‘Born Free’: Trump Sets Up the 2020 Election Debate
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
The most remarkable moment in President Trump’s speech on the Union’s state was, by our lights at least, his declaration in respect of socialism. He set up the haymaker with the vow that Americans “stand with the Venezuelan people in their noble quest for freedom.” He marked how the Maduro regime’s “socialist policies” have turned the South American land into “a state of abject poverty and despair.”
“Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country,” Mr. Trump declared. And then the already famous words: “America,” the President said, “was founded on liberty and independence — not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free, and we will stay free.” Most of the congresspersons reacted by leaping to their feet in applause.
Not, however, all of them. The Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, clapped briefly during the President’s point about Venezuela. She stayed seated, through, with her jaw set. Most of her caucus took the cue. The cameras caught the socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, sitting glumly. It caught Senator Bernie Sanders, who’s weighing another run, running his hand over his face.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a defender of President Maduro, was later quoted by the Hill as reckoning the president was using scare tactics. “I think he’s scared,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said. “He sees that everything is closing in on him and he knows that he’s losing the battle of public opinion.” Our guess is that the Mr. Trump knows what he said and plans to use the footage in the next presidential campaign.
Our own view is that it’s not President Trump and the Republicans who would be on the spot in a debate over over socialism. It’s the centrist Democrats — Mrs. Pelosi and her ilk, Senator Schumer, Vice President Biden — for whom the socialists are coming. We need this debate every once in a while (Hayek kept making that point in the climatic years of the Cold War). Mr. Trump set the stage well last night for the campaign ahead.