Perhaps I am dating myself, but some of you may remember the debacle of a drink called New Coke. As a kid, our Church had a concession stand at Atlanta-Fulton County stadium. I will never forget the yelling out, “get your ice-cold Coca-Cola here,” and it was a matter of pride to sell out your tray and go back to get the drink that refreshes.
But someone at Coca-Cola came up with a fancy idea on “improving” the Coke brand back in 1982. The result was the ensuing flop called New Coke. Then someone got smart and went back to the basics and created “Coke Classic”, and sales boomed.
What does that have to do with the American Left? Simple.
Last week, we witnessed an apoplectic unhinged meltdown from the Democrats. The difference is that this time, the meltdown was not related to President Trump. time. This meltdown came because the so-called Democrat establishment is freaking out about the success of presidential candidate Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
I was thoroughly entertained by the resurfacing of former Clinton adviser James Carville, and his concerns about Sanders, an avowed Democrat Socialist. Of course, what Sanders and his ilk will tell us is that they are not espousing the same socialism that we have witnessed throughout history. In other words, Sanders is trying to convince us that, like New Coke, he is selling us an improved formula.
But this is not just an issue with Sanders; it is an issue with all the potential Democrat (Socialist) party candidates. There is nothing new and improved about the American progressive socialist left’s formula, it is all the same, a recipe for disaster.
Therefore, I think it is time we did an analysis of the socialist formula.
First, socialism is an economic model that will lead to a societal model, a shift, towards something called communism. As the adage goes, you can be a socialist and not a communist, but you cannot be a communist and not be a socialist.
The socialist economic model sets the conditions for the latter. And the first ingredient in the left’s “New Coke” is wealth redistribution. Nearly all the Democrat presidential candidates are talking about how to take from one group and redistribute their resources to another. What I found to be the most insidious of these schemes was that of a universal basic income, free money from the government –where does that come from?
Yes, Andrew Yang, it is indeed math, socialist redistributive math. When we hear about a “wealth tax,” it should send chills down our spines, because the left is revamping the US tax code to be a punitive measure just to fulfill their ideological agenda, no different from the promises of Hugo Chavez.
And let us not forget, the concept of a progressive income tax was first introduced by one Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their writing, “The Communist Manifesto”. And this thing called a personal, progressive income tax was established in our America during the progressive presidential administration of Woodrow Wilson
Wealth redistribution is a failed ingredient.
Second, the socialist economic model relies on the nationalizing of economic production. That means the government usurps the control of the means of economic production. In Venezeula, Chavez did such with the oil industry. Here in America the goal of the progressive socialist left is to do the same with one-sixth of our economy, healthcare. And the left is quite adept at framing this endeavor as ensuring an individual right.
You recall, during the Carter administration when it was asserted that every American had a “right” to own a home — the Community Reinvestment Act. Thirty years later, we saw the results of government intrusion into the private sector mortgage industry, a financial meltdown. Of course, we are told today by the left that healthcare is a right. That is how the left will always frame their objective of government control of economic means of production.
Nationalizing economic production under government control is a proven failed ingredient.
Third, socialism needs victims; it requires a dependency class to justify wealth redistribution. Under socialism, it is necessary to create and expand a welfare nanny-state. And consider how many Americans were forced onto the poverty rolls, food stamps, recipients of EBT (electronic benefit transfer) cards during the Obama administration. The American left is furious that they are witnessing the dismantling of their welfare society that was birthed by Lyndon Baines Johnson, a Democrat, and his Great Society — truly an oxymoronic reference, emphasis on moron
The war on poverty, and the welfare state, is a failed ingredient.
Fourth, the socialist economic model requires a principle called social egalitarianism — yep, we are all equal. And that is why the leftists in the US House of Representatives came up with an insidious legislative policy called the Equality Act. Yes, these politicians believe it is their duty to establish a sense of equality among the American population, upon its citizens.
We are all endowed with unalienable rights from our Creator God (Judeo-Christian), those being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Individual sovereignty, a novel American concept, means that we as individual citizens have a right to self-determination based upon our talents and abilities. What America stands for is an equality of opportunity, the left in America believes in an equality of outcomes, where determination is a government decision…not yours.
Social egalitarianism is a failed ingredient in the left’s New Coke.
The last ingredient is secular humanism. Faith is not to be placed in the Creator God, but rather in man, government. The Creator God is no omnipotent enough to create two genders, man and woman, male and female. Nope, the left has determined that their ideological agenda supersedes this belief. Remember, your unalienable rights are not endowed by the Creator God, but instead, your life is decided by man, government, along with the definition of liberty, and the left’s guarantee of happiness, deciding your outcomes.
In America we do not need the left’s New Coke. It is the same old socialism. Let’s just go back to Classic Coke, constitutional conservatism, that made America the envy of the world. Socialism is truly ”the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” It focuses on the equal sharing of misery, and no iterations, machinations, or so-called improvements can change the result.
Socialism sucks.
This column was originally published at CNSNews
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.
