Sherry Wolf Offers Answers to America's Rightwing Shift

Sherry Wolf spoke October 15 at RIT on “The Rightward Shift in American Politics and What Can We Do About It.” Wolf is the author of Sexuality and Socialism and is visiting Rochester as part of the Rochester Marxist Conference. Karl Marx was a 19th century German economist and philosopher who lived much of his life in Great Britain. His work is widely misunderstood. He was not Russian, nor was he one of the Marx Brothers. Marx argued that inequality under Capitalism would produce social tension, ultimately bringing it down. It could not be fixed simply by tinkering, it would need to be replaced. This did not set will with those who profit from Capitalism, and today he is often demonized or ridiculed.

Hate and ridicule are the order of the day as America shifts to the right. There is a new ugliness in politics. “A certain percentage of this country is batshit crazy” says Wolf. Just look at the candidacy of Carl Paladino. “This isn't Louisiana or Mississippi, this is New York.” “It's a contest of stupidity.” These words have consequences. Last summer a mosque was shot at in Waterport, New York. Twelve gay kids have committed suicide as a result of harassment. Immigrant farm workers, many here legally, have been beaten and murdered largely as a result of rightwing hate mongering.

How does this hate speech reach so many? One need only look at how the news media responds to events on the Right vs events on the Left. In 2003 over a million people marched in Washington DC to try and stop the US invasion of Iraq. The media paid little attention. In 2009 over a half million marched for marriage equality. Apparently that wasn't news worthy. Earlier this October some 300 thousand marched for jobs, justice and education. The media was more interested in the antics of Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell. But let 600 Tea Party members gather in the National Mall and the media are all over them like it's some kind of a revolution, complete with trick photography and stock footage to make the crowd look bigger. Why does this happen? It is because the news media outlets are owned by the same wealthy capitalist interests who gain from things like war, tax cuts and deregulation. They pour money into the Tea Party through front groups to distract attention from what they are really doing. Wolf described the Tea Party as “useful idiots.”

So what is it that these money interests want as opposed to what they say they want?

No corporate income tax

No corporate oversight

No corporate regulation

A colossal military to protect corporate property and interests abroad

No financial regulation

They actually have the last one already. No different rules apply today than in 2007.

Wolf then made several comparisons of what the Right says it wants to what it really wants:

Stronger Borders

The Right says it wants stronger borders, but not to keep immigrants out when it can exploit them and deny them basic human rights. What they want is to be able to control immigration, the labor supply, and pay.

Cut the deficit

The Right was never about cutting the deficit. Just look at the Reagan and both Bush Administrations. Tax cuts (for the wealthy) plus increased military spending don't cut deficits, they drive them up. What they want to do is get rid of government services like health care, retirement and education so they can privatize profit from them. The top 400 Americans make an average yearly income of $263 million; after all their breaks and loopholes they only pay 17% in taxes. A modest tax increase on just these 400 people would have a much more significant effect on the deficit than all of the proposed social service cuts. Meanwhile $14 trillion has been funneled into corporations that are still not hiring. More people working would mean more people paying taxes, which would really cut the deficit. Wolf had nine words to counter the rich elite's demands for “austerity:” Tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich.

Gays, Immigrants and Muslims are the problem

It is essential for the tiny number of parasites at the top to divide the masses, lest the masses rise up and conquer them.

So how do we fight them?

First, don't trust the Democratic party. Democrats have controlled both houses of Congress since 2006, and the White House since 2008. They have legitimized much of what was done before them and hired many of the architects of the crisis. They should have thrown a trillion dollars into infrastructure rebuilding and green technology, rather than more bailouts. Politically they squandered opportunity after opportunity by not championing the Employee Free Choice Act and repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell. In doing so they created the very conditions in which the right wing festers.

Counter the Rightwing's Arguments

The Right claims that “everyone wants smaller government.” This is simply not true. Over fifty percent want the government to function in their interests, not squander their resources. The issue of Net Neutrality was brought up. Only effective government regulation can prevent a handful of corporations from taking over the Internet and limiting its use to those able to pay the most.

We need a self-conscious Left media

The large corporations control all of the major media outlets, feeding us what left-leaning talk show host Peter Werbe described as “pap and crap.” Rochester once had a progressive radio station at AM 950 but it was shut down by its corporate parent, not because it wasn't making money, but because they felt it wasn't making enough money. There are a few bright spots. Amy Goodman's Democracy Now is available on the internet. Those able to pick up AM 1520 out of Buffalo can hear Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller. Randi Rhodes and Mike Malloy are still available by subscription to satellite radio Sirius or XM. Then there are the blogs like the Huffington Post and of course Indymedia sites like this one.

We need to mobilize and fight

The time for waiting for the politicians to do is is up. Why can't the Democratic party stick up for Muslims? We need to stop hoping and start acting. Fight evictions and foreclosures. It is like a tug of war between the Democrats and Republicans except the Democrats aren't fighting – and it's dragging everything to the right. The Democratic party is a party of capital. What they are doing shows where their heart is. We cannot compete with the Tea Party (which is an extension of the Republican party) in money, so we have to compete with numbers. We outnumber them by many. Ultimately the Tea Party will collapse under its own ignorance. Many Tea Party members “don't want the Government messing with their Medicare,” not even knowing that Medicare is a Government program.

The problem is Capitalism

There is no lack of money in this country. It is just going to the wrong things. No social problem was ever solved by legislation. Legislation was codification of what was rising out of the streets. The abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, and the Civil Rights Act were written because people in the streets demanded it. There is currently a sea change in opinion over LGBT rights, Paladino notwithstanding. We need to create a sea change to replace the current capitalist system with something better, just as Capitalism replaced Feudalism. Karl Marx predicted that this would be necessary 150 years ago.