OPINION:
The Democratic Socialists of America, riding high from primary victories in several Democratic-run states, have unveiled a “Workers Deserve More” platform.
It aims to dismantle the American republic, starting with the abolition of the U.S. Senate, the Electoral College and our national borders, and the subordination of the president and the Supreme Court to Congress.
Then there is universal ranked choice voting, public ownership of large companies, free childcare, “Medicare for All,” cancellation of student loans (to be paid by taxpayers), the transgender agenda and more benefits for the growing “free stuff” army. How do we pay for all this?
Who cares? Hit up the billionaires.
The DSA now claims 120,000 members and dozens of public offices. It is no wonder that so many young people are buying into the DSA and socialism in general. The public “education” system does not share the shocking, real-world track record of socialism and communism.
This makes young voters sitting ducks for a pitch like this one on the DSA’s website: “Imagine taking a day off from work in a future without capitalism. … You have no debt. You don’t need health insurance. You don’t pay a mortgage or have a landlord, because comfortable housing is a human right. Your retirement is publicly funded. Food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation aren’t for-profit businesses; they are common goods and utilities.”
Bottom line: You do not have to grow up or take responsibility for anything. Mommy government will do it all.
The DSA’s pixie dust masks class warfare straight out of the bloody French and Bolshevik revolutions. To understand what is going on, it is helpful to revisit an extraordinary essay drafted 176 years ago in Mugron, France.
In 1850, Frederic Bastiat published “The Law,” a slam-dunk refutation of “The Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It is a surprisingly accessible read.
Unlike Marx and Engels, who were atheists, Bastiat agreed with America’s Founders, who said rights come from God, not government. “Three gifts from God precede all human legislation,” Bastiat wrote, citing individuality, liberty and property — all protected by law.
In a free republic, people cede some liberties to government in return for law and order and protection of life and property. When a government fails to do this and instead takes money from Peter to pay Paul, it engages in a form of theft that Bastiat labels “plunder.”
A grasping government plunders as much wealth as it can and redistributes it to increase the power and wealth of those doing the transferring, he wrote.
I thought about this when watching Virginia Democrats take over Richmond in January. The fake “moderate” Gov. Abigail Spanberger immediately signed a measure to send consumers’ electric bills soaring. Democratic legislators, meanwhile, voted themselves a $32,000 salary increase, nearly tripling their pay in the name of “the people.”
Bastiat writes that despite socialism’s flowery promises, it is all about “naked greed” and “misconceived philanthropy.”
Gad Saad, a scholar at the University of Mississippi’s Declaration of Independence Center and professor of marketing at Concordia University, calls the latter “suicidal empathy,” a compassion so excessive that it harms the person, group or society engaging in it.
A prime example would be the Great Society welfare state’s destruction of the Black family. Another would be the Biden administration’s importation of millions of unvetted immigrants, some of whom are now working to destroy America by advocating socialism or Islamism.
Each of these movements, which overlap to form a red-green axis, is using America’s constitutional liberties to attain power. If they get enough of it, they will tear up that document and replace it with their creed of choice.
Like communism, Shariah cannot be squared with the Constitution, especially the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty. Under it, converts from Islam can be punished with death, as can those convicted of blasphemy. Women have few or no rights. This conflicts with the 14th Amendment’s equal protection guarantee and the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
Criminal punishments can include amputation or flogging, which would violate the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Not all Muslim-majority countries impose Shariah, but in countries such as Iran, run by Islamists, women are forced to wear hijabs or even more concealment in public — or face beatings. How many college students who run around with signs backing Hamas and Iran while trashing Israel are aware of any of this?
The DSA is stoking hatred of Jews. Its platform calls for “a free Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital” and to “end all military and economic aid to Israel.”
On Wednesday, 103 — nearly half of 212 Democrats — voted yes on a failed House measure to end military aid to Israel. Only one Republican, bill sponsor Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, voted yes as the measure failed on a 104-314 vote.
The DSA has a Red Star Caucus, whose members vow to destroy America’s free market economics and impose communism. Its heroes are New York City’s Islamist/communist Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent, a lifelong communist.
The DSA’s Red Star Caucus, of which Ms. Romer is a member, states in its published platform: “We do not believe that capitalism can be reformed into socialism. It must be overthrown and replaced.”
Republicans must educate American voters before it is too late. They need to offer a positive agenda and remind people of the bad old Biden days of $5 gas and open borders.
They need to make clear that if the Democrats do not expel the DSA, then voting Democratic at any level is enabling a growing red-green axis that threatens American liberty and prosperity.
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
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