Government Class
I was a high school government teacher for the majority of my thirty-five and a half year educational career. There was a lot of complex teaching going on: the nuts and bolts of the US Constitution, the legal intricacies of our Court systems, and even the basics of finance and taxation. And, somewhere in the middle of all that there was the “crazy-isms” lesson. First was the “crazy-isms” of governing: fascism, totalitarianism, anarchism, federalism and communism. They along came democracies, monarchies, theocracies, autocracies, kleptocracies. They were all ways to govern (or in anarchy’s case, not govern).
We came up with memorable examples, often based on more familiar situations. Gangs “ruled” through theft and intimidation – a kleptocracy. Iran’s Supreme Leader was the head of the ruling religion – a theocracy. Monarchs wore crowns, hereditary kingships; a monarchy. Totalitarians wanted total control (from the military to toilet paper) – totalitarianism.
Basic Macro-Economics
Then we switched to economics. Who owned businesses, who paid wages, who put products on the market. More “isms”: capitalism, socialism, Marxism. Capitalists believed that “the means of production”, business and industry; should be owned by private individuals competing with each other. Socialists believed that the main businesses should be owned by the government, a government made up of the people, democratically elected.
And Marxists (Communists) believed that “All of the means of production”, from farm lands to factories to retail stores selling goods (toilet paper – forest to mill to packaging to store) should be owned by the government, a government controlled by the Communist Party (another “crazy-ism”, an oligarchy, with “fake democratic” elections). Marxism, at its core, was supposed to be a dictatorship of the workers; but it turned out to just be a dictatorship of the powerful, with workers hung out to dry and nowhere to turn.
Governing versus Owning
So when some claim that the American government is socialist or Marxist, they are conflating government with economic models. The American Government is a complex Federal mixture, of fifty states that are governed by elected representatives: Representative Democracies. And then there’s a separate National government, also an elected Representative Democracy. None of that describes the economic model the United States follows. Most of the elected are definitely Capitalists, a few are Socialists, and I’m not aware of any Marxists elected in the United States.
So what is the economic model of the United States? We are a “mixed economy”. Our “base” plan is capitalism, private ownership of business, manufacturing, production, distribution and retailing. But we also have government regulations of those industries. We try to provide a “safety net” so that individuals and families don’t fall through into abject poverty. The United States tries to provide food, housing, education and health care to every American.
There are no “Marxists” in the American Government. And there are no “Communists” either. When most of the other Nations of the world look at the United States, our economy is far less “controlled” by the government than theirs. And, of course, if you look at the United States’ greatest economic rival, China; their economy is Communist, totally controlled by their government.
No Marxists
There are some socialists in American political life, but they seem “extreme” to most Americans. Even Bernie Sanders is a “mixed economy” guy, though his mix includes a whole lot more government regulation than we have today. And where is Kamala Harris? She is to the “right” of Sanders on economic issues, in fact, she is right down the center-line of American economic theory.
And what about Trump? He certainly is more “pure capitalist” than Harris. But he too takes advantage of government intervention. After all, bankruptcy is a government protection. Trump declared bankruptcy six times in his career. So Trump wants the ability to run his businesses without government regulation, but he still wants the “fallback position” of government protection. That’s not pure capitalism, there’s no “mercy” there.
So when the MAGA crowd calls Vice President Harris a “Marxist”, they are demonstrating one of two things. Either they didn’t listen to their Government teacher back in high school, and are ignorant of the “crazy-isms”, or they are willfully lying to the public. Donald Trump is proud of graduating from the Wharton School of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. I suspect there was at least one macro-economics class on his schedule. He should know the differences in economic theories.
I guess that makes him a liar: surprised?
Hmm and madam Harris has never lied. She’s just regurgitating what her handlers tell her as did Biden. Nothing to see here.
Not going to argue that point (though I can’t think of an example off hand) – but she’s no where near a Marxist. That’s my point
I, unfortunately, did not have the privilege of having you as a teacher; however, your coworkers taught me that the United States of America is a Constitutional Republic (which you failed to mention), and, which many in the political arena (more heavily on the left) continually misrepresent by calling our form of government a “democracy.” Yes, we have a democratic process, but we are not a democracy because the founding fathers were geniuses when they established the electoral college. Again, this is what I was taught. Civics/Government education has obviously transformed, because it’s maddening to continually hear people parroting those in government, saying that we are a democracy. Yes, ignorance certainly abounds.
Or, maybe we are a democracy (because the current environment certainly is “crazy”), and the lesson of being a constitutional republic was just another lie I was taught, in addition to many others (e.g. the JFK assassination narrative, the Vietnam War narrative, etc.).
Both sides of the aisle are proficient in lying.
It’s all so disheartening.
So just to be clear – a Republic is defined as “a form of government in which a state is ruled by representatives of the citizen body”. A representative democracy (the term I specifically used) is defined as: political system in which citizens of a country or other political entity vote for representatives to handle legislation and otherwise rule that entity on their behalf.
I would argue a distinction without a difference – and neither apply to the Electoral College which is essentially un-democratic (or “anti-republican”).