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Free market conservatives used to understand that this sort of thing was a bad idea. How many dolls do you need? Pencils? In a free market, free individuals make those choices and decisions. It wasn’t decided by central planners or the State. Those decisions were made by consumers, and in the case of dolls, by parents.
Indeed, this all sounded oddly familiar. Noted Political prof Robert E. Kelly: “MAGA loves to call its opponents ‘communists,’ but this is literally a neo-Marxist critique of consumerism.” And by “literally,” he means literally.
It’s also the kind of thing you’d expect to hear from (checks notes) Bernie Sanders, who rather famously, insisted that “You don't necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers….”
But now, this is what we get from the leader of the formerly free market-oriented GOP.
Former ambassador Michael McFaul detected something else: “This is the opposite of the free market. Sounds a lot like communism to me. Soviet leaders also dictated to consumers their limited choice.”
But now, it is the new MAGA dogma — and the reversal is head-snapping and vertiginous. Not only has the Trumpian right now embraced neo-Marxian critiques of consumerism, but the president who ran on prosperity and lower prices is now insisting that working class families only need a couple of dolls and just five pencils.²
Thank you, Comrade Donald! Happy Monday
Charlie Sykes
