The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have an odd relationship with freedom.
In their “Workers Deserve More” platform, they use the word “free” to describe their socialist vision, writing “we could freely build a world without war or poverty,” “everyone is free,” and “freedom to flourish.”
Yet that same platform calls for an all-powerful government to use force to fulfill their socialist vision.
The DSA’s worldview presents freedom and socialism as complementary ideas, but the truth is that these two beliefs cannot coexist.
The DSA calls for “[e]stablish[ing] public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people.” Look past the deceptively rosy language: This is a call for the government to seize American businesses.
Businesses are more than names on office buildings. Businesses are made up of hardworking Americans — owners, managers, and employees trying to take care of their families.
The socialists’ push for government ownership of businesses is ultimately a call for total control over the American people. When the government controls our livelihoods, we become beholden to the socialist party’s political elites.
Under this socialist regime, who can speak out against the government when it is also our employer? We will hesitate to voice our opinion about the government, and those who do speak out would have reason to fear that the authorities will retaliate either openly or behind closed doors. We don’t need to look beyond our own hemisphere to see this in practice; in Venezuela under Hugo Chavez and then Nicolas Maduro, many government employees who opposed the president lost their jobs.
And if that retaliation occurs, will there be a free press to report on the abuse of government power? Probably not if the press is controlled by the government or depends on funding from government-owned businesses and individuals whose incomes depend on the state.
In fact, the press in a socialist society always serves as the government’s propaganda machine. Look at China, where Xi Jinping said in 2016 that “the media run by the party and the government are the propaganda fronts and must have the party as their family name.”
Beyond taking our speech, socialists will take your hard-earned income as well. Socialists will force their hands into our pockets to spend our money on their costly government programs.
The socialists plan to “build new, publicly-owned social housing,” “guarantee universal healthcare at no cost to individuals,” and “pass a federal jobs guarantee,” among other government programs. At first glance, these offers might seem enticing, but the socialists will simply pass the astronomical costs onto the American people. Keeping less of what you earn means having less freedom to spend your own money on the goods and services that make life better.
The DSA is telling the American people exactly what they are trying to do: exchange your freedom for all of these “free” goods and services that the government will provide you.
Never mind that the socialists will not only take away your freedom but will also fail to deliver on their promises. The socialists ignore the long history of governmental failures in the vain hope that the next government program will be the “right” one.
They believe that the problem of big government has simply been that the wrong leaders were in charge, and that they are the right ones to make it work. But with policies that would make America unaffordable and unsafe, such as eliminating reliable energy and defunding our defense, they are the last people we should trust with power.
OCT. 7 CELEBRATION POST CAUSES INFIGHTING AMONG DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA GROUPS
Regardless, big governments will fail no matter who is in power. More government in the form of higher taxes, increased spending, and more regulations ultimately leaves the American people to suffer higher prices, lower wages, and slower growth in their retirement accounts.
The only logical solution to the failure of big government is less government. This means fewer regulations, lower taxes, and less spending. Limiting government gives us the freedom to pursue the American dream — the freedom to spend our hard-earned income the way we want, the freedom to start a business or take a job to create abundance, and the freedom to raise our families as we see fit, among the other freedoms that are essential to the American way of life.
Austin Gae and John Peluso, Policy Analysts, Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise at Advancing American Freedom Foundation
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
