Socialism In America
By: Letizia Timoni
Tags: United States, Socialism, Donald Trump, America, Bernie Sanders

The United States has generally been very against socialism for a long time. Despite many of their ally countries incorporating many socialist ideas into their policies, Americans continue to maintain a very general unmoving stance against any possibilities of implementing such systems.

But why are Americans so against socialism?

This fear for a political theory can begin to be tracked back to the first World War. In the early 20th century, there was an increasingly widespread fear for any form of far-left extremism. These included ideas such as Bolshevism and anarchism, which the U.S. Military regarded as terrorist organizations at the time. This spread of terror was called the First Red Scare. The government’s inspective eye stretched beyond political organizations, viewing immigrants as the bringers of socialist ideas. Socialists were often grouped with anarchists, Bolsheviks, and communists. This scrutiny was mostly caused by events such as the October revolution and the anarchist bombing. Violent events like these were what pushed the United States into their fight against the spread of communism.

The United States continued to fight for that goal, allying with other countries to help them win their battles, fighting against the spread of communism.

One example of this could be the Korean war. Previous to the Korean War, the United States was no particular ally of South Korea. However, in 1950–1953, the northern half of Korea fought the Southern for control over the peninsula in the Korean war. The North, being communist at the time, would have made the entire peninsula one communist nation, spreading communism throughout the world. The United States stepped in to fight with the South Koreans. South Korea is not incredibly close to the United States, and at the time, they were not very politically or economically involved with each other either. But the sheer fear and opposition for communism pushed the United States to fight a whole war.

So why is this relevant today? Because the inherent opposition for things far-left political ideologies such as socialism affects modern U.S. politics. During the presidential elections, U.S. voters often exhibit behavior similar to what James Buchanon described in his public choice theory. Public choice theory is essential that when given the opportunity to make a choice, people will keep the concern for others within their mind, they are generally more likely to make decisions that would benefit or aid themselves. This gets put into play when the more socialist candidates during the presidential elections end up not succeeding. Voters are not against any socialist policies or systems being implemented, but they also tend to choose the more populist candidates. The latter claim to help voters as individuals rather than society as a whole, which could have little to no benefits to them as an individual voter.

Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate who ran in both the 2016 and 2020 elections, was unable to succeed due to his more ambitious platform ideas. These included, however, were not limited to promising single-payer national health insurance programs, offering free tuition at public colleges to cancel student debt, and relaunching a Green New Deal, which works on transitioning electricity for buildings and transportation to renewable energy within the next ten years. But in return for all these benefits, Sanders admitted that he would have to raise taxes.

This is where public choice theory comes into play. Although these tax raises would be beneficial to society as a whole, they would negatively impact the voters as individuals. Thus more populist candidates such as Donald Trump become more popular and rise to top rankings. Populism is a weak ideology that only relates to a small portion of political activities. In essence, it calls for pushing the political establishment in place out but fails to suggest what should replace it. In this way, it is often associated with ideologies such as nationalism. Trump, in making claims that he would be able to serve as the voice for the “forgotten men and women” of the United States and that he alone can fix the nation, he projected populist values that appealed to the people. He presented general rhetoric that he would be a president helping the people, rather than offering a platform helping the society as a whole.

Although younger generations are generally increasingly open to these more socialist systems being implemented, the majority of the United States continues to be anti-socialist. This is interesting to consider given that although there are many other powerful nations in the world which implement mild socialist ideas into their societies successfully, many voters in the U.S. fail to recognize that it could be beneficial to their country and are afraid to try a new kind of candidate, one more ambitious for change.

Will voters within the United States continue to open up to socialist ideas as newer generations become eligible to vote, or will they clutch onto the stereotypes and stigmas created during the war?

Only time will tell.