Socialism vs. Communism: The Debate America Keeps Getting Wrong

Ultimise. Donald Trump has now fired the remaining members of the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission because apparently the best way to secure an election is to fire everyone who isn't totally aligned with a candidate running in it. That's not election security, that's Tony Soprano appointing the jury foreman. The Election Assistance Commission helps test voting systems, support state election officials, and maintains the national mail registration form. Trump has now left it without commissioners just months before the midterms. And Democrats need to stop saying, "Good news, we're 5 points ahead in the polls." Polls do not protect you when the man controlling the federal government is announcing in advance that any election he loses is fraudulent. Trump's strategy is always the same: say the most corrupt thing imaginable out loud Repeat it until everybody becomes numb, then do it. He has essentially told America, I'm going to use power to enrich my family, punish my enemies, and interfere with elections. And Americans keep responding, well, at least he's transparent. Democrats should be preparing for the possibility of federal agents intimidating voters, election officials being threatened, and Democratic candidates facing politically motivated investigations or arrest. Not pretending this will be another normal election night with Steve Kornacki standing in front of a touchscreen. And meanwhile, Republicans are warning that America is being taken over by socialists. Relax, if America's actual communists held a national convention, they couldn't fill a phone booth. Young people, you may have to Google phone booth. Okay, today I want to talk about the sudden rise of the so-called socialism and socialist in America. And I use the phrase so-called deliberately because almost everyone in this argument is being dishonest about what the word actually means. Republicans use socialist to describe any government program that benefits someone other than a billionaire or a white farmer. Some people on the left use it because it sounds more revolutionary than saying I'd like health insurance and an apartment that doesn't require 6 roommates. But neither side is talking about a return to the Soviet Union. Nobody is proposing that the federal government seize every restaurant, shoe store, auto company, hair salon, and lemonade stand in America. Nobody is demanding that the Department of Commerce decide how many Pop-Tarts Kroger may stock. The candidates now winning Democratic primaries under the Democratic Socialist label are generally campaigning for things like universal healthcare, childcare, public transportation, rent protections, stronger unions, and public investment. Now, you can oppose those ideas. You can argue they cost too much. You can argue that some would create shortages, distort markets, or reward inefficient government. Those are legitimate arguments, but calling them Stalinism, communism is as intellectually honest as saying every conservative who wants a lower cap Capital gains tax is Heinrich Himmler. It may frighten people, it may generate clicks, but it does not clarify anything. Recent Democratic Socialist victories in New York and Colorado do show that the movement has gained political momentum, particularly among voters frustrated by housing, healthcare, and childcare costs. But even sympathetic analysts caution that these primary victories do not prove voters have embraced one coherent socialist ideology. What we're actually debating is not whether to abolish capitalism. We are debating how much government should soften capitalism's roughest edges. And here's the problem for conservatives: America settled that argument a century ago. We already have socialism. It's alive, it's thriving, and Republicans love huge portions of it. Social Security is a government run retirement program. It's socialism. Sorry. Medicare is a government health insurance for older Americans. It's socialism. Sorry. Public elementary schools are government-owned institutions staffed by government employees. State universities are government-supported educational institutions. Public roads are built and maintained collectively, i.e., they're socialism. Police departments, fire departments, libraries, parks, Sewage systems and water systems are all public services. Social Security arose because during the Great Depression more than half of older Americans lacked enough income to support themselves. Medicare was created in 1965 because the private market was not adequately providing affordable medical coverage for older people. These programs are not secret Marxist sleeper cells. Although that was implied by people like Ronald Reagan back in the '60s. Nobody drives past the local fire department and screams, oh my God, it's Cuba. So when politicians say socialism is inherently evil, I just want them to be honest. Run for office promising to abolish Social Security. Run for office promising to abolish Medicare. Close every public university. Shut down the local elementary school. Sell the public library to Amazon. Turn every road into a privately operated operated toll road. You want to go 4 miles to buy milk? That'll be $7.95 each way plus a convenience fee. And while we're conducting this experiment in pure freedom, abolish zoning laws. You built a beautiful mansion? Congratulations, your next-door neighbor is now free to build a combination tattoo parlor, massage parlor, slaughterhouse, and all-night go-kart track because, haha, freedom! Suddenly, even the most libertarian Republican discovers a passionate belief in the Planning Commission, i.e., socialism. Folks, this is dishonesty. Most conservatives do not oppose government. They oppose government programs for people they don't like. Government subsidies for oil companies? That is energy independence. Farm subsidies? That's protecting rural America. Tax breaks for homeowners— that's the American dream. A subsidized lunch for a poor child— oh my God, when did Lenin get here? Would you like to be the sort of successful person who is dominating news, at least in your industry? Well, if so, it's time to up your skills. At ultimize.com, I've created online courses to help you do that. Now here's the thing: No obligation. You can get a free course on communication skills, a free course on how to build better habits. All you have to do is go to ultimize.com. That's ultimize.com. No obligation. Go there now. And liberals can occasionally be dishonest too. Putting the word socialist on every popular social program does not automatically make it affordable, or effective. Government can waste money. Public agencies can become bloated. Rent controls can reduce incentives to build housing. A public grocery store can still be badly managed. A slogan is not a spreadsheet. Calling something a human right doesn't magically produce enough doctors, nurses, apartments, teachers, or construction workers to provide it. So yeah, democratic socialists deserve scrutiny. Their proposals should be costed. Their assumptions should be challenged. Their promises should be subjected to the same skepticism we should apply to every politician. But they should be challenged for what they actually propose, not treated as if they're hiding a hammer and sickle beneath the podium. The deeper reason this movement is growing is not that millions of young Americans suddenly read Karl Marx. It's that the economic deal previous generations received no longer appears available to them. The World War II generation received the GI Bill. The federal government helped veterans pay for education, obtain low-interest business loans, and buy homes with government-backed mortgages. That was massive government intervention in the economy, and it helped create the modern American middle class. Nobody looked at a returning serviceman receiving tuition assistance and said, sorry, comrade, take your Bolshevism back to Omaha. We called it national investment. We called it gratitude. We called it building America. Now a 28-year-old says, I work full-time, I have a college degree, and I would someday like to live someplace other than my parents' basement. And half the political establishment responds with, dangerous radical. A lot of those supposedly terrifying young socialists do not want to abolish private property. They would simply like enough property to put a couch on it. They're not dreaming of collective farms. They're dreaming of a two-bedroom townhouse. They do not want to become Soviet commissars. They would like to become homeowners before qualifying for Medicare. That's why screaming socialism no longer works the way it once did. For someone who can't afford health insurance, can't afford childcare, and can't imagine ever owning a home, the existing system does not feel like triumphant capitalism. It feels like a casino where previous generations bought all the chips before they arrived, and then those generations say, "You young people need to learn how to play." So here's the rule: you're not allowed to call every public benefit socialism while personally collecting 6 different forms of government assistance. You can't denounce socialism from a house purchased with a government-backed mortgage while receiving Social Security, Medicare, a property tax deduction, federally subsidized flood insurance, and a pension from a public university. At that point, you're not fighting socialism, you're its most successful customer. And Democratic socialists need a rule too. Stop behaving as though anyone asking how much your proposal costs is committing violence against you. Arithmetic is not fascism. Budgets matter, incentives matter, markets matter, and private enterprise has created prosperity, innovation, and opportunity on a scale no completely state-controlled economy has ever matched. The intelligent argument is not capitalism versus socialism. It's where capitalism works best, where government works best, and where each one needs to restrain the failures of the other. Markets are excellent at producing smartphones. I don't need the Department of Electronics designing the next iPhone. But markets are not automatically excellent at providing universal fire protection, retirement security, elementary education, or affordable care for sick elderly people. That's why every advanced capitalistic democracy, including ours, uses a mixture. The disagreement is over the mixture. How much? For whom? At what cost? With what incentives? And with what safeguards against corruption and incompetence? Those are adult questions. Socialism bad, communism bad— it's not an adult argument, it's a bumper sticker. Just as all conservatives are Nazis is not analysis, it's a substitute for analysis. You can strongly oppose particular socialist proposals without pretending the people proposing them want gulags. You can strongly oppose Trump without pretending every Republican voter owns a brown shirt. Demagoguery is dangerous, whether it comes from a red hat or a Jacob era tote bag. America does not face an imminent communist revolution. It faces a generation that believes the economic ladder has been pulled up just as it reached for the first rung. Some of their proposed solutions will work. Some will fail. Some will cost too much. Some may become the next Social Security or GI Bill, programs attacked as radical in their time and later embraced as part of ordinary American life. We should argue about all of it honestly, because young Americans are not asking to be treated like Soviet officials. They're asking for something closer to the deal earlier American generations received: education that doesn't create lifelong debt, healthcare that doesn't produce bankruptcy, and a realistic chance to own a home. They're not asking to be treated like heroes or soldiers. They're asking for the opportunity to become another great American generation, or even a baby boom generation would be nice. And if the only answer the political system can give them is socialism, used as an insult rather than an argument, we should not be surprised when they decide, fine, call it whatever you want, just give us a country where ordinary people can build a life. I'm TJ Walker. This is Filtered. Thanks so much for joining me. Going on hiatus, taking some vacation for the next several weeks, next 3 weeks. Hope you have a great, uh, midsection of your summer. I will be back August 4th. Hope to see you then. Take care. Ultimize.