After all the ridiculous right-wing accusations that
Democratic politicians like Barack Obama and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are
“socialists” or “communists” or “Marxists,” we might as well take the
opportunity to extract the lesson in Marxism implied in Joe Biden’s farewell
address.
By way of preface, I’ll point out that accusing political
opponents of being “Marxist” did not start in the era of Barack Obama and did
not always come from the Republican right. One of the strangest such incidents
occurred during a 1976 presidential debate
between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, in which implications of Marxism were unexpectedly
used to smack down an opponent. In trying to defend the recent Republican unemployment
record, Ford demurred that unemployment during previous Democratic
administrations was lower because more men were in the army fighting the
Vietnam War: “I must remind him [Carter] that we’re at peace and during the
period that he brags about unemployment being low, the United States was at war.”
To which Carter replied that Ford was “insinuating that ...unemployment
could only be held down when this country is at war. Karl Marx said that the
free enterprise system in a democracy can only continue to exist when they are
at war or preparing far [sic] war. Karl Marx was the grandfather of
Communism. I don’t agree with that statement. I hope Mr. Ford doesn’t either.”
Gerald Ford had indeed echoed the argument of Marxist
economists Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy, in Monopoly Capital,
that roughly the same proportion of the workforce was either in the military,
unemployed, or dependent on welfare in the 1960s as during the Great Depression,
with the difference that a higher percentage were in the military in the 60s.
Carter apparently recognized this source, and said—not that that Ford’s
statement was false, but. essentially: “That’s a Marxist argument, so it can’t
be entertained. As I’m sure Mr. Ford will agree.” Mic drop, American style.
Well, I’ll take the occasion to do a reverse Jimmy Carter, drawing out the Marxist implications in this excerpt from Biden’s farewell speech in order not to dismiss but to take them seriously:
That’s why in my farewell address tonight, I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. And this is a dangerous — and that’s, and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked. Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead. We see the consequences all across America. And we’ve seen it before.
More than a century ago, the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trusts. They didn’t punish the wealthy. They just made the wealthy play by the rules everybody else had. Workers want rights to earn their fair share. You know, they were dealt into the deal, and it helped put us on the path to building the largest middle class, the most prosperous century any nation the world has ever seen. We’ve got to do that again.
Actually, Joe, an oligarchy has taken shape in America. a “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultrawealthy people.” Yes, “we’ve seen it before,” and neither the “trust busters” of over a century ago nor the New Deal and post-war policies ended that oligarchy, although the latter did for a while ameliorate its effects.
