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President Donald Trump has been caricatured in many ways. Now we must add Captain Obvious to the list.
During the State of the Union address, Trump announced that America would never be a socialist country.
It was a jaw-dropping moment—one of those “duh” statements that everyone should already know and which doesn’t need voicing.
Or, does it?
Socialist ideas are, shockingly, gaining approval. The Gallup Poll has been measuring socialist attitudes for the last decade. The most recent poll showed that 57 percent of Democrats have a positive image of socialism. Fewer than half have a positive image of capitalism.
Democratic socialist, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, made a convincing run for the presidency in 2016, narrowly losing the party’s nomination to Hillary Clinton. Now he’s back and easily raising money and gaining support for a 2020 presidential run.
Sanders and many other Democratic presidential contenders back the socialist-leaning ideas of the Green New Deal, a plan that would dramatically increase government intervention into the lives of the average citizen and diminish autonomy. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, California Sen. Kamala Harris and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand have all voiced support for it. Others who are considering a run for the presidency—and haven’t yet aligned themselves with socialist thinking—will likely face pressure from the Democratic Party to do so.
Politicians, or the ruling class, have the luxury of coming up with freedom-taking schemes to impose upon the working class. Legislators protect themselves—not us. They passed Obamacare without reading it, because it didn’t apply to them. The fallout from socialism won’t affect them, either.
Venezuela is an example of how socialism is good for the ruling class and bad for everyone else. Socialist President Nicolas Maduro doesn’t appear to have missed a meal. Venezuelans, though, must scavenge through garbage trucks to find food. Finding electricity is tough, too.
When we’re forced to make obvious statements, as Trump did in the State of the Union address, it’s an indicator that a crisis may already be on our doorstep. Our country has been through it several times.
In the 1700s, stating the obvious meant that there should be no taxation without representation. Or as the colonists more eloquently stated at the Stamp Act Congress in 1765, “…only representatives of the people of these colonies, are persons chosen therein by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been, or can be constitutionally imposed on them, but by their respective legislatures.” It preceded the Revolutionary War.
In the 1800s, the obvious wrong was slavery. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that stated, “…all persons held as slaves…are and henceforward shall be free.” The year was 1863—three years into the bloody Civil War.
In the 1900s, it took a world war to acknowledge the obvious—that the Jewish people, like any people, have the right to existence. But not before Nazi Germany killed six million of them.
We’re in a new century, with all new foreign threats. It’s no time to generate the home-grown threat of growing acceptance of socialism.
The threat of socialist ideas, though, needn’t accelerate into a full-blown crisis. We can hang on to our freedoms by voting for and placing the right people on the ballot—people who denounce socialism.
The citizens of the land of the free and the home of the brave deserve the bare minimum of choosing between a Democratic capitalist and a Republican capitalist in the 2020 presidential election.
And here we go again. Shockingly, having to state the obvious.
Moving the Conversation Along 
Sandy,
My two cents on capitalism.
I think you give a nice rose colored view of capitalism. It would be great to live in a world where small businesses thrived and produced needed products for people who could in turn thrive. That used to be the way. A business owner would live in their community, many times above their store. Hardware stores, grocers, drugstores,launders etc all provided services and charged enough to make a decent living and allow their neighbors to purchase quality goods at reasonable prices. Same with automakers. Then business became about the stockholders and boardmembers making huge profits. After all that is the definition of capitalism. So they decided to take jobs away from American workers and find cheap places in 3rd world countries who would do same work for mere pennies compared to thousands the American workers made. All of this, according to big business, to save us from paying more for products made in US. But stockholders found they could still charge more for products and pay 3rd world workers less and stockholders would get richer. Capitalism today is big business continually making crap that no one needs and depleting natural resources at record rates just so we can have the latest and greatest or worse yet, overly produced junk no one needs but buys because it fills a void.
Socialism is a buzz word that republicans love to use to distract from the vile things trump has done and continues to do.
All i want is a decent human being to run for office. Republican or Democrat. Best scenario is a much better Republican challenges trump. Which shouldnt be too difficult.
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There’s something that small businesses and mega corporations have in common. They both need customers in order to survive and thrive. Several years ago, I read an article that listed the richest person in each state. I was shocked to see that multiple states listed a member of the Walton family from the Walmart empire. Meanwhile, many of their employees did not earn enough to support themselves. I haven’t been back to Walmart since then. My own personal protest. I wonder, though, how many people complain of mega corporations and the super rich, but continue to shop or support their businesses.
We also have the super rich giving speeches to the common folks about the dangers to our environment–after they’ve flown in on their personal jets to do so. The elitists give themselves permission to take whatever is desired, while preaching to everyone else that they must make sacrifices for the good of the earth. I don’t buy from Walmart, and I don’t buy phony messages from elitists.
I, too, would like to see a world where small businesses and the everyday citizen thrives more and mega corporations and the super rich rule less. It’s a tough nut to crack, but consumer choices play a part.
And I sure hope that when the 2020 election rolls around, we can hope for more than just decent human beings. That, again, is the bare minimum.
Thanks for your readership and your comments. I enjoy our conversations! – Sandy
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