It was just under 19 years ago that the Berlin Wall came down and the last official vestiges of Soviet-led communism seemed to disappear. Even Maoist China began to open its doors and markets to trade, signaling the final defeat of this blight on the world’s history. The world, and Americans, thought that victory was in reach. But something happened on the way to the final victory—we forgot.
We have forgotten that government is not the best arbitrator of the complex negotiations necessary to allow fair exchanges between individuals.
We have forgotten the discipline of putting community and the nation ahead of ourselves and our rights in order to show down evil. We have forgotten that government redistribution creates perverse incentives that undermine opportunity and freedom and eventually the very framework of social order. We have forgotten that rights, such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion, come at a price and a sacrifice.
Most critically, we have forgotten that Karl Marx’s words “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” became the rallying cry to a regime and government that killed tens of millions of its own citizens and imprisoned many more—a government that bankrupted its people in order to spread, through military force, its corruption and influence around the globe.
We have forgotten that socialism is fundamentally bad and that it harms not only the societies that pursue it, but also those around it. In a month where we have seen the government acquire huge sections of the private economy, Americans are looking toward a voice that says, “It’s OK, the government will take care of you.” Much as the “people” took care of their comrades in 1917.
We face a basic choice today—turn back the clock and step toward modern socialism or step forward, take our lumps and emerge stronger from the crisis before us. The Obama-McCain election offers a clear choice—turn back to government provision in all key sectors of our economy—or move to preserve the economic and personal freedoms that have given American democracy both its strength and its success.
Whether it be in energy, manufacturing, employment, health, education or financial services, an Obama Administration promises strong government provision and oversight in all aspects of our society and sectors of our economy. Steeped in a secularist, leftist view of the world, he would seek to use the power of the state to transform the American order to one which is forcefully and narrowly politically correct.
Obama and his followers promise an America where the people (the proletariat in Marxspeak) will reap the rewards of the rich (the bourgeoisie). Hearing Obama speak yesterday, another Marx quote comes to mind, “The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.” The kind of class warfare embedded in this campaign will take America down the same dead-end road to socialism that has befallen other nations who travel it.
It is easy to understand why our youth are attracted to this philosophical nuance—none remember the evils and repression that socialism and communism brought to the world. Their enthusiasm parallels that of the young Reds in the October Revolution. But our older and middle-aged Americans would do well to remind themselves of the suffering and horrors that this seemingly harmless class warfare brought us.
And to see its modern incarnation for what it is. Throughout The Audacity of Hope, throughout his campaign, Barack Obama has been clear about his commitment to government’s central role in addressing all of society’s challenges and in taking control of its major social, political and economic institutions. The Patriot Act and the market crisis give him both the means and an excuse to do so.
Before we hand all our economic, political and social institutions over to governmental control, let us remember that, despite their uncertainties, unequal outcomes, and challenges, free markets have allowed us to remain free of the tyranny that emerged under socialism in nearly every nation that pursued it. Let us remember the legacy of freedom paid for by thousands of our predecessors in places like Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq and throughout Europe.
Finally, let us remember the sickly infectiousness of the ideas of Karl Marx and their awful legacy. For our children’s sake and the sake of the children of other nations around the world, we must remember both Marx’s hostility to religion (“religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand”) and his love of change for change’s sake (“the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.”)
As we face this critical juncture in American history we must remind ourselves that socialism has not ever worked, does not work and never will work. And as we choose our next leaders, we must be sure to choose those who will not embrace the failed ideas of the past. Otherwise, it will be free men in other places who remember affectionately the freedoms that once existed in America. We must have the audacity to remember and to step forward and fight this latest wave of socialism as it sweeps our political landscape.