Until The Last Light Goes Out

“Useful idiots will sing socialism's praises until the last light goes out.”

Thus lamented Marian Tupy, editor of HumanProgress.org, in an interview with John Stossel about the celebrities who praised Hugo Chavez's socialist takeover of Venezuela, but who remain either unapologetic or silent in the face of its failure and his brutality. Let's also give an honorable mention to President Biden, who'd rather buy Venezuelan oil than allow Americans to drill for it domestically.

Much has been written about the breakdown of communication between the Left and the Right in America today. Many have blamed and continue to blame the Right, often in hyperbolic and nastily derogatory terms, for their intransigence, obstructionism, ignorance, or refusal to recognize that there are new truths out there.

Yet it is the Left - not liberals (many of whom are breaking from the Left), but Leftists - who are intransigent, ignorant, obstructionist, and who stand stubbornly against truth and evidence today.

No further proof than their continued embrace of socialism and other forms of state planning and control is needed.

Socialism has failed, in rich countries and poor. Large and small. Eastern and western. Warm and cold. Northern and southern. Homogeneous and heterogeneous.

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it. — Thomas Sowell

It has succeeded... nowhere. Those supposed "socialist" paradises in Northern Europe? Market economies, albeit with large welfare structures, that have been steadily (and sometimes painfully) shedding socialistic policies after decades of watching them degrade their nations.

If our domestic socialists wanted such structures, we could have a conversation, even though Europeans, on average, have lower living standards than Americans.

They don't.

They promise an idealized outcome that mirrors what they tell us about Europe (but that doesn’t mirror reality) but push Venezuela-style policies, and aggressively equivocate when you challenge them (If I see “policing and firefighting are socialist!” one more time…).

How do you have a conversation with someone who not only presents so dishonestly, but refuses to look at the total failure of socialism everywhere and everywhen it has been tried?

What common ground is there for conversation with people who not only reject history, but reject the core principles that birthed America and that make no allowance for socialism - their form of it or another?

Compromise is the ultimate purpose of politics. If we all agreed on how things should work amongst us, there'd be no need for politics. But, since we are individuals, and therefore each unique, we discuss, debate, seek common ground and common principles, and trade priorities in pursuit of policies that will let us "pursue our happiness" and prosper as best we can. That some leverage this reality to elevate themselves at others' expense, against others' will, and by controlling others is an unfortunate reality that we fight with structures such as our Constitution.

If, however, one group wants to run a ship at flank speed toward a waterfall, and another wants to stop steaming in that direction, the "let's go half-speed" compromise is still a death sentence.

When all the historical and empirical evidence points to that truth, there's no conversation to be had with its rejecters.

'No, no, no!,' our modern leftists tell us, 'This is Democratic Socialism! It's not the same!!'

A reading of their materials, including the platform of the DSA, puts the lie to this claim. They may deny it up and down in casual conversation with outsiders, but their ultimate goal is the abolishing of private ownership of business and the corporate form itself. Sure, there are those who preach simply for more social programs, but the people they seek to elect, the "justice Democrats" and DSA members/endorsees, are part of a group that describes itself as

a socialist organization building mass, working class power for the freedom of all oppressed peoples under capitalism.

They reject capitalism.

I reject them.

As should anyone who believes in individual liberty.

For under their way, liberty must be eradicated, and prosperity will be eradicated.

As an old joke goes...

Q: What did socialists use before candles? A: Electricity.

Finally, if you’re among those who still thinks that the DSA, the Justice Democrats, the Squad, the BernieBros, the Progressive Caucus, the Woke and Ultra-Woke, and the rest of the Marxist cavalcade would get it right this time…

I offer Regina George.

Democrats, you are going to have to make a decision after the looming mid-term electoral wipeout. Will you follow the Bill Clinton playbook, wherein you move your party back to the center, advance reasonable and realistic policies that many in both parties will accept, and forego the Green and the Woke agendas that are Trojan horses for Marxist ambitions, or will you remain in thrall to the illiberal Leftists whose policies and cultural radicalism threaten to ruin the country?

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Yours in liberty,

Peter.