it becomes fact.

The real fact is, beyond a lot of forest and range and parkland— on large parts of which private industry operates— the federal government in this country owns very little that makes our economy tick. Not the factories that manufacture our cars, not the farms that raise our food, not the wells that produce our gas, not the companies that make our drugs. If we opt to open a shop or choose to buy some stock, we become owners of the means of production, not the government.

I’ve heard conservatives complain that even government regulation is socialism. That’s just more misinformation. We always have had regulations in our lives, usually for the public good. From speed limits to seatbelts, from safe workplaces to safe pharmaceutical drugs. And by the way, to vaccinations. Regulation is about safety, not socialism.

Of course what Mitch McConnell is talking about when he puts his scarecrow out there screaming “socialism” is the huge infrastructure package with which Congress is wrestling right now. Is it socialism because the government would fund improvements for roads and bridges, public transport and broadband access, aging airports and stressed electrical grids? Is it socialism because we’re also talking about money for clean energy and education, affordable housing and medical care? Congressional Republicans can oppose the priorities of the majority Democrats and give any name they like to government support for such projects, but if they’re honest, it won’t be “socialism.”

Do you know that in all those years when America sent its first astronauts to space, then put men on the moon, then into orbit in the space shuttle and the Space Station, NASA (metaphorically) barely owned a screwdriver? Alan Shepard’s Mercury capsule was built by companies like Boeing and McDonnell. The shuttle was built by companies like Pratt & Whitney and ATK Thiokol, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Those companies owned the screwdrivers. Those companies signed the workers’ paychecks, not Washington.

That’s how our infrastructure will get fixed if the bills in Congress pass. The money will flow from the federal government. But the screwdrivers will be in private hands. The checks will come from private industry. That’s not socialism, it’s capitalism, in the best American tradition.

If today’s Republican party would debate infrastructure (or anything else) on its merits, it would be a debate worth having. But using a straw man to misguide the American public is not the cornerstone of a debate. It’s the cornerstone of a deceit.

On the other hand, it might not matter if the Democrats, themselves divided into different camps, debate themselves into a defeat.

Alas.

For almost five decades Greg Dobbs has been a correspondent for two television networks, a political columnist for The Denver Post and syndicated columnist for Scripps newspapers, a moderator on Rocky Mountain PBS, and author of two books, including one about the life of a foreign correspondent called “Life in the Wrong Lane.” He has covered presidencies and politics at home and international crises around the globe, from Afghanistan to South Africa, from Iran to Egypt, from the Soviet Union to Saudi Arabia, from Vietnam to Venezuela, from Libya to Liberia, from Panama to Poland. Dobbs has won three Emmys, and the Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.