… a nation that does not teach successive generations about the differences between capitalism, socialism, and fascism, or about the horrifying carnage of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, Hoxha, Ceausescu, and Tito, or about the basics of personal finance and business, is a nation defenseless against the pull of fantasy ideologies.
Over at Hillsdale's Imprimis,
Kimberley A. Strassel
shares her
thoughts on The Rise of Democratic Socialism whose godfather, The Wall Street Journal columnist asserts, is none other than Bernie Sanders.Democratic political strategist James Carville had criticized Hasan Piker, the socialist provocateur who claims that “America deserved 9/11,” that the terrorist group Hamas is “a thousand times better” than Israel, that communist Mao Zedong (whose policies killed 65 million Chinese) is “one of the great leaders of this world,” and that his critics are “rabid, ultra-Zionist pigs.” Carville made clear: “I have no intention of ever being in the same political party with [Piker],” adding that he believed “an overwhelming majority of Democrats agree with me.”
Sanders shot back: “If Mr. Carville doesn’t want to be in my party, the party I belong to, that Piker, that [Michigan’s socialist-aligned Democratic Senate candidate] El-Sayed belongs to, he can start his own party.”
The “my party” construction is striking, given that Sanders has long expressed contempt for both our major political parties, disparaging them as captured interests. Since his first successful election in 1981, he has styled himself a “democratic socialist” and run as an Independent on the Vermont ballot. He’s endured the Democratic Party only to the extent that it allowed him to leverage its resources to his advantage—caucusing with it in the Senate to gain seniority and using it as a platform for his presidential runs. Always while holding his nose.
But things have clearly changed. Sanders is done raging against the machines. His goal now is to own and operate one of them. His growing army of democratic socialists are working to capture the Democratic Party from within, replace its agenda with their own, and purge it of dissenters. It’s a time-worn tactic: if you can’t beat them, infiltrate them. And the elected leadership of the Democratic Party is doing nothing to stop the takeover.
***
Before we can address the rise of the democratic socialists, we need to clarify what it is that is rising. That’s made harder by an education system that has left generations of Americans poorly equipped to recognize socialism, and by a liberal media and left-wing political establishment that are determined to play down today’s threat.
… The modern twist is democratic socialism. Its proponents chose that descriptor with care. They know socialism’s authoritarian history, and they know how deeply Americans still hold to the Constitution. Their goal with that adjective is to fool us into believing that this version of socialism really is different, that it is no threat, that it can in fact be achieved through democratic means.
Sanders is a master at cloaking his ideology in soothing geographical or historical comparisons. … What about the claim to be democratic? The DSA platform explains that the glorious uprising will require a few tweaks to the U.S. democratic system. First up is abolishing the Electoral College and the Senate. Second the DSA would “replace the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by and subordinate to” one supreme people’s (soviet?) congress. That congress would be dominated by blue states under strict proportional representation—a form of representation, seen in parts of Europe, that is foreign to America’s constitutional tradition. No more checks and balances. No more federalism. No more republic. …
***
… Which raises two final questions: Why are Americans voting for socialism, and why now? The answer to both questions has to do with education.
For all the DSA’s tripe about “working” Americans, it’s a movement comprised almost entirely of young, white, privileged Americans. Statewide socialist candidates in Michigan and Wisconsin had their highest margins in college towns. A Fox News survey in Michigan found that only 75 percent of black Democratic voters intend to vote for the socialist-aligned U.S. Senate candidate, who is also underperforming among women, independents, and suburban and older voters. Socialism is largely a youth movement.
… What explains [the fascination of young Americans today with socialism] is that on today’s campuses—especially those of the “wealthiest and most selective” universities—students are living in (fake) socialist utopias: “climbing walls and lazy rivers,” “lofts with expansive lounges,” “campus coffee bars with national brands.” Kids ride buses without paying fares; they “attend concerts, meet career coaches, reserve study rooms, download software, join student organizations, and participate in countless campus activities without ever reaching for a wallet.” Others are paying the bills, of course; the students just don’t know it. And why should real life be any different?
Too few of our K-12 schools, colleges, and universities teach real history or civics any longer. We fret constantly about our falling math and reading scores, and we should. But a nation that does not teach successive generations about the differences between capitalism, socialism, and fascism, or about the horrifying carnage of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, Hoxha, Ceausescu, and Tito, or about the basics of personal finance and business, is a nation defenseless against the pull of fantasy ideologies.
We can do better. Go online, right now, and look up the “1912 Eighth-Grade Examination for Bullitt County [Kentucky] Schools,” which is maintained online by the Bullitt County History Museum. This is the knowledge we once expected of our 13- and 14-year-olds—most of whom were, with this exam, finishing their education and embarking on adulthood.
Read the whole thing™.
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