By THOMAS REGELSKI

Many Americans automatically resist any mention of socialism because they associate it with the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party and communism, the Iron Curtain, the 1950s Red Hunt, and totalitarianism.

This name chosen at the turn of the 20th century in Russia for an extreme left-wing labor movement was supposed to build what today is correctly known as a Social Democracy (or Democratic Socialism). The names can be confusing, but the progressive proposals of today in the U.S., certainly have nothing to do with the kind of totalitarian socialism that failed miserably in the USSR and Russia. In contrast, U.S. progressives aspire to the conditions of the Social Democratic governments in the EU, Canada, Australia, and US allies. Countries where the state, in a truly democratic fashion, serves the interests of all citizens–rich, poor, anti-racism, -ableism, -ageism, and a long list of social services provided by a popularly elected national government where ordinary people are elected to a government truly of the common citizens.

The most prominent models of this form of government are the Social Democracies (not National Socialism) of Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland), the recognized successes of the so-called Nordic Model. These countries are fully democratic in ways that exceed the U.S. (e.g., freedom from health debts, no police brutality. no mass shootings, but free higher education). They are fully engaged with capitalism (while protecting against its excesses and negative social effects) and are highly successful despite high living costs (that are offset by the social safety net). Worries about lowering taxes are almost as common there as complaints are in the U.S. about high taxes; the Nordic Model taxes pay for social services. Thus, lowering taxes is seen as reducing the safety net!

I’ve lived on and off between the U.S. and Finland for over 22 years due to having married a Finn, and have personally profited from, for example, free government health care (surgery, recovery from severed Achilles Tendons, treatments for diabetes, etc.). All major and minor health concerns throughout my 60s to 80s have been free (e.g., hearing aids, medical compression socks), to an extent that would have negatively affected my savings were I in the U.S. Here, prescription costs are reduced, and if Rx total 600 euros in a year (1 euro = $1.08+/-), all subsequent costs are 2.50 euros each that year — a real bonus for those on insulin, heart meds, or other long-term maintenance drugs (e.g., me). I have permanent residence status with no criteria for affirming nationalism but can vote.

English is widely spoken here. Citizens of Nordic Model states are satisfied with their social democracies and complain only when the system fails to meet their expectations. In fact, Finland has once again been named “the happiest country in the world” for the sixth year in a row, with the other Nordics close behind!

In stark comparison, U.S. democracy faces hidden and unhappily disturbing forms of (20th c.) National Socialism, the ideology and political values of Nazi Germany. The present rift is not just between the Democrats and the GOP but with a third group of individuals that I’ll group under the neologism ‘Social Nationalists’. These individuals don’t often get officially involved in party politics, except for right-wing Republicans; but ‘Social Nationalists’ have generally developed a socially shared and uniform mindset around the nationalist slogan “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) and its outspoken propagandist Donald Trump. This ‘Social Nationalism,’ is widely accepted by numerous voters with little awareness of or concern for its similarity to WWII-era National Socialism. First of all is the uncritical veneration of its single, charismatic “dear leader.” This adulation has ample reminders in the 20th and 21st century in Russia and South America. Its problems are many and obvious (e.g., the Russian invasion of Ukraine, social revolutions, and dictatorships in South America)

Aside from devotion to an autocratic figure, today, we see in society ample evidence of an ideology that is super-nationalist (MAGA), often at the same time supporting the scientific racism of Aryan Nations, White American Resistance, and white nationalism (i,e., altogether, the white supremacy movement). The denigrating of liberalism (in the Classic and contemporary sense) often lapses individual true believers and activists into anti-semantic racialism, general negativity towards the disadvantaged (untermenschen) for being poor, and opposition to national health care. This extreme nationalism leads to endless insulting of Hispanics, Muslims. Feminists, LGBTQ+, Leftist Politics; to terrorist shootings in schools, churches, synagogues, and social, racial and religious gatherings; and to the extremist Proud Boys and militaristic Oath Keepers. The ‘Social Nationalist’ mindset motivates and sanctions vigilantism by already disordered, antisocial minds and contributes to the 16 million (1 in 4) Americans owning an R-15 tactical weapon (supposedly for home defense) used in 11 of 18 recent mass shootings (130 this year) — after which in each case ownership has surged! Following the recent Tennessee school shooting, an unidentified family Christmas Card (!) on TV showed all seven family members holding various guns, no doubt Christmas Greetings for like-minded ‘social nationalist’ families! Your neighbors?

If this is not Democratic Nationalism by name, the effects of ‘Social Nationalism’ on the part of individual true believers influenced by the overall disparaging tone of ultra right-wing, conservative, Identity-Christianity and ethno-nationalism, recall the symptoms and signs of neo-fascism at work–disparaging those people who are non-believers in this leader and who are turned off by his record of chauvinism, his indictment for multiple financial illegalities, and his expounding in the public sphere insults of this or that idea or person. Most of us were taught as children not to engage in name-calling, but Trump’s devotees seem to be pumped up by his newest asocial insult.

Factual evidence that this claque has been systematically misled by its favorite news source, Fox News, is regularly ignored as “fake news,” the name invented by Trump for any news that contradicts a fervently held willingness to be deceived. Despite the evidence, global warming is written off as anticapitalistic rhetoric. Similarly, for many ‘social nationalists’ there was no Holocaust, vaccination is a danger to be avoided, and having to wear a mask during COVID was an insult to personal freedom. The events known as “January 6, 2021,” despite what the rest of the world watched in awe (yes they did!), are portrayed by GOP leaders as a peaceful political rally! Where there are no empirical facts or data, there can be no truth, only unexamined subjective opinion!

Subjectivist, fact-blind ‘Social Nationalism’ is evident to many clear-minded voters. What isn’t evident to MAGA supporters are the pages taken from precedents of 20th-century Democratic Socialism. Uninformed by history, they are thus unconcerned with such precedents and its neo-Nazi and neofascist ideological first cousins. But the precedents, as well as any factual account that disputes their smug assurance, are robotically rejected. With eyes blinded to the facts, true believers adhere to unspoken ‘Social Nationalism’, and any challenges to it are rejected as spitefully fabricated. Morality in the public sphere is so tainted by leadership moral lapses that the idea of MAGA as Make America GOOD Again never breaks the delusional surface of self-righteous moralizing.

We’ll see how well mainstream Democrats and the GOP defend American democracy from the ‘Social Nationalism’ that is critical of everything except itself. However, whether there is such a thing as a moderate or progressive Republican remains to be seen, given that so many of the GOP offer MAGA-speak in denying validity to the last presidential election. Readers lost in the confusion of political terms, their meanings, and sociopolitical history, should at least consult Wikipedia if they doubt my account. Contentious responses to the Observer will self-identify those in the community who demonstrate minds closed to their ‘social nationalism’. Rather than attempting to change their minds, let your votes register displeasure with ‘social nationalist’ candidates whose blindness to uncomfortable facts blinds them equally to the social good. Questions and reactions can be sent to tom.regelski@helsinki.fi.

Tom Regelski is a former Brocton resident.