Sir Winston Churchill once said the following: “Socialism is philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery”. That prescient statement sort of sums up what is wrong with the prevailing opinion of many millennials and a goodly number of Democrats.
This love affair of socialism on the part of the “loony left” came to a head recently when an upstart 29-year-old Democrat, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, won the Democrat primary in a NYC congressional district over a 20-year incumbent, Rep Joe Crowley. She proudly labeled herself as a Democrat Socialist and an acolyte of Sen. Bernie Sanders. After her victory, DNC Chairman, Tom Perez, who also claims to be a Democrat Socialist, was asked about the ramifications of her unexpected victory. He said that she was now the face of the modern Democrat Party. That statement will be exploited by the Republicans and used against other Democrat candidates who are up for election to the Senate and House, pointing up how far the Democrats have lurched to the left.
More and more Democrats have come out in support of Ms. Ocasio Cortez much to the chagrin of the leaders of the Democrats in the Senate (Schumer) and House (Pelosi). This points up the schism that is boiling within the Democrat Party. Many of the establishment Democrats feel that the party is leaning too far left thereby losing many moderate Democrats and Independents who look askance at being labeled Marxist/Socialists. They feel that the country is not ready for that change in political philosophy.
This phenomenon of embracing socialism, mainly on the part of millennials, can be traced to the influx of Marxist/Socialist oriented educators in our public schools and colleges. Most faculties are decidedly left-leaning (80 to 90% of most faculties) in their political make up, and many of them infuse their political agenda into their “malleable” students who are a captive audience in their classrooms. Indoctrination, in many cases, takes the place of a fair and balanced meaningful presentation of the curriculum.
Socialism, as Sir Winston Churchill so aptly portrayed it along with many other economists, has been discredited as a failed economic system in most all countries that have tried it. Both Cuba and Venezuela, in our hemisphere, are perfect examples of the failures of the Marxist/Socialist economic system. The one thing missing in all the countries who have tried socialism was the taking away or the absence of “incentive” through the tenet of “income redistribution” (taking from the makers and giving to the takers), and in its place government control of most aspects of a country's economy as the be-all and end-all of economic activity. This reliance on government control generally leads to the country being administered by dictators, ( ex: again Cuba and Venezuela) which most always leads to waste, inefficiency and unbridled corruption and, therefore, the demise of the country.
With all the “warts” of our capitalist system, it is the economic engine that has made our country the economic dynamo of the world. Socialism should be relegated to the scrapheap of history.
