The College regularly opens my mind to new ideas because we have a diverse student body that holds differing points of view. However, there are always those few people who follow really off the wall philosophies or ideas that shock me. One of those philosophies is socialism.
I thought when President Ronald Reagan said "Mr. Gorbachev, take down this wall" in Berlin in 1989, the insane infatuation with full-blown socialism had ended, but apparently I was wrong. There are many in the academic world who still subscribe to socialism as some form of saving grace. Why? Socialism has never worked in the past, it does not work now and it does not work in theory.
First, let us make this clear: socialism is watered down communism. If you examine the two doctrines they are very similar. Both push for a huge all-encompassing government, universal health care, anti-capitalism measures, an end to self-reliance and independence from government and many other seemingly harmless ideas the Democratic Party often loves to try to implement.
Every socialist/communist country has either failed, is currently failing or switched to capitalism. The USSR, the largest socialist state, sputtered and failed after only 80 years of existence. China has rejected socialist economics as has Vietnam.
North Korea's people are starving to death, Canada's seniors flee their country to obtain prescription drugs as the government subsidizes marijuana and France's pension system is running out of money as its retirees are forced to the streets in protest.
Socialism is a failure wherever you look. Why do liberals in this country insist on dragging us down with all of the other Marxist failures?
Liberal socialists often try to find a scapegoat for the reason their views do not work. The latest socio-progressive liberal tactics are to target large corporations and to blame them and anyone who supports them, as enemies to humanity.
They use class warfare rhetoric right out of the pages of "The Communist Manifesto" and they apply it to all of their leftist agenda from nuclear disarmament to government subsidized sex changes. Conveniently, they leave out many parts of the picture.
First, many of these "socialist crusaders" shoving their elitist thinking down our children's throats often live off of "Daddy's money," or public tax dollars, and have never had to work a day in their lives.
They also seem to be ignorant to millions of people who are employed by corporations. If the socialists had their way these multi-national corporations would be dissolved and those people would lose their jobs that support their families. Meanwhile the socialist would wet himself with glee thinking he provided a great service to humanity.
Next, no one is forcing people to buy sandwiches from McDonald's, watch NBC, go to see Disney movies or buy clothes from The Gap. People choose to.
If you are so opposed to globalization or capitalism, no one is stopping you from completely boycotting these companies.
I encourage socialists to put their money where their mouth is. Let others exercise their right to select goods and services and you socialists can do the same.
I will concede that I am not a big fan of total globalization and I do not want money interests in our places of power. I know the present world could be a better place.
However, I see no feasible alternatives presented by the socialists to solve those problems. They often just accuse big bad corporations of ruining the earth and scream stupid slogans, like "No Blood for Oil!"
Can they present a practical alternative to corporate control of business or any issue for that matter? No. Can their socialist governments succeed? We have already seen that they are a dismal failure around the world.
We need to have a government with fewer taxes and power, not more. Our government must be fiscally responsible, spending only what it takes in and not a penny more. Our Republic must be restored and strengthened by citizens who want to make representative democracy work in this country.
The experiment with communism has left 100 million people dead. Russian people can still attest to the horror stories under Stalin who was following in the footsteps of Marx and Lenin. Yet, in 2003 we have young Americans shouting for the ascension of its little brother, socialism.
This is a disgrace to all of those who have suffered under those regimes and a sign that we have forgotten the past. This great country was built on liberty, limited government, self reliance, hard work, and free enterprise, not socialism.
