Capitalism & Meritocracy vs Communism/Socialism/Bernie & the Squad
So, just to level set, I come from a military family. I’ve had family members in the military going back multiple generations for over 100+ years. As a result, when I see and hear sitting members of Congress, like Senator Bernie Sanders and a ‘squad’ of House members, espousing the merits of socialism, communism, and Marxism or declaring that the principles associated with these various forms of government and repression just haven’t been implemented correctly, it truly causes me to seethe and see red. Granted, my family, and the families of millions of Americans have fought for this country just so we can preserve the right of some to say stupid stuff, but it still causes me to pause and take a few deep breaths before speaking.
What these Congressional members fail to recognize and understand is that, for better or worse, the United States, even with all of its faults, is a Constitutional Republic employing a mixed market capitalist economy that is a meritocracy at its core. In simple terms, meritocracy is the idea that people get ahead based on their own accomplishments rather than, for example, on their parents' social class. This is the heart of the “American Dream” that members of Congress seem hell bent on destroying all in the name of some demented understanding of the words ‘fairness’ and ‘equity.’
With the exception of one ‘squad’ member, all are natural born United States citizens. The one that is not is now a naturalized citizen who previously hailed from a highly corrupt east-African hell-hole known as Somalia. Even that nation defines its form of government as a ‘Federal Parliamentary Republic.’ Therefore, none of these members of Congress have EVER lived under the oppressive yoke of communism, socialism, or Marxism. But yet, they want to trash the country that has literally provided them with everything like multiple homes, flush bank accounts, full closets, refrigerators, and freezers, a peaceful night’s sleep without fear of being charged with insider trading, a robust retirement package, and access to a gold plated Cadillac healthcare plan that the rest of the citizenry pay for but do not have access to. In spite of all of these ‘perks’ of being a U.S. citizen and a sitting member of its Congressional body, they still want to push and cajole us to move toward one of these forms of government. A form of government, mind you, which has never worked by any degree or measure in any country where it was implemented. How’s Venezuela doing these days? How’s Cuba doing after 70+ years of communism? What’s the life expectancy in North Korea again?
Senator Sanders points to his beloved Scandinavian countries as examples of where socialism has worked. Unfortunately for the Senator, the very countries he’s pointing to (Norway, Sweden, and Finland) have publicly rebuffed him and his assertions and declared, ‘we are not a socialist country.’ It’s shocking to me, and perhaps it shouldn’t be, that none of these ‘progressive’ members of Congress remembers, or at a minimum read about, this:
That’s a picture that was taken of Boris Yeltsin before he replaced Mikhail Gorbachev while he was visiting a Texas grocery store in Houston in 1989. Here’s the thing. All of the Soviet Premiere’s and members of the Politburo knew that capitalism was a better economic engine than the strict state control’s inherent to communism. They knew that if the Soviet people saw what they themselves had seen throughout the world for 50 years, their grip on power and leadership would falter and collapse. And it did. Just two years after this picture was taken, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
Day-in and day-out we see and hear Congress members as well as has-been celebrities and athletes promoting one of these despicable forms of government. They never just come out and declare “I love socialism,’ or ‘socialism is good and that’s what we need,’ but they ARE making these very statements through their actions. A good example of this is when they distance themselves from supporting the Cuban and Venezuelan people. These people are actively trying to make a positive change, toward freedom of all things, and these ‘progressives’ won’t give them the time of day. They openly rebuff any course correction out of socialism, communism, and state control toward capitalism, democracy, and free markets when they wear certain things like Fidel Castro or Che Guevara t-shirts. They continue their blind obedience to the brain washing and radicalization when they don’t speak out about products that they are approached to endorse. Instead, all they see, or saw, are dollar signs, a lot of dollar signs. So, they inked their name to that contract, jammed their fingers in their ears, and then put on horse blinders. To them, status and cash in the bank is more important than the conditions and labor practices where the products they endorse are manufactured, namely Asian sweatshops by children.
If you dig and look, you’ll notice some interesting things about protestors opposing their governments today. First off, if they aren’t actively being hunted, detained, disappeared, or shot, they can be found chanting and cheering for change while waving American flags. That’s right, AMERICAN FLAGS! They are waving those for a multitude of reasons.
In my opinion, however, I believe the primary reason they are waving those flags is to to garner support from the United States government itself. They want the U.S. military to swoop in and depose/topple their government because it is not fair, it is not equitable. It is corrupt to the core and they likely voted for it in some form or another and then it went off the rails. This is a typical and historical path. Socialism is usually voted into existence piece by piece over time until it consumes everything it its path and you have to shoot your way out of it. Communism is usually installed via revolution (Russia, China, Cuba, Vietnam, and Cambodia (which is a puppet democracy)).
Returning to the topic of the protestors now, Senator Sanders and the ‘squad’ are choosing to ignore them because they want oppression. They want divisive and distinct social classes full of have’s and have not’s. They want subservience to and dependency on the government. They want the government to control everything about a country’s economy. Of course they never come out and say this directly, but when they don’t publicly voice SUPPORT for the protestors they ARE saying all of the above. Those that choose not to protest vocally in these countries are choosing to flee. How many flotillas have arrived on our shores from Cuba in the last 50 years? That’s a number likely in the thousands. Now, how many flotillas have returned to that island disaster carrying U.S. citizens that have chosen to live under its ‘Unitary Marxist–Leninist one-party socialist republic’ form of government? Exactly zero.
I truly do not understand how you can live in, quite literally, the freest country on the face of the planet in the history of the planet, and hate it so much that you want to destroy it. I truly do not understand why these people simply don’t get on a boat, plane, train, or simply drive to the border, turn in their passport, renounce their citizenship and try to make a living in a place like North Korea, China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, or some select Middle Eastern countries. The reason they don’t is simple. They know that they can say and do the most ridiculous, inane, cancerous, vitriolic, and destructive horse manure and they’ll remain free to continue their antics. If they were to try ANY of these things in any of the countries/regions noted, if they weren’t detained as a spy upon entry, they would surely be detained and/or ‘disappeared’ for their vocal opposition to the government. Free choice, free will, free expression, etc. does not exist in these countries and our benevolent leaders on Pennsylvania Avenue, and those skulking the halls of Congress, are to busy trying to turn our country in to one of these disasters. They are to busy granting interviews espousing the merits of socialism and wantonly ignoring the active protests in these countries to see that these people need acknowledgement at a minimum and help to accomplish the worthy goal of trying to be free.
Here’s a video showing what appreciation a visitor from Cuba had for the things we take for granted. And here’s the article that inspired me to post this blog entry: Western Journal.