Have Democrats finally gone too far?
To lean is one thing. To lurch is another. Republicans, birthed in 1854 by their disdain for slavery, have generally leaned right. Democrats, since their slow but steady recast during the 1960s, have leaned left. Though Democrats still pray in JFK’s name, who could ever place JFK with today’s leftward lurching Democrats?
Two divergent paths await Democrats. One path finishes them off, primarily because of the uncontrolled and uncontrollable Women in White, both the freshmen and veteran women in the House whom the Democratic leadership is hesitant to rein in or criticize. The other path leads to voters getting behind Democrats in 2020, saving their party, and following their march over the cliff into rank socialism.
From all indications the Women in White, so labeled for their garb at the recent State of the Union address, are fast becoming the face of the Democratic Party, thanks to their energetic, but rudderless leader, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The question is whether or not AOC and her sisterhood can convince their party and the nation to follow them.
If Path One becomes reality and Democrats go the way of the Whigs, it will be because of the sheer lunacy of the proposals the Women in White and their supporters are setting forth. End private insurance? Make murderous infanticide legal? Bash billionaires? Bash wealth? Re-define free speech? Promise free college education? Centralize control of industry? Wherever they lie buried, Marx is smiling but our Founders are not. In 2020 we will see where American voters stand on these questions.
Path One would mean capitalism wins and socialism loses. Path Two means the exact opposite.
We can no longer take solace in “the pendulum always swings back.” If Path Two becomes our chosen route, American values of individual freedom, limited government, and private property are gone for good. Two facts support this somber claim. One is the history of other countries that sought socialism and found tyranny. The other is the leftist grip that higher education has on our 18- to 21-year-olds.
It seems that the poverty and despair of the former Soviet Union, Communist East Germany, Poland, North Korea, Cuba, and even oil-soaked Venezuela would be enough to show us what socialism leads to. Apparently it hasn’t been. And why haven’t our 18 to 21-year-olds of each generation learned about the fruit socialism bears? Because leftist histori- ans and history professors haven’t taught it. All of my life, historical studies have been the domain of the left. Nixon was right when he remarked that most historians are on the left.
University history departments simply have not presented socialism as the scourge that it is, but as the unfinished dream of a longed-for paradise. They tout Sweden and Denmark as socialistic models, two nations no bigger than my hand that could never serve as a test of socialism’s success.
Here’s why we can’t trust the pendulum to swing back if AOC and company are to set the Democratic agenda. In a 2016 Gallup poll, 55 percent of respondents 18-29 years old stated they view socialism positively. In 2017 when the same age group was asked by a YouGov poll whether they would prefer to live in a capitalist, socialist, fascist, or communist nation, 44 percent answered socialist. The darkness of socialism lurks. Thank God, not all 18-yearolds go to college.
As the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined, many of us were taught. Academia’s bending has inclined our children away from free enterprise and entrepreneurship. The benders have been quite happy to influence not only politics, but literature, the arts, economics, and even entertainment, particularly comedy. How many current literary figures are conservatives? How many comedians? Academics are responsible for the West’s undying love affair with Karl Marx.
The present Democratic Party is saying, “Forget tried and tested. It must be new and different.” AOC’s ride into town is nothing less than a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party.
That takeover, if successful in its aims, forebodes increased government power, decreased economic power, and diminished personal liberty. It forebodes the return of 1970s feminism run amuck, arguing that abortion should be allowed at the very point of birth.
Even if AOC disavows her Green New Deal, the course has still been set for Democrats in 2020. Since liberalism is intrinsically linked to Marxism, liberal Democrats will intensify their drive toward Marxism’s impossible dream.
The Women in White have declared, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” But the mockery they have received indicates that many Americans consider them delusional. That’s why the Democrat Party’s future is in doubt.