The Enemy Within

Apparently Trump's State of the Union address was slathered with redbaiting. POTUS vowed never to allow the United States to become another Venezuela. The political class and the oligarchs who write the checks applauded.

Interestingly the 2020 campaign is shaping up to be a battle about socialism. A Gallup poll in August found that more Democrats favored socialism over capitalism. The base of the party is definitely social democrat, whether or not it self-identifies as such. That's why Howard Schultz bolted early and promised to stage a quixotic quest for the White House as a independent -- the base of the Democratic Party is too far left to nominate a billionaire.

Why is it that more Democrats favor socialism to capitalism? It has to do with the basics of life: housing, jobs, health care, education. The costs of housing, health care and education exceed the wages one earns to pay for them. Capitalism has produced this situation in the United States. No longer can politicians in either of the two parties blame socialist policies within the United States for the precarious lot of working people.

Cue Venezuela. The country is starving and roiled by civil unrest, so the argument goes, because of socialism, so much so that a military intervention is not out of the question. Of all the declared presidential aspirants to date, Tulsi Gabbard has provided the best rebuttal:

The root cause of mass immigration on our southern border is our history of US military intervention in Latin America that left countries destroyed. Before we talk about a wall, we need to end our ongoing threats of intervention - this time in Venezuela.

Get ready. The presidential election campaign will pit two fracturing parties in a two-party system that dates back to the Civil War. The emerging volcanic core of one party is white supremacist; the other, social democrat. There should be lots of heat and hopefully light too.