The Siren Song of Socialism
There was a good commentary in the Investor's Business Daily website (hat tip to Newbie Shooter) on the siren song of socialism. It is worth reading because it is a good reminder that the battle against Marxism is still not over. Marxism's ideological descendents are still very much alive, but much more carefully packaged.
Occasionally blunt, old fashioned socialism does raise its head here. "In May, two House Democrats called for nationalization of the U.S. oil industry. A June Rasmussen poll reported that 37% of Democrats liked the idea." There's no repackaging there. That's good old fashioned socialism but it's the exception.
Mostly socialism in the U.S. has been completely repackaged after being repeatedly beaten back. The socialists realized the American people just simply preferred the upside to a life with some risk to the fraudulent utopian claims of socialism. This resistance was the echo of our founding as a colonial society still audible over time (see the manifesto for more on that point).
The article quotes Norman Thomas, a perennial Socialist Party presidential candidate in the 1930s and 1940s, as saying "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism…but under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day, America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
It is often challenging not to sound like you are part of the black helicopter crowd when defending against the "new socialism". The socialists really did learn a lesson from previous failures and avoid anything too abrupt and overt. They are particularly careful in their use of language, generally using a vocabulary just within the comfort zone of the average American. Everything is so reasonable sounding on its own. No one program is too onerous.
But it never ends. There's always some new reason to expand government. There's always some reason to raise taxes, to infringe on our freedom, to reinterpret the constitution, to squeeze the love of freedom out of the American people.
American democracy is special. It is not like democracy in Europe where the people are free to vote for whatever statist they like and governments' powers have few explicit limits. Freedom is viewed as a grant from government not a fundamental truth.
In America it has always been the reverse and the onus has been on government to justify why it should encroach on our liberty. The socialist/progressive/liberal program requires a cultural shift to a more European government-first mindset.
In the Friday New York Times, an article on Sen. Obama's trip through Europe quoted Pierre Rousselin, the foreign editor of Le Figaro, as saying "[In Obama], we can expect somebody who reasons the way we do in Europe".
I really couldn't say it any better.