Why Should Americans Choose Capitalism Over Socialism and Communism?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is that capitalism supports freedom, while socialism and communism destroy freedom. Yet, many young Americans believe the hype that socialism in America would be a good thing. They are part of the reason that communists are being elected to state and federal office.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is campaigning with House Republicans to help Republicans retain majority in the House. On Monday, he was campaigning with Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA). This was just one of the stops as he toured 34 districts in 18 states in 30 days. He calls the mid-term election the choice between “common sense vs. communism.” Virginia Grace McKinnon at The Daily News reported the following information. 

With the rise of Democratic Socialists of America candidates across the country and the divide in the Democratic Party, Republicans believe that if they can communicate the threat of socialism and communism to Americans, it will be winning messaging for the GOP come November. Johnson laid out the threat and what DSA candidates will do if they assume office.

“They want to abolish the border. They want to abolish all prisons in America. They would have abolished the U.S. Senate. They would have removed the president,” Johnson told reporters. “They want to expand the House and make it a unicameral governing body over the entire country because they believe that over two or three cycles, they’ll be able to bring a wave of the Marxist communists into the Congress and take it over.”

These are all policies of the DSA, according to the group’s Workers Deserve More plan. Johnson continued, explaining that if this happens, they will take away and assume the means of production to the government. “That means no more private property ownership. That means the small business owners across America, who provide jobs and opportunity for people, will be taken over by the government. It’s a dangerous game,” he said.

Over the weekend, Johnson published a new website, Contrast for America, to “educate people, especially young voters,” on the long-term threat of communism.

The website lays out the history of socialism, arguing that every attempt led to communism – from famine beginning in Soviet Russia in 1918 to China’s Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, which led to famine, the government closing schools, and silencing free speech. It also mentions North Korea and Venezuela, where food shortages continue today.

“The government that promises everything for free will almost certainly take it away in short order. Definitely in the long term,” Johnson said, highlighting the tens of millions of people killed by communism in the 20^th century. He warned this could soon be America if the Democratic Party accommodates DSA members….

 

 

What Did John Adams Say About Defending Constitutions?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns communism, Democratic Socialists of America, and the youth group of the Democrats. Daniel McCarthy recently shared his thoughts on this topic in an article published in The Daily Signal. 

The Democratic Socialists of America don’t like being called communists….

Yet, however the group self-identifies, its agenda is openly revolutionary.

It plans call for, among other things, abolishing the United States Senate and making the executive branch and the Supreme Court subservient to the House of Representatives.

Like many a revolutionary organ, the DSA acts as a party within a party, and it increasingly represents the youth wing of the Democrats….

Yet DSA’s ideas are remarkably old-fashioned – so old, in fact, they were refuted by John Adams in 1787.

That was the year he began publishing a multivolume work called “A Defence of the Constitutions of the United States of America.

It was so long ago Americans still spelled “defence” with a “c.”

The book refers to “constitutions,” plural, because Adams hadn’t seen the new U.S. Constitution drawn up in Philadelphia that year.

He was actually defending the state constitutions against French intellectuals who insisted they should be more radical.

That was just two years before the outbreak of the French Revolution, with all the murder and mayhem it would bring.

The old French versions of today’s DSA schemers condemned bicameral legislatures for the same reason Mamdani’s and AOC’s fans do now: Their idea of “democracy” called for centralizing power in a single body.

No checks, no balances, and certainly no federalism – the whole nation was to be personified in an omnipotent unitary legislation.

Adams, who had been one of the first American revolutionary leaders to call for independence from Britain, was no enemy of popular self-government.

But pure democracy would be as bad as any other kind of centralized despotism – so he defended the “mixed” constitutions of the states, almost all of which had separate upper and lower legislative chambers and divided legislative, executive, and judicial power.

The federal Constitution was drawn up on the same principles – and combined them with a division of powers between the states and national government.

A glance at how the Constitution has performed for the last 239 years, compared to the chaos and bloodshed that engulfed revolutionary France once the proto-DSA types started getting their way there, shows who was right.

But DSA, not content with dreaming of an end to capitalism, wants to end constitutionalism as well.

Revolutionary parties, like Russia’s Bolsheviks, have often had such farfetched goals – the point isn’t to achieve them so much as it is to wreck whatever already exists.

DSA’s first step is to radicalize the Democratic Party, making previously outrageous ideas like packing the Supreme Court seem mild by comparison to the Democratic Socialist program. Abolishing the Senate may be politically impossible, but de-legitimizing it is a way to delegitimize obstacles to centralized power – not just the Senate itself, with its equal representation for all states, large or small, but the very principle of federalism.

 

… DSA wants to make the whole country like California, only worse. That’s their idea of democracy – the socialist version.

It’s the revolutionary French version as well, and it’s as un-American as anything can be. Yet it’s a magnet pulling the Democratic Party hard to the left.

Notoriously, DSA has a disproportionate number of members who are highly educated but low-paid or unemployed.

Like the Marxists of the last century or the French philosophes of the century before that, they’re sophisticated enough to seem like they know what they’re talking about, if you haven’t learned how disastrous their ideas have proved to be in practice.

But American education doesn’t teach much about the horrors of communism or France’s Reign of Terror.

Radicals occupied the educational establishment early on, and now they’re reaping political rewards for the ignorance they’ve fostered in the public.

According to recent Cata Institute polling, Generation Z – Americans between ages 14 and 29 – favors socialism over capitalism by 53% to 45%, though the “Democratic Socialist” label polls less well.

Despite having “democratic” in its name, however, DSA doesn’t need majority support to bring about revolutionary change for the worse: A motivated minority is enough when the majority is unaware of its danger.

 

What Will Democratic Socialists Do to the Political Picture?

Democratic Socialists are in the process of taking control of the Democratic Party. First, there were Senator Bernie Sanders and “the squad” in the US House of Representatives. Then Zohran Mamdani was elected to be the mayor of New York City. Last week, Colorado Democrats chose a Democratic Socialist to be the Democrat nominee for Congress. There is a definite movement towards Communism, which Michael Freund discusses in his article published in The Daily Signal. 

Every political movement eventually reveals what it truly believes. And when it does, voters have a choice to make.

For years, Americans were told that the radical Left was little more than a noisy fringe, loud on social media but marginal in real life. That claim is now hard to sustain. Candidates aligned with or inspired by the Democratic Socialists of America are winning elections, shaping debates, and pulling the Democratic Party further from the mainstream. As Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., recently warned, “There are many Mamdanis popping up,” in reference to New York City’s far-left mayor.

For Republicans, this is not only a warning sign. It is also an opportunity.

The rise of the DSA and the broader radical Left has created a widening gap between the Democratic Party’s activist base and many of its traditional voters. Millions of Americans who long considered themselves Democrats are discovering that the party is no longer the same as the one they joined.

Political realignments begin when voters feel that their old political homes no longer reflect their values, concerns, or common sense. That is how Reagan Democrats emerged in the 1980s. It is how many blue-collar voters drifted away from a Democratic Party that seemed more interested in elite cultural causes than working families. As Ronald Reagan himself once quipped, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.”

A similar opening may now be developing.

Many Jewish voters, for example, have supported Democrats for generations out of habit, conviction, and a belief that the party stood firmly against bigotry. But especially since the Hamas massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, many of them have watched with unease and horror as anti-Israel activism and outright antisemitism became more prominent in progressive politics. They have seen Jewish students harassed on campuses, anti-Zionist rhetoric treated as fashionable, and too many elected officials speak with moral ambiguity about Hamas when clarity was required.

For many American Jews, this has been a painful awakening.

Republicans should not assume that Jewish voters will abandon a century of voting patterns overnight. But they should recognize that a door has opened. The GOP can make the case that it is the party most committed to defending Israel, combating antisemitism, protecting religious liberty, and preserving the freedoms that have allowed Jewish life in America to flourish.

But Jewish voters are only one part of a much larger political story. Across the country, millions of moderate Democrats increasingly feel politically homeless.

They have never thought of themselves as conservatives, but they do believe in public safety. They want police to be supported, not vilified. They believe parents should have a meaningful voice in their children’s education. They want a strong economy, affordable energy, secure borders, and a government that lives within reasonable limits.

They do not wake up thinking about revolutionary politics. They just want normalcy, stability, opportunity, and a country they can proudly pass on to their children.

These voters are not unreachable. But they must be reached.

That requires persuasion.

Republicans need to speak to disaffected Democrats in a language that invites rather than alienates. Joining the GOP does not require having voted Republican one’s entire life. It does not require abandoning compassion, concern for the poor, or civic responsibility. It only requires recognizing that the supposedly good intentions of Democrats are no substitute for sound policy, and that a free society cannot survive if every institution is captured by ideology.

The GOP should become the natural home for Americans who believe in ordered liberty, economic opportunity, strong families, religious freedom, public safety, and patriotism without apology.

Reaching these people means showing up in communities Republicans have too often written off. It means speaking directly to Jewish voters and independents in New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and even California. It means addressing suburban parents ignored by school bureaucracies. It means talking to working-class Democrats who believe their party now cares more about academic slogans than grocery bills, crime, housing, and wages.

Most of all, it means offering a positive vision.

Voters rarely switch parties due to anger alone. They switch when they believe there is somewhere better to go.

Republicans should resist making this moment only about what the Left has become. They must also explain what the Right has to offer: a country where hard work is rewarded, children are taught to love America, religious communities are respected, streets are safe, allies are defended, and government serves the people.

When one party moves too far from the center of gravity of the American people, the other has a chance to build a new majority.

But that opportunity will not seize itself.

The rise of the DSA is bad for the Democratic Party and dangerous for the country. But it may also become the catalyst for a broader Republican coalition – one that brings together conservatives, Jews alarmed by antisemitism, moderates tired of extremism, parents fighting for their children, and traditional Democrats who still believe in the promise of America.

The radical left is pushing them away. Republicans should now act to welcome them in.

 

What Is Socialism?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns statism, socialism, and communism. The election of Zohran Mamdani, a devout socialist, to be the next mayor of New York City – the financial capital of the United States and to the world – brought socialism to the forefront.

Victor Davis Hanson, senior contributor for The Daily Signal, claims in his article on the topic that Mamdani admitted that he is a communist when he advocated for “seizing the means of production.” “And almost every day, a quote from his past comes out that suggests that he’s not just a socialist who wants the government to control utilities or housing, but he wants to ‘seize the means of production.’ That means the industrial base and private property itself.”

Hanson continues his article by explaining why the above information is scary. 

… Because we have a whole generation who have gone through K-12 and higher education and heard about the glories of statism, socialism, communism in the universities and our school system, but not the merits of capitalism. It’s not really socialism versus capitalism. It is socialism has nothing to offer. And we know that for two reasons.

If we look at the contemporary world, in the recent past and in the present, everywhere a socialist paradigm has been implemented, it has done two things: It has destroyed the economy and made people poor, and two, it has deprived people of their civil liberties.

I should add, it also has created greater inequality, at least in terms of the ruling elite, who feel they’re not subject to the ramifications of their socialist ideology, and they live a very refined and affluent lifestyle.

Hanson suggests that we look at the Soviet Union before it collapsed, the collapsed Mao’s China, Cuba under the Castro brothers since 1959. A more recent example is Venezuela – once “the wealthiest country in Latin America” but now collapsed. Other nations are collapsing to a lesser degree – Peru, Colombia.

Hanson says that any nation that adopts socialism does not do well. China is doing better now “because it has an odd mixture of a communist authoritarian government, but it allows free market principles to save the economy from itself.” He says that that “the same thing is true of President Vladimir Putin’s Russia” which “achieved levels of gross domestic product, oil production that were superior to the communist past, just simply because it had elements of a market economy. Some market economy is better than none.” Hanson’s article continues:

Why, then secondly, does socialism fail? It is contrary to human nature. All of us want to be rewarded for our own efforts. We’re unique individuals. We don’t wanna be like a tessera in just one large mosaic….

And that’s what socialism does. It tries to say that we’re all brothers and we all love each other, and we all want the same thing. That’s what Mamdani is saying.

But look at Mamdani himself. He comes from one of the more affluent families in New York. His father is an endowed professor. He’s very well compensated. Hardcore Marxist. Pro-Hamas. His mother is a multimillion-dollar filmmaker. He grew up in affluence. He lives in a rent-controlled apartment, even though, by any standard, he would be qualified as a wealthy person and doesn’t need a state subsidy and could do better to give that apartment to someone with less means.

So, my point is that socialism destroys private initiative. If you think the harder you work, the better ideas you have, the more efficiency you can create in your business or in your own life but you’re not going to be compensated more than someone who does not either show those traits or doesn’t want to show those traits….

We have one last, more controversial proof that it doesn’t work. Since the Obama age, the rate of socialist practices, policies, agendas in the United States have vastly accelerated. And after the Obama presidency, the rather esoteric political term “red state,” “blue state” became commonplace. And it basically denotes those states who are more socialist and those states that are more free market.

California is a socialist state, in the sense that we’re talking, like New York, a 13%+ income tax rate at the highest rates. We have the highest gas and oil prices … highest energy prices … highest housing prices. The same is true of New York … Minnesota, Michigan, all of these states.

Why? Because the central government, first of all, … goes after the opposition. And most of these states are one-party state, without a viable opposition to keep it in check. No. 2, the people who have created this socialist system are not subject to it themselves.

[Think Nancy Pelosis, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom – all] very, very wealthy. They live lives completely distinct, separate from the masses, whom they said would benefit from their socialist policy. And the result is they took a paradise, like California, and turned it into purgatory. So, there’s no empirical evidence whether, within the United States or abroad, that there’s a socialist cure for what socialism has done.

Mamdani has, basically, taken a New York under Bill de Blasio and prior mayors that was a socialist paradigm and is in dire straits, and he thinks more socialism will cure it….

So, what we’re seeing in Europe today is disastrous policies, importing poor illegal aliens with antithetical political, religious, cultural, social views than the Europeans themselves….

Are people happy? No. As we speak, there are right-wing … conservative, free market governments in places like Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy and growing in places like Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, in France itself. The opposition, who opposes socialism, is gaining and the people are behind it. Why? Is it because they don’t know socialism? No. It’s because they know it all too well.

Has America Become a Police State?

Tuesday, April 4, 2023, is a sad day in America. The arrest and arraignment of former President Donald Trump is evidence that the United States is no longer the shining city on a hill for other nations to use as an example. America is sliding down the slippery slope to becoming a banana republic when political parties arrest the leader of their opposition party.

For the record, Trump was arraigned today at the Manhattan Criminal Court on a 34-count indictment accusing him of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty. Later in the day, he stated that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his legal team want Trump to settle the matter. However, Trump plans to fight the charges.

The indictment was sealed until the arraignment. However, the charging document contained little besides the actual charges. The indictment alleges that Trump falsified his business records “with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof.” However, there is no mention of the “other crime” in the indictment, and Bragg struggled to explain the indictment in public remarks after the arraignment.

The story began in 2006 when two women – pornography actress Stephanie Clifford (AKA Stormy Daniels) and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate of the Year – claimed that they had sexual relations with Trump. The former POTUS was then married to Melania and denied the claims. When Trump decided to run for POTUS, the two women decided to go public with their stories. Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 “hush money” to Daniels from his own money and was repaid by the Trump Organization. The payments were put in the company books as “legal expenses.” Daniels signed a nondisclosure agreement – both legal and common in the settlement of high-profile civil matters.

Cohen also arranged for David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer, to pay $150,000 to McDougal for the exclusive rights to her story to keep it from ever being published. Bragg claims that Cohen was not Trump’s attorney in January 2017 when the “legal expenses” were paid. In their article in The Daily Signal, John G. Malcolm and Cully Stimson wrote the following information. 

In 2018, after the Daniels-McDougal imbroglios came to light, Cohen pleaded guilty to myriad federal offenses, including tax evasion, bank fraud, perjury before Congress, making an excessive campaign contribution (the Daniels payment), and causing an unlawful corporate campaign contribution (the McDougal payment).

As the statement of facts contends, Cohen claims that he spoke to Trump and others involved in the presidential campaign about these payments beforehand.

Pecker was granted immunity, but his National Enquirer paid a $187,500 find to the Federal Election Commission after the FEC concluded that the $150,000 payment to McDougal was an illegal corporate campaign contribution that had been arranged in coordination with the Trump campaign team, including Cohen.

In another article published in The Daily Signal, Dennis Prager explained why today’s events look like communism to him. He studied communism in graduate school and was a fellow at the Russian Institute of Columbia’s School of International Affairs. “I cite this in order to make this point: In my wildest dreams, I never imagined what I was studying would ever apply to the United States of America, the freest country in world history.” 

Prager continued, “I assumed that communism was, for various reasons, something that happened elsewhere – most obviously, Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Cambodia, and North Korea.” Two of Prager’s “various reasons” were: (1) the absence of freedom in the history of those countries, and (2) all those countries were, with the exception of Cuba, outside of Western civilization.” Now, he recognizes that he was wrong.

Communism – or if you will, left-wing fascism and totalitarianism – is coming to America and Canada, and (a bit more gradually) to Australia and New Zealand.

Incredibly – or maybe not so incredibly – more than 200 years of unprecedented and unrivaled liberty and commitment to Judeo-Christian values and reasons, and all the unparalleled achievements of Western civilization, have come to mean nothing to about half of the American people and to virtually every one of its major institutions.

Prager described how the universities are “moral and intellectual wastelands,” how medical schools “are embracing Soviet-like science,” and how law schools behave as though they are members of “the Soviet Communist Youth League” or “the Hitler Youth in 1930s Germany.”

The greatest of all freedoms, that of speech, is disappearing. Since Lenin, no left-wing institution or country has ever allowed dissent, and the Left in America – which is elected and defended by liberals – is no exception. Already almost half of all college students say they do not believe in free speech for “hate speech,” which, of course, means they are for suppressing all speech with which the Left differs.

Perhaps even more than in the Soviet Union, lunacy has replaced reason. In Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, the provincial agency in charge of education has announced that the notion that there is only one correct answer in mathematics is an expression of white supremacy. The Oregon Education Department has announced the same thing. The American Medical Association has declared that no American birth certificates should list the sex/gender of a child – the child will decide that later.

Prager discussed how children are being taken to drag queen shows to teach them that sex/gender is “nonbinary” and that “human beings are not sexually divided into male and female” – different than all other members of the animal kingdom. He discussed the damage done to children by “America’s Sovietized teachers’ unions” who closed schools for nearly two years.

Prager included the “Justice Department, about half of our judges, and our security agencies” as being “well on their way to becoming what the Soviet ministry of justice, Soviet security agencies, and Soviet judges were: tools of the ruling party.”

Prager did not leave the mainstream media out of his scathing review. He said that they, “with few exceptions, are as uncommitted to truth as were the organs of the Soviet Communist Party, Pravda, and Izvestia. The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, and PBS play the same role for the Left and therefore the Democratic Party.” He ended his article with this comment: “It was only a matter of time until the Left would arrest a former president of the opposition party.”

Why Do Communists Seek to Destroy the Nuclear Family?

             Present-day Americans do not understand the danger of communism. As a child, I was taught the dangers of communism, and I grew up with a full understanding that communism is the opposite of capitalism. One of the dangers of communism is the destruction of the nuclear family.

            Kimberly Ells is the author of The Invincible Family: Why the Global Campaign to Crush Motherhood and Fatherhood Can’t Win. Ells is also a policy adviser for Family Watch International. In an article titled “Arizona Legislators Propose Communist-Style ‘Community Schools,’” Ells quoted a twentieth-century Russian communist as saying: 

Children, like soft wax, are very malleable… We must rescue children from the harmful influence of the family… From the earliest days of their little lives, they must find themselves under the beneficent influence of Communist schools… To oblige the mother to give her child to the Soviet state – that is our task.

            Ells then explained how the communists would take the children from their parents. “The government would provide comprehensive care centers for all children. In these centers, children would be ‘supervised by trained pedagogical and medical personnel’ who would fulfill all the children’s educational, physical, social, and emotional needs.”

            According to Ells, the State of Arizona is moving “toward embracing a communist-style education model called ‘community schools’ that is gaining traction around the globe.” She explained that the Arizona Legislature introduced a bill last weeks calling “for the development of community schools.” The plan is to have these schools “partner with one or more community-based organizations to coordinate academic, social and health services” for children and their families.” The bill is meant to “transform participating schools into increasingly full-service community centers.”

            Ells continued by explaining that liberals have big plans to use schools. She quoted Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education under President Barack Obama as saying in 2009, “The more schools become the hearts of family life, the better our students are going to do…. Children desperately need some sense of stability, they need some anchor in their lives, community schools are huge, huge ways to do that.”

            To me, Arizona’s move – as well as others – to put schools in the center of a child’s life is scary. The family is core building block of a society, and “the home [is] the hub of stable family life.” Schools and all other organizations should support the home in every way possible and not usurp the place of the family in importance in the lives of children.

What Can America Do to Help the Protesting Cubans?

            Thousands of Cubans have been protesting in the streets against the communist regime controlling their nation. Cuba has been under communist control for sixty years. The communists have used all the money available. Now there is not enough food, water, medicine, or electricity. The people are tired of the oppression, and they are risking their lives in protesting.

            The Biden administration was slow to say anything about the communists, but it was finally forced to make a statement against it. Republicans in Congress are trying to get a statement out in support of the protesters.

Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) represents many people of Cuban heritage, and he has heard many stories. Protesters are being beaten. They are being drug out of their homes by the hair of their heads. They are being arrested, and no one knows where they are. In an interview with Rachel del Guidice, he suggested that there are three things that America should do. 

So here’s what we got to do. We’ve got to do three things. The first thing is Joe Biden’s got to stand up. There’s hashtags that we ought to use. Dónde está Joe? Where is Joe? Joe’s nowhere.

Remember, he didn’t want to be in all those international clubs. Like, you work with [French President Emmanuel] Macron, [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, and [U.K. Prime Minister] Boris Johnson. Well, maybe he should call all of his buddies and say, “You know what? We actually do believe in democracy. We do believe in freedom. We’re going to go help the people of Cuba and stop this dictatorship down there.”

But has he so far? No. And look, that’s No.1. He needs to do that. We need to call him out for that.

No. 2, we’ve got to get the internet back on. We’ve got to figure out, whether government does it or private sector, we’ve got to get the internet back on so the people of Cuba can share where they’re going and how to deal with their government. The government of Cuba is scared to death of them, and they should be.

And No. 3 is we’ve got to talk about what’s going on. We’ve got to talk about what’s happening to José Daniel Ferrer. We’ve got to talk about what’s happening to the Ladies in White. And we got to show the pictures of the protests.

And whether the mainstream media will do it, we can do it. We can put it up on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and all that stuff. We can get the message out. If we do, we’re supporting them, and we’re going to see new government. If we get a new government in Cuba, we’ll get a new government in Nicaragua, we’ll get a new government in Venezuela, and we’ll stop the protest in Colombia.

            The protesters in Cuba deserve our support. Cubans have been oppressed by communists for more than sixty years. They are risking everything by protesting for freedom.

Godless Conspiracy

                    The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the fact that millions of Americans do not believe in God and seek to replace God with government.  Their plan has been in place and slowly progressing since before World War II.

Ezra Taft Benson, former Secretary of Agriculture and late President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, addressed a meeting sponsored by the American Wake Up Committee, on February 28, 1966, in St. Louis, Missouri.  (See "Chapter 6.  It Can Happen Here," An Enemy Hath Done This, pp. 87-112.)

"… I shall speak to you frankly and honestly.  Some of you may not agree with everything I say.  Thank God in this blessed land we can still speak our convictions.  I pray it may ever be so.  I have been in nations where this blessed privilege is no longer enjoyed.

"What I say are my personal convictions born out of an active life which has taken me into forty-five nations and brought me close to the insidious forces which would destroy our way of life….

"I speak then of the greatest single evil in the world - a vicious, godless conspiracy.

"For a quarter of a century I have seen, at close range, on both sides of the iron curtain the insidious forward march of creeping socialism and its ruthless companion godless communism.  It is a shocking record of bluff, bluster, deception, intrigue, bondage, and mass murder.  Never in recorded history has any movement spread itself so far and so fast as has socialistic-communism in the past few years.  The facts are not pleasant to review.  Communist leaders are jubilant with their success.  They are driving freedom back on almost every front….

"In less than half a century this evil system has gained control over one-third of mankind, and it is steadily pursuing its vicious goal of control over all the rest of the world, while we as Americans cry all is well in our passive complacency….

"Our greatest need in American today is to be alerted and informed.  When we have become alerted and informed, we will soberly sense the need for a reversal of the present trends.  We will realize that the laws of economics are immutable.  We will be convinced that we must return to a spirit of humility, faith in God and the basic concepts upon which this great Christian nation has been established under the direction of Divine Providence….

"Today we are at war.  It is not enough to be against communism.  We must shed our complacency and aggressively meet this challenge….  There can be no compromise with the communists.  They are at war with us - with the entire cause of freedom….

It is a real war.  The lines are tightly drawn….

                    "The socialist-communist philosophy is devastatingly evil - destructive of all that is good, uplifting, and beautiful.  It strikes at the very foundation of all we hold dear….

                    "We believe in religion as a mode of life resulting from our faith in God.  Communism contends that all religion must be overthrown because it inhibits the spirit of world revolution…."

                    President Benson explained that Lenin outlined his strategy to take over the world.  Lenin died in 1924, but his "brilliant, far-seeing, realistic, and majestically simple" plan lives on and moves forward:  "First, we will take Eastern Europe, then the masses of Asia; then we will encircle the United States, which will be the last bastion of capitalism.  We will not have to attack.   It will fall like an overripe fruit into our hands."

                    As explained by President Benson, the "first real great break for the communist society came in 1933" when the United States "extended diplomatic relations to atheistic Russia" - "Stalin's godless, murderous regime."  World War II was their "second great break."  Poland was betrayed in August 1939; Finland was taken over in 1940, followed by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.  Albania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria were taken over in 1946.  When the USSR broke apart, these nations regained control of their own governments - but did they throw off communism?  The communists enslaved the whole mainland of China by 1950, and then they seized Tibet.  The truce in Korea took place in 1953 followed by the conquest of Indochina in 1954.  The Communist plan moved on with Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore - and continues to move forward.  Communists took over Cuba (1963), invaded Latin America, and have infiltrated every important organization in the United States - government, labor, education, etc.   President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a confirmed communist within the borders of the United States!

                    The socialists/communists were beaten back in the 1980's while Ronald Reagan was the President.  They merely went underground and continued to move their plan forward as they took over numerous parts of our nation.  A good example of just how far they have moved took place at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.  When the Democratic Party platform was written, the words "God" and "Jerusalem" were omitted.  The Republicans pounced on the omissions and broadcast the information widely.  When the Democrats realized that they were out of step with the majority of American people, they called for a two-thirds vote by delegates to approve language invoking God and affirming that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.  Supposedly by request of Barack Obama, the vote was made; it was passed after voting three times - each time sounding like the "Yea's" and the "Nay's" were about evenly divided.  After the third such vote, the chairman of the convention said the change in rules had passed.  Many of the delegates obviously disagreed with the chairman and made their voices heard, but the change was made.  The fact remains that approximately half of the delegates present did not want any mention of God or Jerusalem in the party platform and even booed and jeered when the announcement was made to include the word "God." The platform was not the only place where God was replaced:  at least one vendor sold posters and other items depicting Barack Obama as Jesus Christ.  Throughout their convention, the Democrats seemed to be more interested in making government their god rather than worshipping the God of our land, even Jesus Christ!  

                    If we want God to stand up and protect us, we must stand up for God in this fight against the godless conspiracy.  The residents of AntrimTownship in Pennsylvania gave us a good example of standing up for God; we would do to follow them. "For as long as there has been a school board …, members have begun their meetings by reciting the Lord's Prayer.  This action attracted the attention of several atheists, who have threatened legal action against the board.   At their last meeting, the board refrained from saying the prayer, so without missing a beat, the crowd recited it on its own."  These people clearly demanded that their school board meetings start with prayer!

                    President Benson said that America needs "men and women who possess the moral strength and courage of our forefathers - modern-day patriots, with pride in our country and faith in freedom…

                    "The only thing which can possibly stop the communists is for the American people to learn the truth in time - to become alerted and informed, to join with neighbors in effective programs of exposure and opposition.  The one effective weapon is truth.  It is the truth they fear.  It is the truth that can defeat this godless conspiracy.  That is the reason why the communists, their dupes and fellow-travelers smear, vilify and attack….  The socialist-communist conspiracy cannot stand the light of truth.  And so they direct their lying, venomous attacks at our most loyal and courageous patriots who are determined to spread the truth about the greatest evil in this world today…."

                    J. Edgar Hoover, the late Director of the FBI, said on February 22, 1962, "What we desperately need today is patriotism founded on a real understanding of the American ideal - a dedicated belief in our principles of freedom and a determination to perpetuate America's heritage.  … There must be in America a rebirth of the spirit of Valley Forge…."

                    First of all, we must realize that our nation could also fall to the godless conspiracy that President Benson warned about 46 years ago.  Second, we must become informed about the dangers facing us.  Then we must become true patriots, ready to protect and preserve our freedoms by making our voices heard.   We can no longer sit on the sidelines and let someone else fight the battle.  We must enter the war ourselves by making sure that Mitt Romney is elected as the next President of the United States of America on November 6!  Even then we cannot fully step down; we must continue to insist that our political leaders uphold the U.S. Constitution.

                   

                   

                                                             

Protect Liberty

                    The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is the fact that all Americans share the great responsibility of defending and maintaining our liberty.  We are all responsible to keep watch against our enemies, both foreign and domestic.

                    "The first object of a free people is the preservation of their liberty….  The spirit of liberty is, indeed, a bold and fearless spirit; but it is also a sharp-sighted spirit; it is a cautious, sagacious, discriminating, far-seeing intelligence; it is jealous of encroachment, jealous of power, jealous of men.  It demands checks; it seeks for guards; it insists on securities; it intrenches itself behind strong defences, and fortifies itself with all possible care against the assaults of ambition and passion.  It does not trust the amiable weaknesses of human nature, and therefore it will not permit power to overstep its prescribed limits, though benevolence, good intent, and patriotic purpose come along with it."  (Daniel Webster, May 7, 1834; Works 4:122, as quoted by Ezra Taft Benson in An Enemy Hath Done This, p. 323)

                    Ezra Taft Benson, United States Secretary of Agriculture under President Eisenhower, and later President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spent much time and energy warning Americans about communism.  He spoke about it in many different types of meetings - Church, civic, college, etc.  In a speech given on February 11, 1966, at The Utah Forum for the American Idea, he listed ten ways that our Republic and Constitution are being destroyed all the while we are aiding the enemies of freedom.  His list is as follows:  "1) By diplomatic recognition and aid, and trade and negotiations with the communists.  2) By disarmament of our military defenses.  3) By destruction of our security laws and the promotion of atheism by decisions of the Supreme Court.   4) By loss of sovereignty and solvency through international commitments and membership in world organization.  5) By undermining of local law enforcement agencies and Congressional investigating committees.  6) By usurpations by the executive and judicial branches of our federal government.  7) By lawlessness in the name of civil rights.  8) By a staggering national debt with inflation and a corruption of the currency.  9) By a multiplicity of executive orders and federal programs which greatly weaken local and state governments.  10) By the sacrifice of American manhood by engaging in wars we apparently have no intention of winning."

                    As I read through Benson's list, I recognized that those encroachments are still being made!  He spoke about these dangers more than 46 years ago, and yet we are facing them again now.  Benson was not the only one warning Americans about the dangers of communism, but he was one of most well known.  There were people in Washington, D.C. who were openly criticizing Benson.  Liberal politicians did not want Benson's message to get out to the public.  They were embarrassed and afraid for their political careers if these facts were pointed out.  They tried to silence the patriotic voices that were crying out about the dangers. 

                    Liberal politicians were not the only ones concerned about the rising patriotism in American.  Moscow was also concerned.  Benson wrote, "It was in 1960 when the communist leaders first decided to do something drastic about the rising tide of patriotism in the United States.  The loss of Cuba to the Soviet Union had alerted Americans.   Citizens were holding study groups, seminars and freedom schools.  The more they studied the more they realized how fast communism was advancing on all fronts.  They also learned to their amazement that Washington politicians were doing practically nothing about it.  In fact in many cases they were doing things to promote communism.  So the protests began to pour into the national capitol from every state in the union.  All over America there was an awakening."

                    Benson explained that Soviet leaders were very concerned about these happenings and called a meeting of communists from eighty-one countries.  This convention of communists "issued an edict that the rising tide of patriotism and anti-communism must be smashed - especially in the United States" in December, 1960.  American patriots became the objects of vile "hate propaganda and smear tactics" - not by foreign communists but "in the name of influential Americans who espoused the socialist-communist line."

                    "By 1962 these American liberals had almost completely neutralized the resurgence of American patriotism.  They had frightened uninformed citizens away from study groups and patriotic rallies.  They had made it popular to call patriotism a `controversial' subject which should not be discussed in school assemblies or churches.

                    "From Washington, D.C., the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) issued an edict to radio and television stations that if they allowed the controversial subjects of `Americanism,' `anti-communism,' or `states' rights' to be discussed on their stations they would be required to give equal time, free of charge, to anyone wishing to present an opposite view" (An Enemy Hath Does This, pp. 40-42).

                    Ezra Taft Benson, J. Edgar Hoover, and other patriots shouted the warnings about communism taking root in the United States, and supporters of communism apparently went underground.  Today members of the TEA Party are crying out for a return to constitutional principles.  They are disliked by all progressives and liberals and many of the establishment Republicans.  Being a member of a TEA Party is being likened to an enemy of the nation!  How would they be treated if they were shouting warnings about communism?  About the same way! 

                    In April 2012, freshmen Representative Allen West(R-FL)  was asked, "What percentage of the American legislature do you think are card-carrying Marxists?"  He answered, "That's a fair question.  I believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party."  He went on to say, "It's called the Congressional Progressive Caucus" according to his spokesman.

                    West spokeswoman Angela Marvin gave the following written statement to NBC News:  "The Congressman was referring to the 76 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus."  The Communist Party has publicly referred to the Progressive Caucus as its allies.  The Progressive Caucus speaks for itself.  These individuals certainly aren't proponents of free markets or individual economic freedom."

                    West's office also referred to a statement on the Communist Party USA web site "where it says they made a mistake by turning `away from our allies in Congress, the Progressive Caucus, and John Conyers' during their fight for a single-payer system being included in Obama's health care law."

                    The Communist Party USA behaved much the same way as the communists of the 1960s:  They denied the relationship.  A leader at the Communist Party USA called West's statements "ridiculous" and "a cheap shot" and added, "We are supposed to live in a political democracy.  I didn't know that being a Communist in Congress was off-limits or out of bounds.  There aren't any now and if there were in the future does that mean that the voters don't have a say.  Can't choose a Communist to be in Congress?"

                    The spokesman blamed the Tea Party for bringing up the idea of socialism and blaming Obama for being socialist.  They claimed that the Tea Party put socialism on the agenda.

                    Representative West is a true patriot who has stood up for freedom, both in the military and in Congress.  I believe that he is being marginalized by supporters of Communism.  Besides, why would it be "okay" to have a communist in Congress?  Why would we put a fox in the hen house?  It is the same principle!  We must be alert and remove all socialists and communists from our governing bodies.  Even though few leaders are warning about communism at the current time, we can rest assured that communists have infiltrated every area of the American way of life.  Americans must awake and arise in defense of our liberty!

                   

Communism

                    The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is the threat of communism in our nation today.  The main difference between progressivism and communism is their ideas about changing society.  Both progressivism and communism seek to destroy capitalism and the United States of America, but progressives seek to "guide" society until it "evolves" into their preferred system while communists prefer to use violent revolutions.  The Occupy movement was a revolution while the supporters of the Obama Administration work toward an evolution. 

We know that unions were behind many of the people who took part in the Occupy movement; we should not be surprised that a union man made recent news talking about communism.  Mike Golash, a former but major District of Columbia union boss, used to run D.C.'s chapter 689 of the Amalgamated Transit Union; he was/is responsible for organizing workers on the D.C. metro.  He was caught on camera making some shocking comments.  The Daily Caller highlighted the following comments from Golash's speech during an Occupy DC "People's Assembly" on August 19, 2012.

"Progressive labor is a revolutionary communist organization….  Its objective is to make revolution in the United States, overthrow the capitalist system and build communism."  He said that he, along with his comrades, is "trying to learn something from the historical revolutions of the past:  the Russian revolution, the Chinese revolution, the revolutions in Cuba and Eastern Europe."

                    "The capitalists - they have their organizations:  the FBI, the CIA, the secret police, the military, the army, etc., etc.  They have organizations to maintain their power.  It's foolish to think that without a disciplined organization made up not of a few people but of millions and millions of people, [we] can bring down capitalism."

                    Bacon Rebellion posted an interesting article about Mike Golash.  "Go to the ATW website and you'll see that the union is interested in a lot more than simply improving the wages and working conditions of its members.  States Golosh on the president's page: 

"`Workers' real leverage against the bosses lies in their ability to shut down production and call their coworkers into the streets.  The threat of economic hardship to the bosses and social instability in society causes a real fear in the bosses' heart.  Direct action by workers is the motor that drives us forward to a better standard of living and a more just society, not election results.'

"If that doesn't give you pause about selling your SUV and riding the Metro to work, check out the August/September edition of the ATU newsletter.  One article writes about New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in the most inflammatory of terms:  `It is no coincidence that it is primarily poor black residents that live in the hardest hit areas; slavery and racist laws made sure that the most vulnerable areas of the city are poor black areas.'  (Sounds like CNN!)  The union also describes the employment of immigrant `guest workers' as `a new kind of slavery.'"

There are communists in our nation who are seeking to destroy capitalism and America as we know it.  The communists came into the United States during World War II and slowly infiltrated every part of our government and society.  They are seeking a violent overthrow of our government and way of life. 

Ezra Taft Benson, former United States Secretary of Agriculture and late President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often spoke about communism and the danger it brought to our nation.  He quoted an article written by the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and entitled "Turbulence on the Campus."

"According to the latest statistics there are 34,500,000 full-time students enrolled in more than 2,000 institutions of higher learning.  A high percentage of these young people are serious and concerned.  They know they live in a world of change, challenge, and conflict, where their very best will be required.  There is in today's campus turbulence a new style in conspiracy, a conspiracy that is extremely subtle and devious and hence difficult to understand.  It is a conspiracy reflected by questionable moods and attitudes.

"Often called the new leftist conspiracy, it has utter disrespect for law, contempt for institutions of free government, and disdain for spiritual and moral values.

"As parents and teachers, you should know more about this new-style perversion that is erupting in civil disobedience and encouraging young people to mock the law.  Every town and every teacher must recognize the absolute need of instructing and guiding our young people to respect the law and to realize that freedom does not mean license, that with citizen's rights go corresponding duties.  We want our young people to be good citizens, able to think for themselves, to have personal convictions, but we want them to be loyal to our constitutional principles and the democratic traditions that have molded this country." (See An Enemy Hath Done This [1969], pp. 300-301).

A few pages later in his book Benson quoted Hoover again:  "We must now face the harsh truth that the objectives of communism are being steadily advanced because many of us do not readily recognize the means used to advance them.  … No one who truly understands what it really is can be taken in by it.  Yet the individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.  The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst (J. Edgar Hoover, The Elks Magazine, August 1956; P.P.N.S., p. 273)" (p. 308).

Do you believe that communists are in our nation and working towards a violent revolution?  I do.  I believe that they have been here for more than sixty years and that they have nearly completed their preparations.  Benson spoke often of the dangers of communism; he wrote:  "I warn you, unless we wake up soon and do something about the conspiracy, the communist-inspired civil rights riots of the past will pale into insignificance compared to the bloodshed and destruction that lie ahead in the near future" (p. 310).

If the words of Hoover and Benson do not convince you that our nation is headed for big trouble, how about this statement by J. Reuben Clark, Jr.: "I say unto you with all the soberness I can, that we stand in danger of losing our liberties, and that once lost, only blood will bring them back; and once lost, we of this Church will, in order to keep the Church going forward, have more sacrifices to make and more persecutions to endure than we have yet known, heavy as our sacrifices and grievous as our persecutions of the past have been" (in Conference Report, April 1944, pp. 115-116; P.P.N.S., p. 89) (p. 310).

President David O. McKay spoke in the April 1966 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and left no doubt about the need for members of the Church to stand up and defend freedom:  "In order that there may be no misunderstanding by bishops, stake presidents, and others regarding members of the Church participating in nonchurch meetings to study and become informed on the Constitution of the United States, Communism, etc., I wish to make the following statements that I have been sending out form my office for some time and that have come under question by some stake authorities, bishoprics, and others.

"Church members are at perfect liberty to act according to their own conscience in the matter of safeguarding our way of life.  They are, of course, encouraged to honor the highest standards of the gospel and to work to preserve their own freedoms.  They are free to participate in nonchurch meetings that are held to warn people of the threat of Communism or any other theory or principle that will deprive us of our free agency or individual liberties vouchsafed by the Constitution of the United States.

"The position of this Church on the subject of Communism has never changed.  We consider it the greatest satanical threat to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God's work among men that exists on the face of the earth.

"In this connection, we are continually being asked to give our opinion concerning various patriotic groups or individuals who are fighting Communism and speaking up for freedom.  Our immediate concern, however, is not with parties, groups, or persons, but with principles.  We therefore commend and encourage every person and every group who is sincerely seeking to study Constitutional principles and awaken a sleeping and apathetic people to the alarming conditions that are rapidly advancing about us.  We wish all of our citizens throughout the land were participating in some type of organized self-education in order that they could better appreciate what is happening and know what they can do about it.

"Supporting the FBI, the police, the congressional committees investigating Communism, and various organizations that are attempting to awaken the people through educational means is a policy we warmly endorse for all our people…. (The Improvement Era, June 1966, p. 477; Conference Report, April 1966, p. 109) (as quoted by Benson in An Enemy Hath Done This, pp. 318-319).

Communists have been working to take control of this nation for many years.  Between World War II and the late 1960s or 1980s, there was much talk about communism in our nation.  President Ronald Reagan fought openly against communism and uttered those famous words "Tear down this wall," meaning the Berlin Wall.  There has not been much talk about communism since the end of the Reagan Administration.  We have been distracted by the behavior of Bill Clinton, the fight against terrorists, and the destructions of Obama.  Communists are becoming more open in their tactics and will use progressives and radical Muslims to do their dirty work.

Ezra Taft Benson had the assignment to host Mr. Khrushchev (USSR) when he visited the United States for half a day.  Benson was opposed to the visit before it took place and felt it was a mistake afterwards.  While they talked face-to-face, Khrushchev indicated that Benson's grandchildren "would live under communism" and arrogantly declared something like this:  "You Americans are so gullible.  No, you won't accept communism outright, but we'll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you'll finally wake up and find you already have communism.  We won't have to fight you.  We'll so weaken your economy until you'll fall like over-ripe fruit into our hands."

Americans have been warned over and over again about the possibility of losing our freedoms.  We have watched as President Barack Obama and his supporters have weakened our nation and our economy, and yet we know that approximately half of our nation continues to support Obama.  Will it take blood running in our streets to finally convince these people of the dangers facing us?  I hope not!  I will continue to cry:  "Awake!"  "Arise!"  "Stand forth in defense of our nation!"