Do You Support Capitalism or Socialism?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the creep of socialism into America. For those who do not understand, socialism is the stage between capitalism and communism. It is defined as “a theory or system of social organization that advocates the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, capital, land, etc., by the community as a whole, usually through a centralized government.” It is “characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.” 

For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, socialism is Satan’s counterfeit for the law of consecration. Besides the fact that socialism is influenced by Satan, and consecration is influenced by Jesus Christ, one of the biggest differences between the two ways of life is in the method of collection. In socialism, the property is taken from the individual, and no property is returned. In consecration, the individual willingly gives his property to the Church of Jesus Christ and receives property in return. It may be the same property that he owned previously, but now it will be consecrated to the Lord. However, it could be a smaller or larger piece of property according to his needs.

Americans should understand that a large number of their representatives in Congress voted for socialism earlier today. At least, they failed to vote for a resolution to condemn socialism. According to Tyler O’Neil, a resolution, H. Con. Res. 9, was introduced in the House of Representatives and passed 328 to 86. There were 14 Democrats who voted present, and six members (three Republicans and three Democrats) did not vote at all. 

O’Neil continued by explaining that Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Florida) sponsored the resolution. She told The Daily Signal today that the vote was “a win for democracy.” She continued, “As the representative of the city of Miami, and daughter of Cuban exiles, I say that this resolution hits close to home for us all. We know that socialism only brings misery, oppression, and exile, wherever it is tried.”

So, what was so bad in the resolution that 86 Democrats voted against it and 20 other House members refused to vote either way? According to O’Neil, the resolution states: “That Congress denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of America.”

O’Neil further explained that the resolution defines socialist ideology as necessitating “a concentration of power that has time and time again collapsed into Communist regimes, totalitarian rule, and brutal dictatorship.” It also defines the United States of America as being founded on an opposite belief: “the belief in the sanctity of the individual, to which the collectivistic system of socialism in all of its forms is fundamentally and necessarily opposed.”

In addition, according to O’Neil, the resolution reminded everyone that “the deaths of ‘over 100,000,000 people worldwide’ are attributed to socialism. This number includes “10 million people sent to the gulags in the Soviet Union; between 15 million and 55 million starving in the wake of the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward in China; 1 million people dead in the killing fields of Cambodia; and up to 3.5 million people starving to death in North Korea.” The resolution also “notes that socialism devastated the once-thriving economies of Cuba and Venezuela.

Before the vote, Salazar made the following remarks on the House floor: “Every socialist is a dictator in disguise. Today, Cubans by the thousands, throw themselves to the sharks in the straits of Florida looking for freedom and hoping to get to the district that I represent on this floor.” She added, “It is a lie that socialism will solve your problems, economic or social. We cannot let this evil ideology take hold in this country.”

O’Neil reported that there were many prominent Democrats who could not support the resolution. They included the following: Julian Castro (D-Texas), Al Green (D-Texas), Jerry Connolly (D-Virginia), Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut), Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), Summer Lee (D-Pennsylvania), Jerry Nadler (D-New York), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts), Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan).

The members of the “Squad” are known to be socialists, but now we know the names of several others who do not support democracy and capitalism. With such beliefs, they should not be in Congress at all. This is the United States of America, a democratic republic whose capitalist economic system made us the greatest nation in the world. They do not appreciate what we have, and want to sell us down the river to socialism.