Because
the Democrats are proposing to actually do something about global warming,
health care, runaway student debt, and rampant wealth inequality, the
Republicans have trotted out the only response they can come up with: “Socialism!”
We even hear cries of “Venezuela!” As if providing health care for all
Americans would somehow turn us into a failed petrostate. On the right, there
tends to be a lot of misinformation and fearmongering about what socialism even
is. Perhaps a bit of personal history might shed some light on the question.
One sunny
afternoon in August 1984, my wife and I passed through Checkpoint Charlie, where
we were required to trade 50 Westmarks for 50 worthless Ostmarks. As we wandered
the streets of East Berlin, we witnessed the somber, hopeless faces of the city’s
few pedestrians. We marveled at the cheap-looking Trabants that motored loudly
up and down the streets and belched foul fumes out of their tailpipes. We
passed soldier after soldier, each fully armed, each exuding an almost tangible
assurance that the Cold War was as real as any hot one. We watched people stand
in lines a block long to buy produce. We tried to spend our allotted Ostmarks
in the city’s most prestigious department store but couldn’t find even a
souvenir we wouldn’t have thrown away. We finally bought a cheap noodle press
and a metric measuring cup. We ate at a state cafeteria where the food tasted
as unappetizing as it looked, then stopped at an ice cream parlor on Unter den
Linden that was already out of practically everything on the menu by 4 p.m. By
evening we were more than eager to return to the hustle and plenty of West Berlin.
We left with most of our East German currency and absolutely no illusions about
communism.
I can
still remember later that evening visiting a little Slavic restaurant in a
quiet corner of Neukölln and how ecstatic I was over a tossed salad with tomatoes
and green peppers. “I could never get a salad like this in East Berlin!” I
exulted. That one afternoon behind the Iron Curtain had made me see the world
with new eyes. I marveled at how many stores and shops there were in the West,
and at how fully stocked they were. In fact, because of that one afternoon, I
can perhaps dimly imagine what the East Germans must have felt that November
day five years later when the Wall came tumbling down. I can understand their
desires for reunification and prosperity. I can understand their blind
assumption that capitalism is right—because communism is definitely wrong. But
there are many types of capitalism, and not all of them look like our top-heavy
American form of corporate capitalism.
How
many times have we heard from Republicans that socialism is evil, just one
step, or perhaps even a half-step, away from communism? But is socialism really
just a half-step away from communism? Remember the contrast I drew between the
scarcity of goods in East Berlin and their abundance in West Berlin, between
the oppression in the East and the freedom in West? Yes, this was a contrast
between two opposing systems. But it was not a contrast between communist East
Germany and capitalist America; it was a contrast between communist East
Germany and socialist West Germany. West Germany in the 1980s was a solidly
socialist country, with a universal multipayer health-care system, high
marginal tax rates, a statutory guarantee of four weeks’ paid vacation every
year (compared with none in America), and a substantial social safety net. Yes,
West Germany was what Republicans would deride as a welfare state. It also had
one of the strongest economies and highest standards of living in the world. It
was strong enough to absorb the crumbling mess that was East Germany and still
remain the strongest economy in Europe. Even today, Germany is solidly
socialist, and in 2014 all German states also began offering free university
tuition.
So,
when you hear cries of “socialism” or “Venezuela,” please remember that this is
simple partisan fearmongering by a party that has no solutions to the most
pressing issues of our day.
