Turn Me Loose

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson told an audience of conservative activists on Friday that the sexual assault allegations facing President Donald Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court are part of a plot by socialists to take over America that dates back more than a century.

"If you really understand the big picture of what's going on, then what's going on with Kavanaugh will make perfectly good sense to you," Carson said at the annual Values Voter Summit in Washington. "There've been people in this country for a very long time, going all the way back to the Fabians, people who've wanted to fundamentally change this country." 

Trump HUD Secretary Ben Carson claims Kavanaugh allegations are part of a centuries old socialist plot

I haven't been able to discover the origins of Dr. Carson's “big picture” and I confess I haven't looked very hard. I understand the Fabian Society is a not unfamiliar character in right-wing fabulation and I also see that the Society has disavowed any role in the recent fight over Kavanaugh (Crying Wolf ). But I do think we can see more in this than just another odd story about our odd Secretary of HUD.

I'm first struck by the idealism of the declaration.

"They don't like what America is and what it represents, and they want to change us to another system. In order to do that, there are three things they must control: the education system, the media, and the courts. The first two of those they have," Carson said. "The other they thought they had, but it was snatched out from under their noses in November of 2016." 

American politics are being driven by a conspiracy of thought in the hands of a few. Technically there is not even a party line here since the Fabians eschew any “resolution of a political character expressing an opinion or calling for action”. It is the simple idea of socialism which is afoot.

It isn't surprising to find a substantial weight of ideals at a Values Voters Summit or in Republican conversations in general. Without attempting to nail the philosophical underpinnings of the right I can still sketch the vocation of the ideologues with Dr. Carson serving as my example. The system they want to protect doesn't require any particular faith. Its credo can be expressed as an algorithm whose standard of truth is its speed of execution. The beliefs of its owners are likewise pared to a minimum.

But there are still stipends for those, like Dr. Carson, who will speak to audiences with the leisure and the thirst for authenticated artifacts of conservatism. And these days, these days of Trump, no rally of the faithful is complete without a denunciation of socialism.

The Republican Party has, since its days in the wilderness during the New Deal, never forgotten its class enemy. In that sense it has always had a clarity which has cemented it to the right and provided a lesson for the left. But the specter it raises, like the values it claims to defend, is idealist to the core. True, the word socialism has made an appearance in the Democratic Party. It may even seem there is a Fabian Society afoot there although far more common is the new party line, “I'm not a socialist, I'm a democrat”.

The relationship between socialism and the Democrats is a topic for another time. And I don't think I need to defend the Democrats against Dr. Carson's “slander”. What I want to point out is that he and the GOP in general are digging in for what they perceive as a war of ideas when what is happening is a class struggle.

The Fabian Society was founded in 1884 and exists to this day. It has played a role in the British Labour Party. But if the GOP believes they are the threat to America they will be surprised. Similarly, the hard right of the USA, which I don't imply should be distinguished from the GOP, is blaming the resistance to Kavanaugh on the Jews. These are fables to feed their mass supporters so they can separate themselves from those outside the party with whom they share a class position and ally themselves with those with whom they do not.

Socialism is not the Fabian Society. It was not invented by Karl Marx in the British Library and it is not the intellectual property of a party or an international. It has a rich theoretical tradition but an even longer history of practical, granular struggle. It has elements that have survived the triumph of capitalism but it has been built by the practices of those who provide life to capital in the global reaches of production.

The media is a business. The universities are also business. If you believe they have been turned then you are an idealist whose world is closing in. And if you believe that securing a fifth conservative seat on the Supreme Court has ensured the preservation of that world then you have blinded yourself by a refusal to see.