Popularized by Marx (1875), the saying most associated with communism: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” (Part I.), strikes fear in the heart of conservative America. Given America’s history with McCarthyism, some Americans still believe that there is subversive effort on the part of the government to turn America into a communist state. These fears once permeated nearly every corner of American politics and social philosophy, with elements of the same fear resurfacing whenever an effort is made to increase in redistribution and strengthening the American welfare state. It is arguable that, because of America’s nearly decade-long fear of communist infiltration and because the welfare state has been associated with socialism and communism, the level and degree of redistribution will continue to be checked by those fears for …show more content…
These differing fears, perspectives, realities, and histories govern the development of the welfare state and the differences in the level of redistribution. For example, the rise of the ‘Tea Party’ was, in part, due to an overwhelming fear that President Obama was preparing to turn the country into a socialist state. The Tea Party mounted protests, marches, rallies, grassroots campaign, and waged widespread political war against the GOP and achieved stunning victories. The efforts and fervent strength of this small, yet formidable group, has allowed them to wage a proverbial political war against any social policy that moves in the Congress. Haggard and Kaufman (2008) that “political voice” can play a substantial role in expanding redistribution in a democracy, but as noted above, that same political voice can result in the retraction of redistribution policies and threaten to undermine Esping-Anderson’s (1993) universalistic solidarity