But there is evidence that the American public is warming up to the term.
November 14, 2014
Bernie Sanders
Photo Credit: Erica J Mitchell/Shutterstock.com
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Congress's longest-serving
independent, is reportedly seriously considering running for the White
House. This is significant because Sanders
openly declares himself to be a democratic socialist – a label which has been a taboo in U.S. political culture for decades.
But
while Sanders will likely be attacked for identifying with socialism,
it has a long history of being used by the reactionary right as a smear.
In fact, that history pre-dates the Civil War.
History blogger Matt Karp searched
the Congressional record and found the very first instance that the
word “socialism” was uttered in Congress. He found that the first time
anyone used the phrase was when a North Carolinian congressman used it
to attack opponents of slavery:
As far as I can make
out, the first reference to “socialism” on the floor of Congress came
from North Carolina representative Abraham Venable in July 1848. During
a debate over the Wilmot Proviso, Venable indulged himself in a
familiar litany of destructive Northern manias, which ranged from “the
wicked schemes of Garrison” to “the wild excesses of Millerism, and of
Latter-Day Saints, the abominations of Socialism, and of Fourieriesm …
and all the numerous fanaticisms which spring up and flourish in their
free soil…” […] This kind of pro-slavery, anti-Northern rant was the
context for most mentions of “socialism” in Congress during the next
several years.
As Karp notes, the
“socialism” smear continued to rear its head during the next year
leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation, as pro-slavery advocates
warned that if abolitionists succeeded in ending the South's ownership
of human beings, they may soon also end private ownership of massive
industries like banking.
After the end of slavery,
conservatives continued to invoke socialism to oppose all kinds of
progressive reforms. In the early 20th century, the Congress, prodded by
what was indeed an independent socialist movement and various other
labor forces, banned child labor. But after the Supreme Court struck
down the ban, arguing it violated state's rights, Congress debated a
constitutional amendment to ban the practice instead (which required a
larger threshold of votes to pass).
One senator
who opposed to the ban claimed that the child labor amendment was
really about placing socialism “into the flesh and blood of Americans.”
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When
Franklin Roosevelt (under whom the previously mentioned ban on child
labor finally went through and was not struck down by a conservative
Supreme Court) advocated for the Social Security system, the American
Medical Association (AMA)
opposed his push, saying that he was trying to enact a “compulsory socialistic tax.”
One
of the most prominent uses of the socialism smear was when Lyndon
Johnson was pushing for the enactment of Medicare, the single-payer
health insurance system for the elderly. Ronald Reagan, then a prominent
actor and not a politician, appeared in audio recordings for the AMA
Operation Coffee Cup – which organized Americans to oppose the health
care push. “One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or
socialism on a people is by way of medicine,”
warned Reagan in the advertisement.
All
of this begs the question: if all of these major reforms that are today
virtually uncontroversial – few ever call for the total abolition of
Medicare and Social Security, or for re-instating child labor or slavery
– were decried as socialism, maybe socialism isn't so bad after all?
There is evidence that American public opinion is starting to warm up to the term. In 2011,
Pew conducted polling
finding that, among Americans age 18-29, 49 percent of them had a
positive view of socialism, whereas 43 percent had a negative view.
Meanwhile, among the same age bracket, 46 percent had a positive view of
capitalism, while 47 percent had a negative view of it. While the
overall views of Americans remained decidedly negative – with 60 percent
holding a negative view of socialism and just 30 percent holding a
positive view – this generational difference may point to shifting
attitudes among future generations.
It may be just that
shift in perspective that Sanders can tap into if he decides to seek the
presidency – and a legacy of “socialism” that gave America some of its
most treasured social policy reforms.
