A Friend from Hawaii Joins the Conversation
Varna, Bulgaria, February 4th, 2020
Salaroche

My friend’s response is to a reply I sent to another friend yesterday, February 3rd.  This is what my Hawaii friend wrote:

“This is an excellent and lucid analysis.  I’d like to add an observation about the reason the trump-virus has taken hold.  I think the nation’s psyche was prepared for the easy absorption of this sickness by the mental conditioning, starting at the end of the War, that prepared American voters to shy away from any policies and ideals that smack of socialism.

In other words, resistance to Trump gets watered down by the voter’s inveterate fear of the Communist Menace.  Many would-be never-Trumpers can’t get behind all these notions promulgated by Trump opponents that sound “socialist.”  So far Americans, under the umbrella of an impotent media, can’t learn the difference between Socialism and Communism.

The Roosevelt New Deal was a socialist programme. It has already been accepted, welcomed and applauded, but has also been undermined, corroded, and corrupted since those days by especially the Reagan administration.

Thanks, ---------"

The following is my response to my Hawaii friend:

Thanks for adding your observations to my reply to my friend’s response. Entirely in agreement with your factoring the American people’s age-old fear of socialism in the whole scheme of things in question, particularly since, as you mention, not many of our fellow citizens know the difference between communism and socialism.

That fear is something that may very likely play a crucial role in the coming elections, and definitely not to the benefit of the Democrats, particularly if it’s Bernie or Warren the one to face Trump.

I wouldn’t doubt that even if it’s Biden the Democratic candidate, Trump will try to hurl that socialist pseudo-insult against him as many times as he sees fit, although I don’t know how well he would be able to pin it on Biden.  

I would, however, have to clarify that across most of the three years since Trump came to power, the fear of socialism/communism hasn’t played much of a role in tightening Trump's grip on the Republican party or in keeping his followers in line.

Thus far, what seems to be solidifying Trumps control over his followers is, on the one hand, his shameless disregard for protocols of any kind, which in some ways seems to satisfy the need to vent their anger against the status quo felt by the white supremacists and others and, on the other, the fact that he’s been handing precious gifts to the religious right, (i.e., conservative judges, etc.) plus deregulations and tax breaks that benefit the moneyed classes. All, or most, of them groups and entities affiliated with the Republican Party in different degrees.

No doubt that the main causes behind the sociopolitical insanity we’re presently witnessing in the US of A are not anything born solely out of one particular event or another. Far from that. This is all a conglomeration of sociopolitical and economic factors that have been accumulating for many years now. We might even argue with some plausibility that this is all just one more evidence that the Civil War never came to a final resolution and that many people continue fighting it through means other than bullets.

In any case, a very important chapter in American history has been written over the past few weeks (i.e., the Impeachment process and its derivatives) and an equally important, although perhaps a more consequential one, is about to be written this coming November.

Thank you for sharing your observations, have a good day or night and talk to you some other time.

Salaroche