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Democratics Vote on a Redbaiting Republican Resolution and why Socialism Really Fails [1]

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Date: 2023-02-08  

McCarthy snarls for the camera. Apparently MAGA supporters like snarling politicians.

I hadn’t planned on addressing the matter, but it really struck a raw nerve. I’m referring of course to the recent “any way you look at it you lose” Democratic house vote disavowing socialism on a Republican resolution after they had just emphasized support for social security a few days before. No matter how you spin it, the House Republications succeeded in almost splitting the Democratic House vote, which was a very close 112 Yes, 100 no (with 14 voting “present”).

You probably were thinking either they should have released a more nuanced denial after the vote or better still, avoided it all together. In part the resolution reads as follows:

Whereas socialist ideology necessitates a concentration of power that has time and time

again collapsed into Communist regimes, totalitarian rule, and brutal dictatorships;

Whereas socialism has repeatedly led to famine and mass murders, and the killing

of over 100,000,000 people worldwide;

Taken in totality, the document distorts both history and reality to make capitalism the savior of the world, and those who wish to share its wealth villains and mass murderers.

Pol-Pot demonstrated the horrors possible under authoritarian rule.

The very first line is strictly boiler plate redbaiting with an actual kernel of truth. It says, “Whereas socialist ideology necessitates a concentration of power . . .” This has been in part the downfall of attempts to build socialism in many countries. Authoritarianism and dictatorships, contrary to the resolution and consistent with the Republican’s own fascistic goals, also necessitate a concentration of power and threatens capitalist democracies as well as any other kind of system, including ones committed to socialism. It was also a convenient distortion of history when the resolution stated: “Whereas the socialist experiment in Cambodia led to the killing fields in which over a million people were gruesomely murdered”.

That part was true, but it was a ruthless dictatorship from the beginning and socialist in name only. They conveniently left out the fact that the Vietnamese government that defeated both the French and the U.S. went into Cambodia and at great loss of life, eventually deposing the Pol Pot regime. And that both China and the U.S. actually covertly opposed the Vietnamese incursion and sent aid to Pol Pot!

Greene is a posterchild for the authoritarian state.

The other fabrication in the opening line is “collapsed into communism.” This is a classic misuse of the term communism in place of what it was originally intended to mean. In fact, the misuse has been so often repeated it became the adjective western capitalist countries used to describe socialist aspiring countries. Communism was a term used by idealistic Marxists to describe an egalitarian goal of socialism that might take hundreds of years to achieve to build a classless society, not a dictatorship.

It was deliberately misused to describe a dictatorial repressive state, which admittedly some socialist attempts morphed into. But you don’t morph into communism when socialist fails. Think of the problem like examining why a plane crashes to earth. It is vital to understand why so many attempts to build socialism and a better way of life for humanity have failed. Thousands of years of patriarchal and authoritarian national and governmental systems along with their accompanying cultural domination run counter to successful socialist development. This must be acknowledged by all advocates of socialism before it can ever hope to take root someplace successfully.

Socialism’s Catch-22

Building Socialism presents us with a Catch-22.

The Catch-22 of trying to build socialism has always been the failure to understand not only the cultural obstacles but what can happen to a society when an elite privileged group assumes state power with military force and the critical importance of an empowered and educated electorate to prevent such abuses.

Regardless of its original intentions, when government is based on the leadership of a small unelected clique or single authoritarian ruler, it is in no way subject to democratic control by the masses, who in many countries lack the ability and sufficient consciousness to supervise leadership even if given a chance to. It can and often will slowly degenerate into its opposite.

This is what quickly happened in the then Soviet Union. The Bolsheviks inherited a backward autocracy run ruthlessly for centuries with a tiny working class and large peasantry. It quickly fell under the tyrannical rule of Joseph Stalin and any chance to build socialism rapidly disappeared.

Any Economic form of Government can Succumb to Fascism if it is Based on Authoritarianism

As we’ve recently found out for ourselves, this can also happen in a capitalist society when power is concentrated into the hands of super wealthy interests and popular democracy is destroyed and dictatorship is established. Note that the House document fails to mention Hitler and the Nazis and two world wars between capitalist countries that cost an estimated 100 million lives combined. Or capitalist countries like Spain and Japan and others that historically became dictatorships and fascist. Also reasons to reject signing it. If the Republicans bring heat over the refusal, mention what was left out.

Preserving Democracy: Essential to Building a Socialist Society

Preserving democracy and the right to vote is essential.

The socialist model as defined by Marxists that was historically followed contained a fatally flawed premise, that a small ruling body or leader could legitimately represent the masses in what they called “a dictatorship of the proletariat” over the wealthy classes and in the absence of a popular form of democracy. It further assumed that the masses needed to be led.

This quickly in many cases reproduced former class and authoritarian relations with the new ruling party acting like a new ruling class. Horrible things can happen when a head of society is given or obtains supreme power.

A Simple Way to Avoid Voting on the Resolution

Back to the House vote, finally (smile), I can think of a simple way the Democrats might have avoided a vote on the awful resolution. By insisting on changes in the resolution that included condemnation of the January 6th attack on Congress and its totalitarian goals and/or capitalist countries that went fascist. Even if McCarthy was willing to consider the changes (which is doubtful), the super extremists in the party would have never allowed it, giving the Dems a perfect out and response when the Republicans tried to redbait them. Now they are forced to engage in damage control. Biden indirectly did a great job at the State of the Union address to make people forget that vote.

Sociaphobia?

Defined as a fear of the word social or socialism.

I didn’t expect anything even remotely approaching an endorsement of socialism, but it appears that the leadership is so fearful of Republican redbaiting and dependent on big donor money that they consistently insult many of their own supporters that lean in that direction.

It happens every time the Republicans label the Democrats leftists, socialists, Marxists, etc. They respond with the same knee-jerk reaction and attempt to equal or outdo them at redbaiting. Just like when complain that “we are just as tough on crime as they are” every time the Republicans accuse them of being weak on crime.

What this suggests to some members is that the party’s “big tent” leadership is not so big. It does not welcome leftists and socialist minded people but needs and expects their votes.

Example of 1930s fear provoking redbaiting movie poster.

They won’t admit that social security and the tax code have wealth sharing aspects, which qualify as socialist concessions to class struggle by FDR in an overall capitalist system. It also qualifies as a socialist appendage on a capitalist system because theoretically there is social control and collective ownership and distribution of the fund via an elected government. Expect more red baiting resolutions like this last one from the Republicans after this “we hate the lefties just like you do” Democratic vote.

Both Parties Have Been Forever Changed

The Leadership may even fear that what happened to the Republicans with Trump and MAGA could happen to them with progressives and lefties. They are overcompensating and blundering by agreeing to endorse a Republican resolution, one crafted by a now fascist party, and in effect endorsing a fascist document. A resolution which alienates socialist and progressive voices in the party, comparing them to dictators, and makes the party weaker by further dividing it.

The extreme polarization in politics has changed the nature and composition of American politics. Foolish support for redbaiting Republican resolutions will not erase the damage they just caused because another similar resolution will soon follow. Maybe one calling on the country to get tougher in the war on crime will be next from the Republicans.

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