By Nancy Thorner -
As Jessica Chasmar reported in The Washington Times: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared that the U.S. is “not an advanced society” and is “evolving into fascism”, during a campaign rally in Venice, CA on Tuesday, December 24, in front of a crowd for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernard Sanders:
“We need to fight to start this work, the establishment of an advanced society. Because as much as we like to say that the United States is the richest country in modern history — for who?” AOC asked. “The richest country — who cares about how much gold is being amassed if we can’t realize an advanced society with those resources?”
Let's pause to consider Fascism. As defined by Merriam Webster Dictionary, “Fascism is a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”
Although fascism and socialism differ in crucial and central principles,in so far as the role of the state is concerned, both fascism and socialism require a strong state involvement in economic and social policies. The reason why the government intervenes in public affairs is different, but the means used to achieve different goals are interestingly similar. Both have also proved to be incredibly powerful and effective ideologies, able to bring together huge masses, and to foster large and cohesive social movements.
How it is that the U.S. is maybe the greatest country in the history of the world with its constitutional freedoms and free booming economy, and yet it is “not an advanced society” and is “fascism." In contrast, how is the society AOC would like to usher in with government control in the form of things like the Green New Deal, dictating what we can do and how we should live, is an “advanced” and “not fascism?” It is impossible to wrap one’s head around such twists of logic and reality.
If this nation is not an advanced society, what nations qualify in AOC's mind as advanced nation? Might they be Cuba, maybe Russia, or perhaps even Venezuela?
AOC was in good company when communist Harvard professor and left-wing activist Cornel West spoke before her at Bernie Sander's CA rally. The crowd was estimated at 20,000.
“Establishing a loving society in the United States of America” is not “an irrational, overly feeling, sympathetic statement. Rather, it’s the pursuit of “an advanced society.” And an advanced society guarantees healthcare and tuition-free college and trade schools, among other benefits. What we are living in now is not an advanced society.”
In other words, according to AOC, only a communist society can be an advanced society.
Communism in the 30's
There was a time in the 1930s, during the Great Depression, when America’s Communist party was at its most formidable.
But even back then, the best they could do in the
1932 election was provide presidential candidates with fewer than a million votes (Communist candidate William Z. Foster, 102,221 votes; Socialist Norman Thomas, 883,990 votes out of 39,749,382 cast). cast
By 1936, a Socialist in everything but party affiliation, FDR, was bringing Thomas’s dreams to fruition. What more could the Leftists have asked for after FDR initiated Social Security; expanded the federal government and loaded the Supreme Court with a bunch of justices who considered the New Deal to have been divinely inspired and regarded Roosevelt, not Madison, to have been the author of the Constitution?
When it came to propaganda Roosevelt knew the value of it. He got the feds involved in subsidizing the arts, paying painters to paint murals in post offices and other government buildings and paying writers and actors to take to the road performing plays preaching the sort of left-wing pap that could have played equally well in Moscow.
None of this really explains why in 2019, a time of general prosperity in America, Socialism is taking hold.
Young people and Socialism
It is disconcerting that young Americans are embracing socialism. It seems that the word "socialism" does not carry the same stigma it did in the past now that it has been resurrected by celebrity politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
According to a
Harris Poll conducted Feb. 21 – 25, 2018 given exclusively to Axios:
“Among 2,035 adults, Generation Z has a more positive view of the word "
socialism" than previous generations, and
— along with millennials — are more likely to embrace socialistic policies and principles than past generations. Gen Z and millennials are projected to make up
37% of the electorate in 2020.”
"Fifty-seven percent of Democrats and 51 percent of young people have a positive view of socialism,
Gallup reports, slightly more than those who have a positive view of capitalism."
As to the importance of education in shaping the lives of young people, this
quote by
Vladimir Lenin says it all: “Give me just one generation of youth, and I'll transform the whole world.”
This has already borne fruit among the youth of our nation. Our education system is failing as young people more and more would prefer to live under a Socialist society than capitalism, not even understanding what Socialism stands for.
Contenders for the Democratic nomination are pushing a Socialist type agenda. Bernie Sanders even declared himself a Socialist and raised
$34.5 million in the Fourth Quarter. It is the largest three-month haul disclosed by any candidate so far in the Democratic primary race.
Even Joe Biden flip-flops from earlier saner positions in order to in with the rest of the candidates.
Apparently Democrats actually believe, as well as many young people privy to our failed education system, that by pushing Medicare for All; free health care and education for illegal aliens; gun confiscation; gender by choice; open borders; late term abortions; expanded welfare; and censorship of Conservatives, they have a winning platform.
Socialism vs. Capitalism?
"The United States has a
mixed economy. It works according to an economic system that features characteristics of both capitalism and
socialism. A mixed economic system protects private property and allows a level of economic freedom in the use of capital, but also allows for governments to intervene in economic activities in order to achieve social aims and for the public good."
Yet as scholar
Mark Perry observed: “As we’ve learned from countless examples throughout history, including now Venezuela, the main difference between Capitalism and Socialism is this: Capitalism works.”
Or as
Winston Churchill put it: “The inherent vice of Capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
The reason that Capitalism works is because it recognizes and accepts that human beings have foibles, whereas Socialism insists that an economic system can be successful while maintaining the fiction that human nature is irrelevant. People like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren might as well pretend that gravity is just an unfounded rumor.
What human nature shows is that human beings are competitive creatures. That is not a bad thing. It has led to all the advances man has made since leaving the caves to bats and bears. Every advance, whether it’s been in the arts, the sciences or our relationships with one another has been born of our natural urge to excel and to improve our own lives and, thereby, the lives of others.
That doesn’t mean that human beings can’t cooperate, but it does mean that they don’t want to share the fruits of their labor with those who refuse to share the labor.
Could Socialism triumph in 2020?
In a move reported by Trevor Loudon in the
Epoch Times on September 9, 2018, socialist and communist organizations in the United States have formally allied to increase their infiltration and manipulation of the
Democratic Party.
The Democratic Socialists of America group numbers didn’t start to rise until Sanders ran for president in 2016.
Nearly 100 democratic socialists now hold elected office across the country, from school boards to state legislatures and Congress, where Ocasio-Cortez and the Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib have become avatars of an emboldened left wing insurgency. Its plan is to run primary challenges against centrist
Democrats and to organize low-income, working people, including in communities that voted for Trump.
See here the names of Progressive (Socialist) members in Congress following the 2016 election.
By
January 3rd, 2018, the Progressive Caucus, represented the left-most flank in the House of Representatives, between 90 and 95 members — the most ever. That’s about 40 percent of all House Democrats. Thirteen committee chairs and roughly 30 subcommittee chairs will likely be filled by Progressive Caucus members. It had more influence in the 116th Congress than at any other point in its 27-year history.
With the above in mind, it is essential that Trump is re-elected president and Republicans win back the House and keep the Senate. It is not far-fetched to believe that this nation's destiny is one of Socialism if the Communists and Socialists embedded within the Democrat Party should keep the House and a Socialist wins the presidency.
Related
