Containing Socialism at Home

www.americanthinker.com

Last Tuesday, there was a Broadway premiere of sorts. In New York City, elections revealed the Democrat Party’s future. Avowed socialists won with the backing of Zohran Mamdani and dollars from leftist NGOs. There’s no spinning it. Democrat grandees aren’t even trying. Bill Maher claims he’s open to voting for J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio in 2028 if the party is captured by socialists. Whacky James Carville loudly called out his party’s leftward lurch. He’s threatening to walk if socialists take over. Start walking, James, because generational change, in part, will do to your party what President Barack Obama claimed he wanted to do to America: transform it.

Oh, and don’t forget all those migrants who helped elect socialists in New York. Democrats asked for it.

A socialist Democrat Party guarantees continued conflicts at home. As the 250th anniversary of our declaring independence from British tyranny nears, what’s affirmed is that America is preordained to be the battleground between liberty and tyranny -- whatever the stripe. Would our revolutionary generation -- let’s add Abraham Lincoln -- disagree?

At Unheard, Josh Appel wrote (June 24):

The New Democrat position was best summed up by Mamdani ally Brian Romero at a Brooklyn campaign rally: “Abolish ICE, Free Palestine and tax the motherf***ing rich!” Last night’s results are telling of the future direction of New York politics. Democrats are increasingly standing far-Left candidates that are even more radical in their beliefs and policy proposals than progressives. Given the popularity of Zohran Mamdani nationwide, it is reasonable to believe that these candidates who performed so strongly last night may be a bellwether for where the Democrats are moving ideologically.
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New York City isn’t a bellwether because Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and Austin kicked off the party’s march to out-and-out socialism a while back. NYC just occupies a bigger stage. The Democrat Party has long been the party of cities and now, increasingly, close-in suburbs. Without Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a shade of red. Without Atlanta, Georgia isn’t purple; it’s red. The party shrivels up without cities.

Posted President Trump at Truth Social, June 25:

The Communists are finally making their move. I’ve been waiting and preparing for this for a long time. It’s easy to be a Communist -- All you have to do is say, “I’ll give you everything,” but that means you’re taking it away from others that have earned it. Over thousands of years, that Ideology has not worked once. The game is on. Enjoy watching! President DONALD J. TRUMP

I disagree with the president in one respect. This isn’t a spectator sport. We all have skin in the game. Our mission is to rally voters and contain and defeat yet another run at turning America into a socialist “paradise.”

We can’t just oppose socialist tenets and plans. We must champion common sense solutions to everyday problems. Most Americans are instinctively pro-freedom, but they aren’t ideologically so. They want fixes. Trump moved in that direction in his 2024 campaign. He’s since signed executive orders to make lives better.

Reported Fox News at X, June 29:

BREAKING: President Trump signs a presidential memo to make it easier for Americans to repair their own cars by protecting the right to fix vehicles and opening up more options for approving aftermarket parts.

"It came to my attention because I noticed they were arresting people for fixing their car."

"We rule by common sense."

Red states need to be made redder via legislation and laws that better secure liberties, bolster economic and educational opportunities, and build legislative and legal firewalls to leftist sabotage. Election integrity is essential.

Socialists, despite having failed across the globe, won’t disappear because they have staying power. They’re impervious to facts. Socialism is a religion substitute. Have you ever tried reasoning a true believer out of his faith? For the cynical and power-hungry, facts are obstacles. Socialism is a route to power. Lies and manipulation are tools. Leftist revolutions, however achieved, always end up run by an elite. As in the old Soviet Union, the Eastern Bloc, large swaths of China, Cambodia, Cuba, Venezuela, etc., people suffer.

Socialism’s pews are filled with the naïve. From the bored affluent to indoctrinated college kids to the religious who bizarrely claim a nexus between biblical instruction to show charity and mandated wealth transfers and societal leveling. Jesus Christ never advocated kindness and charity through government force -- even under the guise of majority rule.

The Founders were well apprised of majoritarian tyranny. We aren’t a democracy. We’re a nation of inviolate rights under the rule of law. The democratic process -- representative government -- is subordinate to the law, which is supposed to safeguard our rights. The system isn’t perfect. Exploitation, lapses, and deviances occur. Vigilance is mandatory, and counters are necessary to uphold or restore our rights when freedoms are abridged. No more COVID crises -- or whatever “crises” will be manufactured to trample our rights.

Among socialism’s congregation are lots of people nursing grudges. They failed somehow -- or never tried -- and society is to blame. They shake fists at the rich, the talented, the smart or common folk who accept responsibility for their lives and roll with the punches. This type, consumed by envy and resentment, will always be with us. Sidelining them is essential.

The Democrats' leftward drift is nothing new. It began back at the dawn of the progressive era. In the early 20th century, progressivism began amalgamating with elements of socialist doctrine. Who remembers names like Victor Berger (a founder of the Socialist Party of America), Upton Sinclair (socialist muckraking journalist), and William “Big Bill” Haywood (labor organizer)? How about Eugene Debs, often a candidate for president, who had big influences on progressives? Mamdani is only novel in that he’s a wealthy immigrant and a practicing Muslim. The last matters. Socialists are allied with Muslims to upend traditional America. If they prevail, the factions will fight it out for supremacy.

The modern Big Bang happened at the 1968 Democrat National Convention in Chicago. Old Guard Democrats won a pyrrhic victory against a counterculture insurgency. Chicago was roiled by protests and riots. Hubert Humphrey’s presidential nomination marked the beginning of the end of liberal establishment dominance. He lost a tight race to Nixon that year.

By 1972, young antiwar, leftist cohorts -- Hillary and Bill Clinton among them -- maneuvered George McGovern into the nomination. Richard Nixon trounced McGovern. Nixon’s 49-state sweep was historic. It was the impetus for a center-right majority. Watergate briefly interrupted the nation’s political shift. Carter’s failures and Reagan’s successes put the nation back on track.

Whatever the opposition, as President Trump declared, the fight is on. It’s really the newest round in a century-plus prizefight. Today, it’s Mamdani and socialist minions versus Trump -- and, later, J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio, let’s suppose -- and common-sense folk, who believe in the nation as founded… who don’t need religion substitutes. And are far too practical to chase chimeras.

Containing socialism in blue states and cities is a start. Jefferson said that the states are laboratories of democracy, meaning testing grounds for good and bad ideas and governance. Blue states are already failing. The proof: people are leaving. Unrestricted socialist schemes will implode New York and California and other blue states.

Perhaps people can’t be saved from themselves? Perhaps socialism is a cancer of the soul? If so, it’s a communicable cancer; it can’t be allowed to metastasize. Common sense and good, old-fashioned patriotism are the means of stopping it.

J. Robert Smith can be found at X. His handle is @JRobertSmith1. At Gab, @JRobertSmith. Also at Truth Social, @JRobertSmith. He blogs occasionally at Flyover.