Biden and Socialism
By: John Seamus Welsh of Garrett County
By now, most of us know that Donald Trump has a pretty predictable political strategy of invoking the fears of his supporters through false or misleading statements. You know the litany: no one will be safe under a democratic president; the immigrants are rapists and drug traffickers; this virus is a hoax created by the left wing to make me look bad; my opponent and most of the media lies to you; and you should only listen to me for the truth. Up is down; down is up; trust me.
One of the recent misleading accusations is to call Joe Biden a socialist, as Trump did in the recent debate and the republican establishment began doing earlier this year. In the debate, Biden correctly responded that he “beat the socialist,” referring to self-proclaimed democratic socialist, Bernie Sanders, over whom he had prevailed in the primaries. Trump’s response was, “well he just lost the whole left wing of his party, folks.” It’s clear that Trump’s real strategy was to force Biden to either deny the label or be stuck with it. Trump must have reasoned that if he denied it, he would erode far left support for Biden. So, Biden chose to just speak his truth, that he was not a socialist. He said that those who leaned in that direction had not prevailed in the primaries. No great division was formed, as Trump had hoped, and that should have been enough.
But then there is the grocery-line “truth” where you can overhear folks’ conversations without trying. What I heard a few days after the debate was Trump’s sound bites coming from other shoppers’ mouths. I actually heard someone complaining about how little airtime poor Mr. Trump had gotten that night, because the moderator, Chris Wallace, was clearly favoring Biden. (The actual truth is that Trump got slightly more air than Biden.) In the grocery line, the same person said that the whole country was headed for socialism if Biden gets in. While the conversation I witnessed fell short of an actual polling of Garrett County, it felt like the socialism label DID stick for at least some of Trump’s supporters.
Let’s set the record straight about what socialism is, and what Biden is not. According to Miriam-Webster, socialism is:
“any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods”
Nobody in the Biden campaign or even Bernie Sanders has said anything about the government owning our factories or the elimination of private property. Nobody. When faced with republican labeling of social programs, Harry Truman said,
“Socialism is their [the republicans’] name for almost anything that helps all the people.”
He was calling out the same scare tactic that Trump is using now.
Some people, predominantly in the democratic party, do call for a better distribution of wealth. They cite studies like Pew Research Center’s January report showing the growing wealth and income disparity over several decades. The study shows that, as the middle class has become smaller, so does its share of average household wealth and income. Over the same period, the share of the wealth in American has increased dramatically for the wealthiest 5% of Americans. Working people have been left behind by those on the top, and the “top” is where Trump lives. From this standpoint, it is pretty hard to understand how Trump got away with paying little or no income tax for many years while working people continued to carry their share of the cost of a government for the common good.
In contrast, Joe Biden, who come from a working class family, paid his taxes just like all working people do. His website outlines how he would re-balance federal taxes to reverse Trump’s windfall tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, while keeping taxes in check for those making less than $400K per year.
Biden believes that working families also need to make more money as their rightful share of their own labor. He believes in a fair wage of at least $15 per hour for the minimum wage, which is based on what a family can actually live on. He also believes in unions, which exist to give working people a voice on the job. This is not socialism; it’s taking back some of what the top 5% has been consuming for decades.
Biden does support social programs, which are not the same as “socialism.” For example, he believes that we need to keep Social Security strong. At the same time, Trump has potentially undermined Social Security by jeopardizing its funding in recent months.
Trump continues his assault on the Affordable Care Act, while Biden wants to strengthen it. Biden says that everyone should have access to affordable healthcare, and those who cannot afford it should get help. One part of this plan is to provide a way for individuals to buy into a publicly provided health insurance, similar to Medicare. This is not “socialized medicine;” it’s just making healthcare available to everyone.
Joe Biden believes in a strong public education, as well as a strong and just police force, contrary to the Trump talking points.
These are all social programs, which is the mark of a country that takes care of its people first. The list goes on, but the idea is that social programs, often brought to you by the democrats, and labeled as “socialism” by the republicans, create a level playing field for everyone in America. The preamble of our constitution outlines that the purpose of our government, among other things, is to “promote the general welfare” of all Americans.
For decades, Joe Biden and centrist democrats have supported a decent balance of capitalism with social programs that make sense for working people and those among us who need help.
As for Donald Trump, he has been caught in thousands of lies since he took office – often contradicting his own words. And recently, the word “socialism” is something he has found to evoke fear among his followers, though his claims have no more basis in fact than his other lies. Despite his biggest lie, that he ever cared for working people, he seems to have convinced some of them to follow him.