
History shows that socialism has failed everywhere it has been implemented, because it rejects a fundamental ingredient of what makes capitalism successful – ownership. The more aggressively socialism is pursued, the bigger the failure that results. History also shows that capitalism is the economic system that has brought more people out of poverty than any other system. Finally, history shows that you cannot have political freedom without economic freedom. The moment you begin to limit economic freedom, you begin to limit political freedom. Socialism limits economic freedom, the result is limited political freedom. We have seen this happen throughout history, from the Soviet Union to Venezuela, and now we even see the middle class revolting against the high levels of taxation (i.e. limit on economic freedom) required by socialism in Paris, France.
It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.
JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN, “Election of Lord Mayor of Dublin,” speech before the Privy Council, July 10, 1790.—The Speeches of the Right Honorable John Philpot Curran, ed. Thomas Davis, pp. 94–95 (1847).
Or… Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. The latter abridged version of the quote is frequently attributed to Thomas Jefferson and it appears outside of our National Archives in Washington DC. If we continue to rest, our penalty will be servitude to the active voices who demand much of what they did not, and cannot, produce. It is this idea which birthed the Tea Party Movement and sustains us today.
Today an unknown member of the Democrat Socialists of America like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can unseat an incumbent, already far-left establishment, Democrat. Who imagined an avowed socialist like Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum could beat a field of well-funded Democratic challengers in Florida’s gubernatorial race? Only ten years ago, when the tea party movement was first finding its voice, who would have guessed that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a man who chose to honeymoon in the Soviet Union, would twice be a front runner for the Democratic Party nomination for president?
Jenny Beth Martin ~ “Ten years ago, the media didn’t take the uprising of Americans who were sick of the corruption, the cronyism, the elitism, and the intrusion into their lives seriously, and as surely as the sun rises in the east, they didn’t take President Trump’s support from middle America seriously either – not until they had a massive, collective public meltdown on election night in 2016.”
Martin, J. (19, February 27). The Tea Party is ten years old. Here’s what it’s accomplished and why defeating socialism is next on its agenda. Retrieved April 09, 19, from https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/the-tea-party-is-ten-years-old-heres-what-its-accomplished-and-why-defeating-socialisms-next-on-its-agenda
In our Tea Party movement’s brief history we have had much success. We have gotten our voices heard. We have gotten noticed. We have lobbied the government. We have even put many of our own in seats of power. Among them were Sandy Adams, Scott Plakon, Daniel Webster, Marco Rubio, Rick Scott and our current governor Ron DeSantis who, as an author, was the East Side Tea Party’s first speaker when we moved into our Tea Party activity center. The pendulum seems to have shifted. Instead of fighting for the recognized rights and protections of the Constitution, we find ourselves debating why the “sharing,” espoused by advocates of an ever growing list of socialist programs, will end in tragedy. At times it is like telling a child why a diet of candy and ice cream is not healthy. The responsible adult is instantly viewed by the child as an impediment to pleasure. Someone has to be the adult in the room. My tea party friends, we are the adults in the room.
Socialism promises economic equality, the elimination of needs even the elimination of poor self-esteem. It promises a democratic society where the the common man is not ruled by a small collective of the wealthy and powerful but by the representatives of the people. With a heavy dose of social engineering we can even prevent the normal fluctuation in the Earth’s climate from occurring.
If we take the blue pill the advocates of socialism offer us, we can have health care for all, racial equality, gender equality, economic equality, guaranteed income, guaranteed wages, free education from infancy to adulthood and truly democratic presidential elections where everyone from criminals to sixteen-year old children, to foreigners are equally qualified and eligible to offer their expertise on the proper governance of America. If we only allow a few of our representatives in government to have control, we would live in a world where failure is comfortable and success is hard.
While all teachers of History (in Florida at least) have taken multiple courses in Psychology and Sociology, students tend to complete their courses without an understanding of human nature and the corruption that exists within all men. In the past, much of this teaching came from the Bible. Public schools today do not condone the use of a biblical prism when assessing history. Without the component of a permanently flawed human nature, the Utopian promise of Socialism tends to work on paper and many are deceived. Enlightenment thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau presented man, in his natural state, as pure but corruptible. With this notion, Utopian governance could be achieved if we can keep mankind pure. Property ownership would be banned in order to keep man from being envious of another’s land or possessions and therefore pure of greed.
Socialism denies the existence of an essential human trait–human nature. Marx borrowed from the Enlightenment to say that human nature was malleable rather than constant. The communist state established by Lenin, wrote the historian Richard Pipes, was “a grandiose experiment in public education” to create an entirely new type of human being—Soviet Man.
Edwards, L. (2018, June 11). Telling the Truth about Communism. Retrieved April 11, 2019, from https://www.victimsofcommunism.org/witnessblog/2018/6/11/telling-the-truth-about-communism
America was not designed as a democracy. It is not socialist or communist. It is neither a dictatorship, monarchy or a theocracy. All of those governments depend on the hope that human’s sinful nature can be avoided and mankind will adhere to its better nature. After researching thousands of years of history, the successes and failures of empires long past, through the prism of a Biblical world view, our nation was crafted, not on the hopes that man would be good, but on the time tested assurance that he would not.
As Madison famously observed, “If men were angels there would be no need for government” and “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” It is a reflection of human nature, Madison said, that “such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government.”
Edwards, L. (18, December 3). What Americans Must Know About Socialism. Retrieved April 10, 2019, from https://www.heritage.org/progressivism/commentary/what-americans-must-know-about-socialism
Let me close with the words of Jenny Beth Martin, a founder of the Tea Party movement and CEO of the Tea Party Patriots.
In Washington, there are two visions for America’s future in circulation: that which the Tea Party has helped craft over the last decade, centered on personal freedom, economic freedom, and a debt-free future for our nation; and that which the self-identified socialists in Congress envision, with all of the free giveaways that have led many nations to bankruptcy – from free health care to free education to, incredibly, even free money for those who don’t wish to work.
Friedrich Hayek brilliantly argued that the best defense against tyrannical programs is widespread education of what “unfreedom” looks like. Americans can count on the Tea Party to provide exactly that type of education over the next decade.
Our tenth anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate our past victories, while, at the same time, rolling up our sleeves and preparing for the battle of ideas that lies ahead between the retrograde socialist policies and the promotion of individual freedom
Martin, J. (19, February 27). The Tea Party is ten years old. Here’s what it’s accomplished and why defeating socialism is next on its agenda. Retrieved April 09, 19, from https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/the-tea-party-is-ten-years-old-heres-what-its-accomplished-and-why-defeating-socialisms-next-on-its-agenda