The Coronavirus lockdowns helped the left realize a long-cherished goal – to make more people more dependent on government largesse, hence increasing government control and power over the people. Millions of Americans who were once self-sufficient suddenly found themselves locked out of their jobs and declared “nonessential.” In March and April alone, a staggering 36 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits.
For decades, there has been a movement in America to abolish free markets in favor of collectivism and a command economy. In recent years millions have rallied to this flag behind Senator Bernie Sanders, particularly young people who have been convinced that the solution to all problems is more government. They want free education, free health care, and guaranteed income whether they work or not.
It’s not surprising that flashy politicians like Bernie, or Ocasio-Cortez, and Kamala Harris can attract millennial voters. “Free everything” and a sympathetic view of those struggling in the economy go a long way toward earning votes. Those were the same enticements employed by communists and fascists in the past. Hugo Chávez began as a populist who promised a better life for the masses. Today there is little food in Venezuela for those masses.
The left’s “ideas” are always couched in altruistic language such as “opportunity, “safety Net,” “social protection, “sustainable and inclusive growth,” etc. These are the ideas that enslave, impoverish and even murder hundreds of millions of people throughout history, particularly over the last century. But you can’t eat ideas.
The millions of people now unable to provide for their families, the millions slipping into extreme poverty, the millions facing acute hunger, are not suffering from a viral pandemic, but from political policy that is myopic at best, ideologically vainglorious at worst.
Sane people know that government does not make money – they steal if from those that work to produce. When no one produces, there is no money for government to steal. And when government can no longer steal the money you earn, they take everything that you have for themselves. And those useless eaters who are demanding this type of government will be just as poor and enslaved as those they envy.
With the election of Democrats across the board in 2020, America will become a fully socialist/communist country, not at all different from all socialist and communist countries of the past or present. We’re talking about not just control of the economy, but the annulment of all of our freedoms including the Second Amendment, universal government funding of the murder of innocent unborn babies, the elimination of religious freedom, the elimination of private property, expansion of the Green agenda to control public lands, expansion of hate speech laws and other forms of censorship, the use of government agencies like the IRS, the FBI, etc. to suppress political opposition, confiscation of wealth, etc.
Is there any substantive difference between this scenario and communism as it existed in the Soviet Union, communist Cuba, and “socialist” Venezuela?
Smiley-faced socialism pushed by the left is just as oppressive as communism, and it inevitably becomes less smiley-faced. Like Bernie and the rest in 2020, Obama promised free health care with total choice. What he delivered was little choice, high cost, and “mandates” forcing everyone to purchase health insurance. Under communism, there are far more mandates, but they are not at all different from what Obama delivered with the Affordable Care Act. Orders are issued, and they are followed, and they are enforced by armed federal agents.
If the American people choose a Democrat for president and a Democrat Congress in 2020, America and the freedoms we enjoy will disappear. Perhaps the American people are tired of making the effort required by capitalism. Perhaps they are tired of arguing with the Left over issues such as health care and “free” education. Perhaps they want to just give in and let the socialists have their way. If they do so, it will enslave our nation for the next hundred years.
The truth is that what the left wants will not deliver equality but only poverty and oppression. “Democratic” socialism soon becomes less than democratic, and its economy offers only rationing for the poor and special privileges for the political class. “Medicare for All” would deliver not “Medicare” as we know it, but a degraded version of Medicare — and all would have to accept it, including seniors who had previously benefited from at least some access to health care.
Personally, What Democrats have in mind in 2020 is not smiley-faced socialism; it is hardcore collectivism enforced by armed government agents. Twenty twenty will be a critical election because it will reveal the direction Americans really want to take.
I do not want to live in a socialist or communist nation, but I do not intend to leave. I only hope Trump will be re-elected and that he will continue to defend our liberties and our free-market system. Otherwise, the future will be difficult for all of us.
Source: The Covid-19 crisis is a chance to do capitalism differently by Mariana Mazzucato, Economics Professor, University College London, Guardian; Why Socialists in America Are Excited by Joel Hilliker, the Trumpet; Socialism or Communism: Call It What You Will by Jeffrey Folks, American Thinker
