Inheriting a deep recession and hyperinflation from the failed Carter administration, Ronald Reagan’s bold measures of across-the-board tax rate cuts, deregulation, and disciplined monetary policy broke the back of inflation in record time and ushered in a robust recovery that spanned for two decades. This vindication of the power of unshackled capitalism prompted some to predict the end of socialist ideology.
Not a chance. So, why do socialists persist? You might as well ask why mosquitos persist. It’s what comes naturally. Socialism is a devil’s brew of delusional utopianism, economic malpractice, hatred of capitalism, and unlimited government control of every aspect of our lives. It’s a philosophy based on envy and resentment dressed up as “social justice.” Socialist ideology survives because capitalism, or any “ism” for that matter, can never deliver utopia. As Irving Kristol put it, capitalism may not be the best economic system of all imaginable worlds, just the best of all possible worlds. Capitalism is the economic dimension of liberty. And its track record produces the highest standards of living and individual freedom wherever it prevails.
Unable to impose full-fledged socialism all at once, Democrats in the past downplayed the “S” word and settled for a form of creeping socialism that has grown exponentially over decades. A cornucopia of federal “entitlement” programs and related programs of state and local governments now dominate overall government spending, culminating in today’s “welfare state,” driving the national debt to $39 trillion.
Enter the ‘democratic’ socialists
Now, in the Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani era, the “S” word has been proudly resurrected with socialism’s modern-day Frankenstein’s monster, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). Its radical agenda is driving the feckless Democrat Party to its lunatic left. DSA calls for nationalization of railroads, utilities, manufacturing, agriculture, technology, insurance, real estate, finance, and hospitals along with government control of the media and internet. It would free prisoners, abolish prisons, disarm and defund the police, “demilitarize” the border, end detention and deportation of illegal immigrants, and eliminate ICE. On national defense and foreign policy, DSA would dramatically cut U.S. military spending, quit NATO, and close all U.S. military bases in foreign countries.
In a blatant affront to the U.S Constitution, DSA’s platform would also trash the institutions of checks and balances, and the separation of powers by eliminating the presidency, the Senate, and the Supreme Court with all power vested in the House of Representatives. This moronic diatribe isn’t a “platform,” it’s a temper tantrum. Nonetheless, DSA is admired and taken seriously by the Democrat Progressive Caucus in Congress. The deafening silence you hear is from other Democrats who lack the courage to call the DSA out for the insurrectionists they are.
Opening act for communism
Furthermore, the DSA platform declares, “Our fight is to end capitalist exploitation. In overwhelming the old barbaric, order of capitalism, the working class will not only liberate itself from its own shackles, but all of humanity from the parasitic death-drive of capitalism.” It’s no coincidence that this is the language of Marx and Lenin. DSA’s notion of “democratic socialism” is only foreplay for outright communism. In the words of David Jenkins, a top leader of DSA, “Our goal is communism.”
But communism is a terrible model of government with an unbroken record of economic failure and repression of liberty in the communist dictatorships of the Soviet Union, North Korea, Cuba, and China. China’s repression of liberty is as bad as ever and it’s economic gains in recent years were mostly the result of opening up its economy to state capitalism and limited private enterprise. Mock elections in all of these states outlaw opposition political parties. The candidates of the Communist Party are their only choice. DSA’s vision of socialism and its inevitable evolution to communism is rooted in government control of everything. That’s the totalitarian model of all communist states. And a nation’s economy is far too complex to be efficiently controlled by a central government.
In equalizing compensation regardless of talent or effort, socialism misjudges human nature, imagining that individuals will work as diligently and creatively for the benefit of others as they will for themselves and their families. Humans aren’t bees in a hive or ants in a colony. By penalizing success and excellence with higher taxes, socialism gets less of that. By rewarding failure, mediocrity and sloth with redistributed income, socialism gets much more of that.
Echoing leftist Democrats, 62% of our young people now tell pollsters they favor socialism to capitalism. As George Will has observed, the trouble with the younger generation is they haven’t read the minutes of the last meeting.
Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for Complete Colorado.
And maga isn’t just an opening act. It IS the new kkk/nazi regime.
Is it any wonder young people embrace Socialism? Many of them have been told their whole lives, much as you’re doing here, that Socialism is a boogeyman out to get them and Capitalism is the way of the free world.
Meanwhile things continue to get worse under Capitalism. Wages stagnate, people can be fired “at will”, housing prices balloon, food, gas, cars, balloon. Healthcare, Energy, Internet, et al balloon in cost and decline in service as private equity take over, cut costs, degrade service and increase profits. People can’t afford to live where they work, because again private equity invests now in property and drives rents up.
People go into debilitating medical debt over something that ought to be a human right. Your healthcare is tied to your job and you cannot afford to lose that because of your medical conditions, thus you become a wage slave. Your boss gives you a .09 cent raise (ask me how I know) because that’s what they consider the value your labor brings, but you can barely afford your medications, you certainly can’t afford to quit.
Meanwhile we see people in Europe getting a mandatory 4-weeks paid vacation (no mandatory PTO in the USA), access to healthcare that isn’t tied to their jobs, Unions that fight for a workers rights, all in a place that’s been called a “Socialist Hellhole” while Europeans are generally polled as much happier and healthier than your average American.
It’s not just that, but how the young have been raised by their Boomer parents and told, “Go to school, get a good job, buy a house” and none of that has come to pass. Most of them are in crippling debt from student loans they took because no one educated them, in school or in personal finance when they were under 18-years old and were encouraged to take “all you can get” (ask me how I know).
Meanwhile we have Boomers (like yourself) decrying Socialism, but so very happy to draw on Social Security (a Socialist policy. Gasp!), go on Medicare (Socialism again! Gasp!), enjoy public infrastructure such as roads, water, police, market regulation (desperately lacking these days) to balloon their own retirement, as well as workplace safety standards, workers comp, unemployment insurance and so on. All Socialist policies. But “Oh, we paid into that” the Boomer says, sounding like the complete buffoons they are and completely oblivious to what actual Socialism is.
I’m one of those young people. I am 42. I am fortunate enough to own my own home, have two great kids, three cars, have a wife with a good job. I’ve owned my own business for 15 years now. We have seen great benefit under the system as it stands, but we are absolutely happy to give up some of what we have so that other Americans can have a better standard of living. So that they don’t have to worry about being evicted from an apartment who’s rent only goes higher and higher, never lower. So that they can go to the Doctor, as we can, without worrying that we won’t be able to afford it.
We have been poor. We have been unable to afford the doctor, to afford rent, to have to put $5 worth of gas in the car. We’ve lived that life and I’m thankful that that is no longer the case, but I don’t wish that on my neighbor and if I have to give up some of my income so that your average American can have a better life, so private equity doesn’t own everything, so that the rich cannot keep getting richer (how much wealth do you need, exactly?), I am happy to do so and if that’s Socialism, then I guess I’m a Socialist.
Bryan – Young people embrace Socialism because they have the passion to want to change the world for the better, but haven’t yet acquired the wisdom of their ancestors to understand the unintended consequences of choosing the wrong path forward. No one better understood the concept of Socialism than Karl Marx, the author of Marxism. He believed than Socialism was merely a stepping-stone to Communism; in other words: Socialism is Communism’s little brother. When he grows up, he will be a full-fledged Communist.
Marxist Socialism is a false prophet and a Trojan horse; it looks good on the surface, but in the long run have very detrimental unintended consequences which result in a very heavy-handed government and loss of personal freedoms. Just look around the world where Communism has taken hold. Democracy is nowhere to be found and dictatorial regimes prevail. And once you go down that road, there is no turning around and going back. It’s primary failing is that it contradicts and works against the human drive for excellence and the freedom to fully benefit from one’s hard work without the government taking most of it away and giving it to others. Eventually, it suppresses the desire to achieve and results in just “getting by.” This is not how America grew to be the most powerful and upwardly mobile country in the world. Be careful what you wish for!
I haven’t heard reasoning this weak since 1958.
And yours have been fundamentally weak since 1918.
Additionally, while we do have some government programs such as Social Security and Medicare, these are more like government sponsored savings programs than true examples of Socialism – you pay into the program your whole life and take out when you are elderly. Medicaid would be a better example of Socialism because it is not being paid for by its users. Socialism is the taking away from some and giving it to others. It is the government ownership of all property and means of production. It is not members of a community pitching in to buy a road, building, bridge or some other commodity that all would share in and use. That is community, not Socialism.
Hilarious how you decry “capitalism” while listing off a whole bunch of programs you claim are socialistic. If life is so difficult under this mixed system, then why complain about one but not the other?
And no, 42 is not “young.” That statistically puts you in middle age and on the downside of your time on this earth. But it’s not a surprise that a Millennial keeps trying to pretend that they’re still in their 20s–like the Boomers, your generation remains stuck in a state of emotional arrested development.
As to your motte and bailey arguments, your own political comrade Vladimir Lenin put it quite plainly–“The purpose of Socialism is Communism.”
It’s ok, Comrade Boomer, you can crawl out from under your desk. The Red Scare is over and Joe McCarthy isn’t coming back from the dead. The conservative radio guys said we won the Cold War. So, why the sudden panic over people electing candidates who actually focus on making life better for the working class and poor?