Just as Latin America is in the process of ridding itself of socialism, the U.S. is starting to try it on for size. What is going on?
Socialism comes in many forms, and it’s a wonder that with its history, people still fall for it. With mayors in our three largest cities – New York, Chicago and Los Angeles – all embracing it in one form or another, and our so-called mainstream media always pushing the left’s latest cause, we have to ask ourselves, how did we get here, and is this really where we want to be going?
Socialism, in its classic form, means state ownership of the means of production, including the factories, the land and the major industries. Democratic socialism embodies the belief that you can get there through elections instead of revolution. Social democracy is a different idea that often gets mixed up with the other two. It keeps a market economy and private ownership, then adds generous public benefits on top.
While the Scandinavia countries are the usual examples we are urged to strive for, maintaining freedom of speech and a peaceful, stable society, but in fact they generally have lower tax rates than the US and claim to be proud market economies. Scandinavian leaders have spent years telling us their countries are market economies, not socialist ones.
The word “socialism” is meant to sound caring, providing for the masses, while just taking a little extra from the billionaire class in order to end the scourge of inequality. Shouldn’t the goal, after all, be equality for all?
If the rich would just give a little more of their ill-gotten gains, we could have government-run healthcare, cradle to grave, with no limits on its scope. Single-payer. Everything solved. No more private or employer-based insurance. In addition, food, transportation, education, child-care, housing, and work will all be organized and distributed by a committee of bureaucrats who will have you believe that they will know how to dole it out, while they become the ruling class.
But the very essence of socialism, its defining characteristic, is authoritarianism, often times totalitarian, and it guarantees that the society it infects will be run by an arrogant and thuggish group of elitist frauds who present themselves as looking out for the poor, the middle class, the working class, against the landlords, the billionaires, the landed gentry. Think Mamdani in New York, or Karen Bass in Los Angeles.
People are familiar with the paraphrase of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, that “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” Another British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill went a bit further, saying “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
We have many examples to look at. The Soviet Union, Communist China, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and North Korea. Even with all that history, with hundreds of millions of people enslaved by it, socialism is an idea and a form of government that remains and continues to grow in popularity in this great country.
Until recently, it was rare to find people in the public square who would openly embrace the various disguises that socialism wears as it deceitfully seizes power with the promise of equality, subsistence and security, above liberty, family and religion.
But wait, you might hear. What you’re describing is communism, which truly is authoritarian or totalitarian in nature. Socialism is the kinder, gentler version that succeeds by its lack of such brutality. It is administered compassionately, and most of all, fairly and equitably.
No, in fact socialism has arrived in many such disguises. The USSR stood for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Fascism was the party of Benito Mussolini, a radical socialist. The Nazi Party was officially known as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Article 1 of Communist China’s Constitution says, “The People’s Republic of China is a socialist state under the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants.”
And now, we are being told quite openly that the socialism of the Democratic Socialists of America is nothing like those governments that are responsible for the deaths of well over 100 million people in the 20th century alone, with China leading the way and the Soviet Union not far behind.
So whether we are talking about the official organization, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), or small “d” democratic socialists, this has become the driving force in today’s Democratic Party, and hopefully the reason they don’t succeed in next month’s midterm elections in taking control of either the US House or Senate.
Whether this merging of Democrats with socialism has spilled over from the extreme but largely unseen-till-recently faction of the party over their hatred of Donald Trump, or as a result of the 20-plus million largely unvetted people who came into this country from more than 100 countries during the Biden presidency, or a planned indoctrination that starts in K-12 and has its roots planted firmly in many of the top universities in this country, that is the world we live in today. CNN, MS NOW and the rest of our “mainstream media” are there to soften their image, as they are all in with the Democrats, as they have been for decades.
Those who have seen the destruction that socialism brings understand that our country is on the brink of a major crisis. The Latino population in this country, in particular, have seen the promise of paternalistic socialism turn into ruthless authoritarianism, whether firsthand or from people they know who have survived the Castro regime, the Ortegas in Nicaragua, Chavez and Maduro in Venezuela, Allende in Chile, and more.
It has been uplifting to see Argentina and Colombia choose leaders to take them in a different direction, to see Panama rid itself of Chinese influence, and possibly Brazil doing the same, if the runoff election later in October can end Lula’s reign.
A decade ago it may have seemed like a stretch to make this comparison. But this year’s primaries have seen nearly two dozen Democrat candidates win primaries for seats in the U.S. House or Senate with the backing of, or as members of, the DSA. With less than a month till the country elects 435 House members and 35 US Senators, the future health – perhaps the survival – of this country is on the ballot.
This column was originally published at Texas Latino Conservatives
The views expressed in CCNS member articles are not necessarily the views or positions of the entire CCNS. They are the views of the authors, who are members of the CCNS.
