Saving the Republic

The left loves to confiscate. It stems from its basic belief that individuals do not and should not own anything. In their view, only the state, the acquisitive state, should possess. Socialists, communists, and yes, even fascists all believe the state alone has the right and should, therefore, exercise its power to take anything from anyone in order to further its mission. And what is that mission? To exercise total control over the population, because that's the only way totalitarianism can survive. When all power resides in the state and a people is dispossessed of everything, that same people can do nothing. Of course, we see an example of this with so-called "gun control," a policy that ultimately aims at gun confiscation. An unarmed public is far less threatening to those in power than one which possesses millions of weapons. This, then, is the theory under which the acquisitive state operates.

We saw signs of this in England and elsewhere when landowners and even small property owners were attacked both politically and financially. But the signs became very real during the twentieth century when the Soviet and Chinese Communists, along with their less influential proteges, blatantly confiscated all productive property. In response, the United States government openly condemned the violent and terroristic approach of these nations. And yet, despite the condemnation, our government's policies tended push our nation and its people in the same leftward direction. The New Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society, Globalization, Obamacare, the Green New Deal, and many other doctrines and programs moved our nation and its people away from personal freedom and toward increased governmental control of all aspects of their lives.

Although most of these doctrines were hatched in the political incubators of the Democrat Party, the Republicans did little to slow the process. Under Republican administrations we experienced the establishment of many intrusive agencies and recent Republican presidents have expanded government spending by huge amounts, doing very little to slow the advance of an unelected bureaucracy to power. It would seem many Republicans have decided to continue along the same leftward path, but to do so more slowly and less conspicuously. At the same time, they declare the welfare state is doomed, that it will eventually collapse. One is reminded of Margaret Thatcher's famous line: "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." Perhaps, but that can take a long time so long as those "other people" willingly provide the funds.

Free-market economies not only offer economic freedom and opportunity, but also encourage political freedom. But it's important to remember that socialist regimes like Communist China have been able to remain in power, even though they reject the true economic freedom and productive benefits of capitalism. They've stayed in power because they use the technological advancements of capitalism, technology they acquire through both trade and thievery.

The Communist Chinese have learned much from the earlier mistakes of the Soviets. Personally, I don't believe they are about to collapse, at least not in the near term. Such regimes, which rely heavily on terror, will manage to survive so long as capitalism still exists. I suspect they can last even longer through the ready use of force and other means of coercion. Force, especially when it is applied brutally, can overcome a people's desire to achieve the material benefits of a free economy.

If we truly want to save our Republic from morphing into just another form of totalitarianism, we must take a totally different approach, less political and more spiritual, more religious. We must openly address the moral inhumanity of all forms of socialism. Socialism aims to deprive the individual of the gift of his humanity since it views people as mere statistics, thereby demeaning them all. It denies the person the ability to exercise the freedom to choose how he lives and deprives him of responsibility for his future and for the well-being of family and community. Only by focusing on moral and spiritual means and ends can the plague of socialist totalitarianism be defeated. It demands more than individual, family, and community prayer. Prayer is necessary, but we must also act. We must courageously address our civilization's and our nation's moral and spiritual foundation, ensuring that those who follow will continue the fight for the freedom God wills for us. We must accept that we are not fighting an economic or social war, but rather a spiritual war. No other approach can succeed.