From my Writing Room

Copyright © 2020 by Uwe Bahr

 “We are standing in the breach against socialism.”
Senator David Perdue (R-GA) in a contribution on his campaign web site on 16 November, 2020.

“We are the firewall … We are going to hold the line against socialism, right here in Georgia.”
Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) in a campaign appearance on 20 November, 2020.

“Stop the Spread of Socialism.”
Slogan on a campaign flier distributed by the Republican Party to households in North Georgia on 20 November, 2020.

Note: The author of the following article has spent the first 30 years of his life in socialism in East Germany, the former GDR, until the Berlin wall fell in November 1989.

As richly ironic as it is in the presence of scientific and historic facts versus millions of Americans nevertheless falling for political demagogues radiating hollow slogans, it can be repeated mantra-like over and over again, just to fail as often in appealing to a sound mind:

“Socialism is a System or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.”
Source: Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (unabridged), page 2162.

It is worth noting here that any legal, accompanying measures within a political system – for instance, a nationalized Health Care System – has as much to do with socialism as a tomato grower in Georgia would have to do with the backside of the moon ^[1].

This should be easy enough to understand. I personally have – not voluntarily – lived and worked in such a system of socialism, and I can assure that there is nothing even close to that form of society existent or in arrangement in the United States of America. Those Americans suggesting the country is on its way to socialism or this is what the Democrat’s operative, final objective constitutes, are probably equally exposed to the delusion that Satan and Rumpelstiltskin are in existence and on their way somewhere in the woods.

The unsolicited flier from the Republican Party coming to my house could not have been delivered to a more inapt recipient: Having been exposed to dull paroles by the communists throughout my younger years, they did not even reach our minds and, instead, were quickly disposed where they belonged: to the garbage dump of history. At any given time, the vast majority of the people living in the so-called communistic German Democratic Republic (GDR) retained their ability to distinguish between what was right and what was wrong. The historic fact that East German people by the hundreds of thousands in the fall of 1989 took their quest for freedom to the streets, did not simply emerge overnight. It resulted from the ability to think for ourselves and recognize reality, admittedly supported by the proximity of a free, yet inaccessible democratic West Germany, with close relatives living there and the unhampered reception of West German TV- and Radio stations in the East.

As a resident in the United States for now 22 years, the unlikely emergence of someone like Donald Trump as the country’s president has led me to the conclusion: There are obviously millions of Americans literally incapable to think for themselves outside their domiciliary companionship or their churches. This is a frightening perception, for any democracy in the world is in jeopardy if not only the thinking of a few alone, but the thinking of millions operates on a different level of facts and truths. Ironically, the astonishing assertion of former White House advisor, Kellyanne Conway, that there are “alternative facts”^[2], has – at least in my judgement – coined the entire presidency of Donald Trump. There were “alternative facts” emerging from the White House almost on a daily basis, including the denial and downplaying of a deadly virus circulating in the US with the unimaginable loss of 255,000 American lives so far (as of this writing).

There are clear signs that the ubiquitous prevarication, accepted as facts in shockingly large parts of the American society, will not vanish with the disappearance of Donald Trump as president. The contrary seems the case, and political windbags like David Perdue are the beneficiary demagogues of such incomprehensible, unbiased gullibility. Perdue is the same man who not only repeats his dull paroles about an alleged socialism he has no clue about again and again, but had childishly mocked vice president-elect, Kamala Harris, this October by repeatedly and deliberately mispronouncing her first name in a campaign appearance. Needless to say that such an individual, behaving like a 5-year-old in Kindergarten, should never have a place in any function of public responsibility.

There is nothing constructive to expect from colorful figures like Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. They don’t have a concept of socialism; they are using the phrase repeatedly as a catchword to delude the people, knowing about the fishiness widely attributed to any smack of socialism in the US. Lawmakers who have no reservation or conscience to sell their own people for a sucker with brainless slogans for the sole purpose of reelection have their own ego and their own clientele of profiteers in mind – and nothing else.

Notes

 [1] The Second German Empire, founded in 1871 and the first German nation state in existence, is regarded as the ancestral homeland of social security. The Reich’s founder, Otto von Bismarck, introduced the compulsory insurance in 1883, including health care insurance in the same year, followed by accident insurance in 1884. – Bismarck, for sure, was far from being a socialist: Under his instigation and leadership, the Anti-Socialist-Law passed the German Reichstag in 1878, de facto banning social democratic, socialist, and communist associations and activities. – Although I am hesitant to mention it: A widely unknown historic fact is that social security in Germany was significantly extended by Adolf Hitler – the very same leader who sent not only Jewish people, but also hundreds of thousands communists, socialists, social democrats, liberals, unionists, and centrists to the infamous concentration camps.   

[2] The remark is mentioned in Bob Woodward’s 2020 book “Rage” on page 262. – After White House press secretary Sean Spicer had presented false statements about the attendance numbers of Trump’s inauguration, Conway stated in a press interview two days later, on 22 January, 2020: “We have alternative facts.”