The GOP’s Enemy #1 for the Midterms: Socialism
Donald Trump and the Republicans want you to be terrified of socialists. But they really don’t want to talk about our core economic policies, because the moment you spell those policies out, they sound pretty good.
Republicans will happily tell you that democratic socialists want to abolish police and prisons. But they won’t bring up Medicare for All or freezing the rent — because the economic demands socialists unanimously support are far too appealing. (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)
A very old joke imagines two elderly Jewish men sitting on a park bench. The first reads the local Yiddish-language newspaper. The second reads an antisemitic, pro-fascist paper. After a few minutes, the first turns to the second and asks, “How can you read that garbage?”
The second replies, “When I read your paper, it’s nothing but bad news. It depresses me! When I read this paper, I hear that we run banks, the media, Hollywood. . . . It cheers me up!”
I kept thinking of that yesterday as I watched the first night of the Republicans’ midterm “convention” (where no one was nominated, and no official business of any kind was conducted). When I read Jacobin, I get a (sadly realistic) view of reality where the Democratic establishment remains powerful and opposed to even basic reforms like Medicare for All. When I listened to the “convention” speakers, on the other hand, I heard that socialists had completely taken over the Democratic ballot line. Congressman Steve Scalise said there had been a “Bolshevik Revolution in the Democrat party.”
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