QUORA: ‘Would socialism be constitutional in the U. S.?’

 QUORA ***: ‘Would socialism be constitutional in the U. S.?’

I posted this answer:

This is a great question. 

First, let’s define our terms.

Socialism is a theory of social organization based on collectivism, the vision that the good of the group, rather than the individual, is the standard of moral, economic, cultural, and political concern upon which a central planning authority governs the individual to ensure that all activity serves the collective good. 

The fundamental principle of America is the inalienable individual rights to life, liberty (including the right to earn and keep property) and the pursuit of happiness; i.e., the right of each individual to live and act by the judgement of his own mind, in pursuit of his own values and goals, without coercive interference from others, including the government, so long as his actions do not violate the same rights of others. In principle, the United States Constitution, following the Declaration of Independence, is designed to “secure these rights” by limiting the government to the protection of individual rights.*

When socialists get together and privately arrange their social organization by the voluntary consent of all individual participants, without employing law (government force), there is nothing unconstitutional about socialism. As The Communistic Societies of the United States by Charles Nordhoff and History of American Socialisms by John Humphrey Noyes document, countless varieties of socialism arose across America prior to Marxism, thanks to this country’s free, rights-securing government that guaranteed the unalienable individual rights to life, liberty, and property. While a subject of intense philosophical debate, the theory of socialism was consistent with the U.S. Constitution because these early American socialisms were voluntary arrangements respectful of the individual rights of all. If anyone wants to join a socialist commune, turn over all of his wealth to the central planner, and turn over his personal choice to the same, it is his right, and no one can stop him. But no one is forced to join, or forcibly forbidden to leave, any commune. **

Clearly, socialism and individual rights are morally incompatible. The right to pursue your own happiness clashes with socialism’s collective moral vision, the demand to subordinate your self-interest to the collective’s central authority.**** Just as clearly, voluntary socialism is legally compatible with a government that constitutionally protects individual rights. In and of itself, socialism is not unconstitutional. 

When, in the early 20th century, socialists began to turn to the government to impose their socialist creed on the entire society, socialism became unconstitutional. When massive government intervention arrived, such as the “anti-depression” policies of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt (e.g, public-works spending, farm-price maintenance, wage support, forced unionization, unemployment insurance, Social Security), socialism ceased being a voluntary arrangement and became a threat to the lives, liberties, property, and personal pursuit of happiness of every individual in the country, including to the many people who never consented to join the socialism. Unconstitutional socialism grew in lockstep with the subsequent steady growth of coercive, government-imposed socialist programs (called the welfare state) over the following hundred years.   

Today’s modern socialists have pretty much captured a major political party.*** Unlike the early American socialist movements of the 19th Century, which were essentially private and voluntary, today’s socialist movement has become a political movement geared to overturning today’s semi-free “welfare capitalism” and imposing full, undiluted socialism, by coercive tyrannical legislative means, on the entire American society. This political socialism is really just crime under cover of law, violates individual rights, and is thus unconstitutional in the U.S. 

In answer to the question “Would socialism be constitutional in the U. S.?,” so long as socialism was voluntary, it has always been constitutional. Socialism as it is meant today is unconstitutional because socialists have abandoned peaceful persuasive means and turned to the guns of political power--the power of legislative force--to advance their goals. Socialism will cease being unconstitutional when socialists decide to re-join civility by renouncing the use of government force, getting out of politics, and returning to respecting the rights of others and dealing with their fellow citizens by voluntary consent and mutual agreement, leaving those not interested in the socialist lifestyle free to go about their own lives unmolested.

* [See Moral Rights and Political Freedom (Studies in Social and Political Philosophy)

by Tara Smith 

** [Inhabitants were bound by prior agreements. These communes involved contractual arrangements, enforceable in the courts, which defined the terms for joining or leaving.]

*** [The fact that modern socialists call their latest incarnation “democratic” changes nothing. Democracy is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution because rights are inalienable and thus not subject to a vote.] 

**** [See also What is Socialism by Robert L. Heilbroner vs. What is Capitalism by Ayn Rand.]

Related Reading:

Criminal Socialism vs. a Free Society

Why I Will Never Vote for a Democrat

QUORA *: ‘What makes someone a socialist?'

Socialism vs. Welfare Statism: Why These Terms Matter

Democratic Socialism: The Left Escalates America’s Journey to Totalitarianism

My review of The Forgotten Depression: 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself by James Grant

Bernie Sanders’ Evil Takes Root

*** [Quora is a social media website founded by two former Facebook employees. According to Wikipedia:

Quora is a question-and-answer website where questions are created, answered, edited and organized by its community of users. The company was founded in June 2009, and the website was made available to the public on June 21, 2010.[3]Quora aggregates questions and answers to topics. Users can collaborate by editing questions and suggesting edits to other users' answers.[4]

[You can also reply to other users’ answers.]