Social Democracy for National Security
The New Center: A Newsletter From Sohrab Ahmari
A commonplace theme among the New Dealers was that, in America, advancing a social-democratic model is impossible—unless it’s pegged to national security. The emblematic example of this, of course, was the creation of the national interstate highway system under President Dwight Eisenhower. To ensure passage of the bill authorizing construction, Eisenhower called it the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (emphasis added). There was a vague idea that the system could be used to mobilize military forces in the case of an invasion of the homeland. But really, you just needed to mention “defense” to get developmentalism.
Something similar might be surmised about the Biden administration’s just-announced decision to block the sale of US Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel on national-defense grounds. It would be one thing if a Chinese firm had set its acquisitive eyes on US Steel. But come on, we’re talking about Japan here, a demilitarized American satrapy largely dependent upon Washington for its own defense. The notion that Japanese ownership would jeopardize steel production in a military exigency is implausible, to say the least.