The New Jersey Star-Ledger had an enlightening
editorial titled If
these ideas are socialist, Viva la Revolucion!.
The use of the phrase “Viva la Revolucion” is
very revealing. More on that later. The editorial referred to Donald Trump’s
State-of-the-Union statement,
“America was founded on liberty and independence, and not
government coercion, domination and control,” he declared in the State of the
Union address. “We are born free, and we will stay free.”
What followed was a litany of prior and proposed
socialist initiatives beginning, tellingly, with the Progressive Theodore
Roosevelt.
When have we heard this before? In 1910 when Teddy Roosevelt
warned that super-rich dynasties in America threatened democracy and called for
an inheritance tax and a progressive income tax. We heard it when Franklin
Roosevelt created Social Security, and again when Lyndon Johnson created
Medicare. We heard it when Martin Luther King Jr. pressed to win voting rights
for black Americans, and when protesters called for a halt to the carpet
bombing of North Vietnam. It is a reflex.
Claiming that “Our economy is broken,” the
Star-Ledger identifies a sampling, though not exhaustive, list of socialist
Democratic proposals, spiced up with the usual reflexive jab at economic
inequality.
I posted these comments, edited for clarity:
Every initiative listed here is socialist--and
it started 100+ years ago. As the socialist schemes piled up, we were assured
all along that it’s only a “safety net” for free market capitalism. “We do not
want socialism,” the “liberals” assured us.
It was always a lie. All of those prior
socialisms are now held up as justification for a new mountain of
proposals--many evaded by the S-L--that add up to totalitarian socialism. They
are pushed by a Democratic Party that is openly labeling itself socialist.
Socialism is not and never has been America.
Socialism is collectivism--the subordination of the individual to the state.
America is individualism--the equal protection of all individuals’ rights to
live and trade freely, each according to her own values, living with a
government designed to “secure
these rights”, not violate them.
The turning point is near. It’s time for real
Americans to stand up and demand respect for the right to earn a living, each
keeping what he has earned, regardless of the amount. Economic inequality is
the natural result of the freedom to work and make the most of one’s life,
spreading the wealth through voluntary trade. The new socialists produce nothing--not
goods or services; not jobs; not investment opportunities. They have nothing to
offer but envy of achievement and the force of government. They seek only to
control those who produce, and spread wealth that is not theirs through
confiscation and handouts.
America is not the land of economic equality,
imposed by government. It is the land of political equality--rights to life,
liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness secured by government. There is NOTHING
American about any socialist initiative, before or now. Where are the limits on
government’s power? It’s time to draw the stop line before it is too late, and
start repealing and/or privatizing the old “safety net” socialisms.
Individualism/capitalism, not collectivism/socialism, is Americanism.
--------------------------------------------
As an afterword, which was required due to the
1800 character limit on comments, I posted this reply to my comments:
Clarification: The right to vote and the Vietnam
protests are not socialist initiatives. Voting and peacefully protesting
are features of political equality, not socialism. They were thrown in as a sop
to the philosophically challenged, to confuse the fundamental issue, which is
socialism versus capitalism.
“Viva la Revolucion” is an apt phrase to use in the title of this editorial. The
phrase refers primarily to the French Revolution, which ended in tyranny, or to
the Cuban Revolution, which ended in tyranny. The Democratic Socialist
“revolution” will be no different.
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The Star-Ledger makes a number of false claims,
such as that “After World War II, the gains of economic growth were shared
broadly as the middle-class was born,” that there has been “remarkable explosion of wealth among the elites
over the last generation, and . . . stagnant incomes for everyone else,” and that marginal income tax rate cuts, which the S-L labels “tax breaks
at the rich,” have “repeatedly proven false” as economically advantageous to
“common people.” However, one point the Star-Ledger does make has,
unfortunately, a ring of truth to it:
It is revealing that Trump, and Republicans in general, have
proposed nothing to stop this [socialist] trend. They have run out of ideas.
Instead, we hear these rantings about Venezuela. It’s an old
trick. Don’t fall for it.
Venezuela is important, and it should be pointed
out. But it’s not enough. The Democratic Socialists will fall back on their
get-out-of-jail-free card: “They didn’t do it right. We’ll do it better, if
you’ll only give us the power” The Republicans must take a vigorous
moral stand for Americanism, explaining why the
Democrats’ socialist agenda is a threat to individual “liberty and
independence” and really does represent “government coercion, domination and
control” of our individual lives.
Related Reading:
JFK and
the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity--Lawrence Kudlow and Brian Domitrovic
Why
Conservatives Are Defenseless against Ocasio-Cortez’s Lethal Moral Code--Anders Ingemarson for The Objective Standard
Related Viewing:
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