Sunday, August 25, 2024

Celebrating Summer Socialism


I've been trying hard this summer to spend more time outside. Life is short, summers are even shorter, and there are birds to see, trails to hike and a beautiful lake to kayak on just minutes from my house. 

Yesterday, skimming along on Marsh Creek Lake, I found myself thinking of how much I have to be thankful for and how my pleasure is multiplied by knowing the beauty around me is shared with many others. 

The lake itself is a reservoir created to provide water to communities in northern Chester County. It also helps moderate flooding in communities downriver on the beautiful Brandywine. The state park that surrounds the lake provides a summer day camp for local kids, boat rentals from spring through fall, fishing, a pool, lots of trails for hikers, bikers and horses, and a beautiful spot where on any pleasant evening there are lots of folks gathering to watch the sun set across the lake. 

The lake and the land surrounding it, all 1,784 acres, are owned by the people of Pennsylvania. From what I can tell, that's a form of socialism. 

Here's the Encyclopedia Britannica definition:

"Socialism, social and economic  doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. According to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in cooperation with one another."

I've been thinking about socialism because last week former President Trump, campaigning here in Pennsylvania, called Kamala Harris an "incompetent socialist lunatic."  I'm not a fan of language that treats mental illness lightly, and I think there's plenty of evidence of Harris' competence, but for now my concern is the misuse of the word "socialist". 

I've been called a socialist myself in my work with Fair Districts PA. For a while I had a very active troll who regularly accused me of being "a radical libtard socialist commie." Socialism and communism are not the same, but it appears the terms are used interchangeably by people more interested in hurling insults than having a reasonable conversation. 

Both socialism and communism are broad, imprecise terms, as is capitalism. 
In reality there's no completely capitalist country and no completely socialist country. Most are somewhere on a continuum. Finland and Sweden are described as socialist nations, but spend time there and you'll see plenty of private businesses, lots of privately owned homes, cars, and boats, and all the individual freedoms we enjoy here in the US. And while the US is described as a capitalist country, about 28% of US land is publicly owned and more than 4/5ths of US adults were educated in public schools. 

I wrote about socialism, What We Share, back in November 2020, just after the last presidential election. I was puzzled at the great outcry of fear that the Biden-Harris administration would destroy our country with dangerous socialism. 

Since then a record-breaking number of new businesses have launched in what the Commerce Institute describes as an "entrepreneurial awakening." 

Forbes, one of the most trusted business magazines in the world, says the US economy is much stronger now than it was at the height of those warnings of socialist doom just four years ago. As of May 2024, these are the highlights of the Forbe's assessment, 

  • Job stability is more pronounced than before the pandemic
  • More workers receive substantial wage gains
  • Household wealth far outpaces income
  • Homeownership has expanded
  • Households face lower debt burdens

From what I can tell, capitalism has done just fine under the Biden-Harris administration. At a June 2024 press conference on the US economy, Kristalina Gerogieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said

the U.S. economy .. .  has been remarkably strong. Activity and employment have exceeded expectations and the disinflation process has proven less costly than most feared.  The U.S. is the only G-20 economy whose GDP level now exceeds the pre-Pandemic level. 

The real question in our political debates, covered by distracting cries of "socialism," is this: who is the public-private continuum designed to benefit most? 

I remember seeing a short video clip from Elizabeth Warren a decade or more ago.  She was suggesting millionaires pay their fair share. And immediately attacked as a socialist. That label stuck but was never true. 


Socialism, taken too far, can be harmful. The same is true of unfettered capitalism. 

It's the fear surrounding socialism that puzzles me, the unfounded accusations, and  the weird idea that any policy that helps us all will ruin our economy. 

No doubt we'll be hearing plenty of accusations of socialism in the days ahead.  

What do people mean when they say it?

What policies are they objecting to? And why?

I'm not an economist, but I'll likely be looking more closely at economic policy as we move toward November. 

As I wrote in my post in 2020: 

There is no perfect economic structure. No perfect political system. Every human institution can fall prey to thugs, con artists, powerful, greedy people looking out for their own good.

But there will always be things we share.

Our lives are better, our communities safer, thanks to politicians who braved accusations of socialism to create social security, worker protections, regulations that protect our air and water. 

I'm thankful for them, and for others who initiated national and state parks, conservation areas, public libraries, safe, well-designed highways. 

Join me in enjoying those shared public goods in these last sweet days of summer.

And join me in pushing back against misleading, fear-based accusations.



                                      

Some earlier posts on money, budgets and economic policy: 


Saturday, August 17, 2024

Bad Faith Documentary / Good Faith Podcast

I recently attended a screening of a documentary called Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism's Unholy War on Democracy. I'd been hearing more and more about Project 2025, and praying more and more about the disconnect between what I read in my Bible every morning and what I hear from some Christian friends, relatives, and leaders. The film seemed a chance to gain some perspective, gather some facts, maybe see a way forward.

Ten minutes in I pulled out my cellphone and started taking notes:

Weyrich
Rushdooney
oil barons
T Cullen Davis
Elimination of corporate taxes
Shadow Nation ...

Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, Revolution of Values:
"The worst evils never present themselves as evil. They always present themselves as good."

By the end of the 88 minute documentary, I had scores of little notes typed into the notes app on my phone. My head was reeling. I felt a bit sick, a bit like crying. 

It was all so familiar, yet so very twisted. I've been in church, almost every Sunday, my entire life. My husband Whitney has worked in Christian ministry since he was 22. He retired last fall but even now he's consulting with an international ministry.

Those were people we know, quoting verses we've read, in support of destroying our nation. 

Sounds extreme? Here are my notes from a clip with Ken Peters, pastor of the Patriot Church in Knoxville, Tennessee:

The leftists are coming.
Good cannot unify with evil.
We're going into civil war.
Every home should have as many guns as possible. 
 

Steve Schmidt, a former Republican political strategist who worked with President George W Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arizona Senator John McCain, warned that an autocratic end of democracy as we've know it is closer than we realize: 

What always happens, when you look at autocratic movements, is one guy is not enough to give it lift.
Is there a charismatic leader with the capacity to build a cult of personality? 100%. Donald Trump did that.

But that's not enough for an autocratic movement. You need to have a propaganda arm, and they have it.
But that's not enough. You need to have the cynicism of the elites, the most highly educated people in the country . . . who look at all of this and say "I can ride that tiger. I can manipulate these rubes who actually like this guy, to my own advantage."
Because at the core of an autocratic movement is no morality. In fact, it's immorality. Or amorality. Because it's about power.

And in pursuit of that power, history teaches us, terrible terrible things happen. 

I was so troubled by what I saw that I asked Whitney to watch it with me at home. So on Sunday evening we watched it together, then spent our normal Sunday evening prayer time praying for our nation, our churches, our family members caught in the web of anger, lies and power. 

Old Testament lament involved wearing rags and ashes, wailing loudly, going hungry. That's a bit how I feel every time I think of the content of that film.
But then I remember a comment from Rev. William Barber, minister, activist, leader of the New Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival. Barber was one of the strongest voices in the film speaking out against Christian nationalism, yet also the one with the strongest message of hope. I went back again to capture what he said: 

I believe we're in the moment right now that's prime for a movement that leads us into a resurrection of America. And I believe if we do it right with love and justice many of the people who have put on Christian nationalism will take it off, will get born again, will see the gospel and its truth, and that's what gives me hope, even in America. 

I'm not an optimist, no, no. I'm full of Christian hope, which looks at the despair, and at the destruction, and at the denial, and at the deception and says they are real, but they don't have to have the last say.

 Is that possible? What would love and justice and hope look like in such a dangerous, divided time?

I've just started reading a book from InterVarsity Press, Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor, by Caleb E Campbell. Campbell was once a neo-Nazi white nationalist, now pastor of a large non-denominational church in Phoenix, Arizona. He describes Christian nationalism as "the Leviathan, the ancient mythical sea monster that lives in the disordered abyss . . . a vivid symbol for cosmic chaos and the evil power that oppose the loving, orderly ways of God." 

I'll be writing in future posts about Campbell's ideas for a faithful, loving, hopeful way forward. But this week, I'm sharing a podcast I stumbled on, a conversation between Campbell and Curtis Chang, host of the Good Faith podcast and founder of  Redeeming Babel, begun in 2019 "to address three underlying theological problems driving the chaos and confusion of our current world": 

a mistaken spirituality of anxiety (interior)
a missing theology of organizations (institutional)
a misshapen approach to politics (societal)
Campbell describes the growing challenge of Christian nationalism in his community, his church. He describes the seductive invitation to "fight fire with fire" by picking up the sword:
"turn the other cheek only works, only gets you so far. Now we've got to play by their rules. And so they put down the way of the Messiah and pick up Machiavelli and say "the ends justify the means."
I've heard that when people I love explain their vote for Donald Trump. "Sure he's a mocking narcissist, a liar, a serial adulterer. But God can use him to fight fire with fire. And if guns are needed, well . . . didn't God call his people to pick up their swords and fight?"

There is dangerous division in our churches, our families, our communities.  

In the months ahead, that division will likely grow. 
I know thoughtful, well-informed people working hard to prevent potential chaos in the days ahead. Many of them worry that the violence of January 6 might be just a hint of what could come next. 
What's my role in this strange season in the life of our nation, and our Christian churches?

What's your role?

In the closing pages of Disarming Leviathan, Campbell says his book is not an invitation to engage in the culture wars surrounding us. "It is refusing to fight the war altogether, to lay down the way of the sword and pick up the way of the cross."

What does the way of the cross look like?

Campbell suggests spiritual formation, love and belonging, prayer, humble subversion.

I look forward to learning and sharing more. And I join William Barber in his prayer of hope:

I'm not an optimist, no, no. I'm full of Christian hope, which looks at the despair, and at the destruction, and at the denial, and at the deception and says they are real, but they don't have to have the last say.

 



𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘

Byron Borger of Hearts and Minds bookstore in York PA, offered a long, thoughtful review of Disarming Leviathan in his July 30 Booknotes. He's also offering a 20% discount- so please consider supporting his work and his faithful witness in that very divided county. 
Yes- I've posted in the past about the work of hope. Maintaining hope is a Biblical mandate and a continuing challenge. 
Defiant, Persistent, Prophetic Hope, July 2018
What I'd Give: Resolute Hope, January 2016
Perplexed, but still hopeful, January 2012

I've also posted my views of Donald Trump, some shared before he was elected president, some after. I pray for his safety and repentance but will never, ever understand how a follower of Christ could claim that God instructs his people to vote for someone so quick to mock and so very slow to listen.

Memory, Lament, PrayerMay 2017
Women's Voices, January 2017 
Maintain Justice, October 2016
Defending the Indefensible, October 2016
Workers and their Wages, September 2016
Election Fraud and Rigged Elections, August 2016