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Monday, February 1, 2010

Republican "Marxist Envy"; Che!

"If you were to listen to the debate...you would think this was some Bolshevik Plot." 
 President Barack Obama speaking to Republicans about their resistance to health care.

Whenever the reactionary elements of American political society need to tar and feather some opponent, they pull out the "Marxist" or "Communist" label.  This is a long term  "straw man" and/or "bogeyman" for the paranoid right wing. The "red scare" is the their primary tactic that they slash against reform or proletarian movements across American 20th century history.  In truth, it used far less often than the label of 'fascist' which is an accurate label for many modern reactionary/conservative movements.

Considering how hawkish and bank-oriented Barack Obama's economic past year of policies have been,  the charges of Barack Obama as a "Marxist" or "Socialist" strike me as lacking credulity. In reality, we cannot realistically compare Obama's imperialist, corporatist, war-time economy to the  policies promulgated by 20th century New World Marxist leaders like Castro, Guevara, Allende, Ortega, or Chavez .  Indeed, I cannot imagine 20th century American Marxists Big Bill Heywood, Norman Thomas, Eugene V. Debs, Harry Bridges, or even Huey Newton or Angela Davis striking as centrist wartime and corporatist economic policies as President Obama.

As a simple example of this: Can any of you imagine any of these Marxists leader supporting anything but either 'single-payer' or (more accurately) true nationalized health care? Would any of these Marxist leaders send such a continued rush of troops to Afghanistan?  Would any of them have tolerated the subversive, reactionary lobbying influences of the lobbyists of pharma, insurance, private health markets to health care proposals?   Would any of them have "bailed out the banking system" with such ferocity instead of nationalizing the banking system? Would any of them have tolerated the widening gap between the rich and the poor in America without very direct 'redistribution efforts'?

I can't imagine such tolerance by Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, or Hugo Chavez. I suspect that even Canada wouldn't tolerate our watered down, luke warm, health proposal as it now stands.  If we receive a health care bill, it will most likely not be the most efficient/economical delivery of health care for our citizens. For most part, it will migrate, with corporatist help, into a profit vehicle for the American private health,pharmaceutical, insurance industries.  Our President is most decidedly not Marxist in his policy suggestions.  He seems to truly believe in "Ho'oponopono" from his native Hawaii, a term that suggests a form of tribal or even familial conflict negotiation.

Indeed, the subconscious of the  Republican party in the United States seems to be driven by some form of "Marxist Envy"; their animus propelled by some deep and powerful search for "Communists" coupled to a paranoia more energized than many of the utopian socialist fantasies of the left wing in America. To get an accurate idea of what one of the most recent Marxist revolutions in this hemisphere actually looked like, Bellinghammers can now check out from "Film is Truth" a 2008 Film by Steven Soderberg and Laura Bickford : Che . I recommend especially the supplemental third disk which contains interviews with still living revolutionaries in Cuba who fought along side Che and Castro and interviews with Cuban historians that describe how deep the support for the revolution in Cuba was, how brutal the Batista regime appeared in their neighborhoods and how the armed forces supported Castro and Che. I recommend the film if only to help come to understanding of what it would take for a true Marxist revolution to effect itself here in North America.

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