Commentary by K.E. Bell
Ah, the great boogeyman that is socialism.
We can’t have universal healthcare because that would be socialist. We can’t feed the poor because that would be socialist. We can’t build light rail, have free tuition, offer paid parental leave, or help anyone get a leg up in any way.
Most importantly, we can’t tax the rich because that would be socialist.
Socialism and communism will never take a foothold in America because our religion is Capitalism. We have rigged the government to be by the rich for the rich, and the corporations are greasing the wheels to make sure it stays that way. Heck, for the last 15 years they’ve been considered people.
Sounding the alarm on the dangers of Marxism sounds at best disingenuous and more appropriately like a red herring coming from a side that has systematically tilted the playing field in its own direction over the last 50 years.
The Republicans have captured the courts on up to the Supreme Court. They have gerrymandered districts to eliminate competition while ignoring the will of the people. They’ve reversed women’s rights and voting rights, and made sure big money has more say. The tax breaks enacted by Reagan, George W. Bush, and Trump have moved $79 trillion dollars from the bottom 90% to the top 1% since 1975, according to a 2025 report from the nonpartisan Rand Corporation. Those tax breaks have also ballooned the national debt to $39 trillion, and the interest on that debt is more than a trillion dollars a year.
At some point, the adults are going to have to enter the room and fix this.
Social Security is on track to become insolvent by 2032, when it will no longer be able to pay out full benefits as the Baby Boomers live out their golden years and Gen X enters its retirement years. Healthcare costs keep rising, and we pay roughly double for less care than those “horrible socialist” European countries.
That might be part of the Republicans’ current strategy: Let it burn and make the other side raise taxes to fix it, then reclaim office when tax hikes turn the electorate against the Democrats.
We’re in a second robber baron era that must end. Make Musk pay his damn taxes rather than take his compensation in stock and borrow against his assets. Make big business pay its fair share.
I have no idea what my colleague, Mr. Corbett, is talking about in terms of a push toward Marxism. I suspect it is Mayor Mamdani in New York who has him so on guard. Mamdani, like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), brands himself a Democratic socialist, and he expounds on ideas of making living more affordable. I don’t see him or his ilk seizing the means of production.
[For the record, Mamdani alone among the three is a member of the organization Democratic Socialists of America but ran for New York City mayor as a member of the Democratic Party. Sanders and AOC are self-described democratic socialists in their political leanings.]
It’s just like the Democrats to mis-brand a movement. The word socialism is so taboo on the right that using the term democratic socialist becomes toxic. Just say you’re progressives — you want to move the country forward.
Mr. Corbett’s examples of communism gone wrong are indeed horrific. But they were the acts of bad men with too much power.
You know who else is a bad man with too much power? Donald J. Trump. And he’s given that power by a do-nothing, capitulate-at-all-costs Congress.
The United States needs to turn away from this era of far-right authoritarianism.
Adopting a few socialist…err…progressive…ideas along the way will be necessary. But I don’t think it’s fair to call taxing the rich and providing a basic social safety net “socialism.” You don’t get to wrench us hard to the right then call a turn back to the left “socialism.” Enacting these types of policies would be just an effort to rebalance the rightward tilt of the country over the last 50 years.
Bell is a contributing pundit for The Hustings.