opinion

In a blink, an unthinkable pivot by Republicans on socialism

Just a few weeks ago it would have been ridiculous to imagine Republicans supporting a payments for all Americans similar to the $1,000 a month Andrew Yang proposed when he was a Democratic candidate for president. I see that he’s going to the White House to share his knowledge of how that would work.

Congress approved an emergency spending package for unemployment insurance, free testing for the coronavirus, more funding for food stamps, and a requirement that businesses with fewer than 500 employees provide both family medical leave and paid sick days. The price tag is $8.3 billion. The package of mandates will need to be adjusted because small businesses will now be crushed financially by coronavirus-mandated closures and quarantines, but this is a total departure from GOP positions.

The administration is now proposing a $1 trillion cash dump that could include direct payments to individuals, a $50 billion “bailout” of the airline industry and maybe also financially underpin hotels and hospitality companies as their business collapses. A few years ago the Republicans trashed the Democrats and President Barack Obama for bailing out the auto industry. The message was, “We are a capitalist market economy. Let companies succeed or fail without “socialist” bailouts.” Frankly, this looks like what Franklin D. Roosevelt did when things fell apart.

What has changed?

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Congress the COVID-19 crisis could plunge the United States into 20% unemployment, up from 3.5%. That begins to look like Great Depression-era numbers. Sen. John Boozman, Republican of Arkansas, said, “I think the only comparison to this is World War II.”

Many of us remember the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the financial bailout of 2008. Republicans mocked that initiative, which cost only taxpayers $700 billion. Now, the ante has been greatly “upped.”

What is not sufficiently emphasized is that small government and “deep state” Republicans face two challenges to their traditional orthodoxy.

First and foremost is the daunting medical situation, with likely millions of Americans infected by the coronavirus and shortages of hospital beds as well as equipment to protect doctors and save us from our lungs drowning us in blood, as happened during the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 and 1919.

Second, the financial shock with the Dow Jones industrial average falling 3,000 points in one day and the resulting closures causing tens of millions to be out of work is a shock to those who have passionately believed in a free market, laissez faire policies, and small government.

Just before spring break from classes at Iowa State University, my students still believed as I was teaching them that government was “limited” and that individualism and personal rights to do whatever you want was the American way. It was unthinkable that mayors, governors and the federal government could require draconian measures such as closing almost all businesses, rationing many goods, and prohibiting us from traveling or even moving about freely in some places.

I will not even venture to speculate how this moment will change a Republican Party that today is looking almost like the “big spending” socialist Bernie Sanders! Some Republicans like Iowa Congressman Steve King are holding out. They are still adherents of Herbert Hoover, who failed to act promptly as the Depression unfolded. If we look back just a few weeks, President Donald Trump was proud of the “HUUUGE” and “beautiful” economy. It’s hard to understand how quickly the narrative has changed.

Let’s be clear. We are at a tipping point, a historic moment. Nothing will be the same when these frightening challenges end. Hopefully soon.

Steffen Schmidt is the Lucken Endowed Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University.