I recently posted a blog called "
Socialist Paradise of Venezuela Burning; Obama and Black Leaders Silent" highlighting the complete and utter failure of South American socialism/leftism (and how the communist-friendly Black American leadership in the US, including Obama and his minions, will remain clueless). Not only is Venezuela burning and near collapse, but so is Argentina. It won't be long before we hear of a similar problems and chaos in sleepy Ecuador and Bolivia as the whole socialist 'experiment' once again fails on the world stage.
Leftism has such an appeal to the ignorant and uneducated. Ignorance (low cognitive ability, ie., low median IQs) and mal-education are the very things that allow disastrous socialist policies to continually re-emerge in South America. It's the same now in America. America is full of ignorant people who fall for the "siren song" of The Left. And as America becomes more "Latino" the trend will likely worsen unless we can properly teach our students about the fundamentals and uniqueness of American history and political history.
Here's why socialism/leftism has it's appeal to the uninformed:
socialism sounds so good. From a great article by
John Hawkins at Townhall, socialism is so "nice," it's "fair," it'll make you feel good about yourself, it'll
"help" people who "deserve it" by taking things away from people who
"have so much" they'll barely miss it.
What's wrong with this? So glad you asked! Here's the problems with nice-sounding Socialism/Leftism from John Hawkins:
"1) It kills economic growth: Strong economic growth is what
produces jobs, tax revenue and a better standard of living for everyone,
including the poor and middle class. That's what
John F. Kennedy was driving at when he said,
"A rising tide (in the economy) lifts all boats."
Socialism strangles economic growth in the crib by penalizing success
and rewarding failure. When you loot the successful people in a society
to give it to the less successful, you quite naturally create less
successful people and encourage more people to fail. This leads to a
never-ending cycle. The more people in need there are, the more the
successful must be penalized to pay for them. The more the successful
are penalized, the fewer successful people there are. This causes wealth
to concentrate in fewer hands, the economy slows down, and even more
people need help. It goes on and on until you get a slow economy that
can't produce enough tax revenue to sustain itself. That's exactly what
killed the Soviet Union, it's killing Greece right now and sadly, the
United States and most of Western Europe is on exactly the same path.
2) It stifles free speech: Why is there ridiculous
government propaganda in nations like North Korea? Why are most schools,
papers, and colleges run by liberals in the United States? Why do
liberals often try to disrupt conservative speakers on college campuses?
Why are there such extreme speech codes in Canada that it practically
makes some conservative arguments illegal? Why does speaking out against
the government risk imprisonment in China and the old Soviet Union?
Because socialism requires protection, propaganda, intimidation, and
darkness to survive. Socialism can't survive honest, informed debate
about its merits among people who are free to choose or reject it
because it would not survive the conversation. As Reagan said,
"How
do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin.
And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx
and Lenin."
3) It leads to an increasingly tyrannical government:
Freedom and socialism go together like oil and water. The more socialism
you have, the less freedom you will have because socialism can't
survive if people are free to choose whether they want socialism or not.
People who are free to say what they want will criticize socialism's
many failures. Areas that aren't tightly controlled will move towards
the free exchange of ideas and goods, not socialism. So, socialism
requires a massive bureaucracy that almost inevitably grows. As
government grows, it inevitably becomes more centralized, more distant
from the people and ultimately more menacing.
4) It creates strife and division: Socialism is all about
turning people against each other. It has to be. After all, if you
believe in controlling people's lives, the people who don't wish to be
controlled need to be vilified. If you believe in confiscating the
wealth of successful people who won't give it up willingly, then others
must be convinced they're terrible human beings who deserve to be
punished. "Victim" classes must be created for the socialists to defend
because if everyone is responsible for himself, what need is there for
the socialist? Eventually, those who depend on government for their
livelihood and those that the government smears and loots to pay them
off come to hate each other.
5) Socialists believe the ends justify the means: Like the pigs in Orwell's 1984, socialists believe that,
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
For a socialist, the overriding concern is always promoting socialism;
so process, rules and regulation mean different things for different
people. Fidel Castro may have been the leader of a Communist revolution
against the evil "rich people" in Cuba, but he was worth 900 million
dollars when he died. A law broken by a Democrat and a Republican may be
treated very differently by the papers, the courts, and even the
Department of Justice under Eric Holder. As Margaret Thatcher explained,
"
Left-wing zealots have often been prepared to ride roughshod over
due process and basic considerations of fairness when they think they
can get away with it. For them the ends always seems to justify the
means. That is precisely how their predecessors came to create the
gulag."
One of the reasons so many socialist nations are wracked with
violent protests and revolutions is because when the rule of law is
abandoned, only outlaws have any hope of receiving justice."
The fraying of the rule of law is happening right before our very eyes in America under our increasingly desperate and quasi-lawful administration. The other problems with Leftism, noted by John Hawkins, are also becoming evident
again in America. I say "again" because this isn't my first rodeo.
