Meeting In The Middle

Decades ago when the Soviet Union collapsed, I told family members that the U.S. lost the counterbalance it needed to be an effective world power.

Before going further, let’s separate communism / socialism from Russia.  Russia is a culture that tragically has a long history of oppression, brutality, cruelty, and suffering.  It’s not a culture that embraces eccentrics or rugged individualists.  Regardless of whether the system is czarist, communist, or oligarchy, it will be Russia, their very brief flirtations with democracy not withstanding.

The U.S. needed the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.S.R. needed the U.S.  It would be overly simplistic to say we kept each other honest; he didn’t, not in the conventional sense and we certainly prodded one another into proxy wars.

But the endurance of two rival socio-politico-economic powers kept both from becoming overpower and dangerous to world stability and to their own citizens.

If the capitalistic west made money through unjust exploitation, the communist message counterbalanced it.  Conversely if the lack of opportunity alienated other nations, they could look to America as a beacon of hope.

The U.S. successfully pushed the Soviet Union over the brink of bankruptcy.  We spent them into oblivion, threatening them militarily in ways that they could not compete.

Gorbachev tried to transition the U.S.S.R. from socialism-leaning-communist to a  ore democratic socialism as practiced in much of the west.

The hardliners attempted a coup and in doing so finally broke the authoritarian spell they held over their population.  Communism didn’t merely change, it fell apart, and the Russian people went through a long period of social and economic upheaval until the current kleptocracy came into power.

By wiping out the Soviet Union, the U.S. removed all restraint against our interests and desires.  With no one to supply aid -- economic or military -- to nations challenging the U.S., there was no significant pushback to our ambitions.

This played out in many arenas, most prominently in the Middle East with the two Gulf Wars.  We basically screwed up the region for generations, and those cultures have long memories; they will not forgive us soon.

Now we face a similar situation to Russia in 1991:  Hardliners with no wide support have seized control of the government and implement a number of policies that are self-destructive and contrary to what the citizenry wants. 

They’re lead by billionaires and corporations seeking to rule the world as the feudal lords of old.  They feel they have the resources to weather any storm they conjure up, and they frankly don’t care what carnage they unleash upon the rest of us.
But like the hardline communists in the last days of the Soviet Union, they won’t be able to consolidate this power grab.

Many Americans abrogated their duty to defend democracy at the ballot box by claiming both parties are the same.

No, they’re not.

As Chris Hedges points out, while Democrats may not be true centrists (claims they’re liberals or socialists are just gaslighting by Trumpian propagandists), they do seek stability and peace, wanting to find a balance between the economic elite and the average citizen.  There’s no denying they err on the side of the dollar too often, but at least they’re not intending outright theft and dominion.

The oligarchs in the G.O.P., on the other hand, couldn’t care less what happens to the average citizen so long as they get richer and more powerful.

Is there another way?

Ironically, yes, and it’s to be found in Communist China.

The Chinese have figured out a way of running two systems simultaneously, like a computer partitioned to run both Apple and MicroSoft programming.  They give their entrepreneurs freedom to innovate and make money, but keep they on a sturdy enough leash that when they need restraint they can be brought to heel without disrupt society too much.

Conversely, they see to it that the average citizen benefits in the success of the entrepreneur class, that they enjoy a higher standard of living than they would under a purely communistic system.

The result is far from ideal -- Chinese communists are notoriously hardline -- but it is a workable balance.  They get the benefits from both systems and both systems benefit from the Chinese government making sure everything is distributed fairly.

The citizens don’t suffer, and the entrepreneurs enjoy the stability they need to become wealthy.

The future for America -- and I’ll be honest, I recognize we may not continue as the United States -- will need us to embrace such a system.

© Buzz Dixon