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This is the course we should mandate teaching in our schools
by Robert Roper
I’ve got to say it’s more than a bit distressing to head into the celebration of our great nation’s 250th birthday on the heels of Democratic Socialist winning a bunch of elections in New York and Colorado. So, this semiquincentennial (yes, I had to look it up, and even my spellcheck still doesn’t believe that’s a real word), I think it is important to not just focus on the history of our own great free-market capitalist, constitutional republic’s unparallelled success in raising people out of poverty, protecting individual rights, etcetera, but also the history of all those other countries that tried socialism in one form or another – because, in a word, they all suck. And it seems today a lot of folks need to be reminded of that fact.
Be it the National SOCIALISTS of Hitler’s Germany, or the Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics under Stalin, et al, or the full evolution of socialism into communism as practiced in China, Cuba, North Korea, a hundred other tin-pot redistributionist dictatorships, and even throwing in the more benign Western European versions of capitalist funded socialist welfare states, they all have one thing in common: they suck. France, Italy, Germany, Great Britain… all the cool stuff we go over there to see happened before the end of the nineteenth century. The post socialist revolution tourist attractions are things like Auschwitz and what’s left of the Berlin Wall. That should tell you something right there.
Experiments in socialism are a laundry list of nothing but failure. As mentioned above, National Socialism led to attempted genocide and world war. Let’s give that an “F.” Soviet Socialism gave us gulags, mass government orchestrated starvation, and mass murdering purges of dissidents estimated at around 20 million people. Also “F”, along with China under Mao who’s bloody Cultural Revolution into “warm embrace of collectivism” killed between two and three times that number. Maybe worth pointing these things out to AOC, Mamdani, and their followers.
Also, look at the many side-by-side economic experiments that have played out over the decades. Capitalist West Germany versus socialist East Germany after World War II. Is there any possible way to argue that the socialist governing philosophy did better for its people in terms of standard of living, freedom, opportunity, environment, or… anything? No. Perhaps even more stark is the contrast between the largely capitalist South Korea and the communist North Korea after the Korean War. These are cases of people from the same cultural and familial backgrounds given similar natural resources and geography, but half governed by (mostly) capitalism, and half by (mostly) some version of socialism. The capitalists thrive; the socialist descend into poverty and oppression. Every… single… time.
Look at Venezuela under a free(er) market system – the richest country in Latin America — versus Venezuela under the socialist leadership of Hugo Chavez and Nicholas Maduro – a corrupt, poverty-ridden, narco-state where people had to resort to eating zoo animals to survive. And similarly Argentina. And Chile. The more a country embraces capitalism, even a little bit (see China here), the better it does, and when a country falls back into the trap of socialism it doesn’t take long for things to turn to a steaming crap. The pattern is undeniable.
So, given its historical track record, messages peddling socialism as a solution to anything should trigger PSA fraud warnings on the radio on par with those regarding emails from lottery officials in obscure African nations insisting you won a million dollars (how exactly?) and all you’ve got to do is send them your bank account data for them to transfer you the money. Because anyone peddling socialism as a solution to anything is either (A) mentally incapacitated, (B) completely void of any economic and/or historic education, or (C) a sociopathic grifter (cough, cough Bernie!) out to swindle A and B.
Which gets me to my 250th birthday wish for our state and nation: Somebody next year please put in a bill to mandate teaching the history of capitalism vs. socialism as a graduation requirement from high school. I’m not advocating for rah rah propaganda here. Capitalism has its warts too, and those should be discussed. But when making the side-by-side comparison of outcomes, it’s pretty clear that shortly after the feast featuring the butchered and cooked golden goose, socialism is all wart. And if young people are seriously looking at a socialist future for themselves – as they very much apparently are – they should at least be given the facts about the absolute scam they’re buying into.
In the last legislative session, Senator Anne Watson (D/P-Washington) put in a bill mandating that the Secretary of Education develop a “climate change” curriculum. In 2023 there was a similar bill requiring a “racial equity” curriculum. There is a bill to require Holocaust education for grades 6-12. So, there is some precedent here, and even if the bill doesn’t pass, this would be a valuable discussion to have. I mean, if the Democratic Socialists in our ranks who currently hold majorities in both chambers really believe in the program they’re pushing, they would welcome such education with open arms, wouldn’t they?
Share Behind the Lines: Rob Roper on Vermont Politics
Rob Roper is a freelance writer with 25 years of experience in Vermont politics including three years service as chair of the Vermont Republican Party and nine years as President of the Ethan Allen Institute, Vermont’s free market think tank.
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Categories: Commentary
Great observations and article Rob !!! Happy Independence Day ! Starting on 251 hopefully.
“Experiments in socialism are a laundry list of nothing but failure.” AMEN! Thankyou, Mr. Roper.
In 1964, my distant primos, or relatives, from Cuba lost everything to Castro. It seems these communista “freedom fighters” required their ancestral and hard earned land, sugar plantation, bank accounts, everything to help fund their revolution gloriosa. My uncles and father were able to give them work, food and shelter in Northfield for a couple years. Fortunately, my family was able to help fund their move to an area in New Jersey where many Cubano refugees had already settled. This family (father, mother and daughter) were looking at execution or a labor campif they didnt give up their hard earned assets. So much for socialism.
How many homes does Bernie own? I thought private ownership was anathema to socialists and communists. Bernie is a communist, but calls himself a socialist democrat.
I find it amusing that the failed Republican Party in Vermont is attempting to rename the party that has kicked its butt for the past several decades.
Capitalism, when practiced as free enterprise, is a marvelous system. However, when unregulated, it leads to the excesses seen in the past with monopolies such as Standard Oil, the railroads, and “King Coal”. With deregulation and mergers today, we are seeing unprecedented concentration of wealth in most aspects of commerce: communications, pharmaceutical, transportation, etc. The result is the largest disparity of wealth ever experienced in the country. One need to look no further than the Trump family accumulating billions of dollars at the expense of taxpayers.
“However, when unregulated, it leads to the excesses seen in the past with monopolies such as Standard Oil, the railroads, and “King Coal””
I’m glad you agree that a monopoly is a bad thing. It is precisely why we prefer free markets with lots of competing business. If one business becomes too large and does something morally reprehensible, like create in-humane working conditions, then we the people traditionally use our government to restore justice.
Now, please take a look at the government in the State of Vermont itself. It has become the largest employer in the state, and has the power to levy taxes against everyone in order to pay itself, regardless of whether it’s product is of any benefit.
Understanding that the government will never go after itself, what means will ordinary people use to break up this new monopoly? The ballot box is controlled by the government and it’s unions.
Remember, not mentioned by education or the media much, just like the Republicans freed the slaves with their first President, Abe Lincoln, the monopolies such as Standard Oil were run by Democrats and busted down by a Republican, Theodore Roosevelt ! Also seems, TDS is alive today
Great article, Rob. Since our education system has failed, it seems we need to do public education. A daunting task for ordinary people without the benefit of tax support. It’s been on my to-do list for some time to continue expanding on the “Americanism vs Marxism” series:
1) we need to explain what a socialist (communist) regime looks like
2) we need to explain why we don’t like a fully socialist government (like you are doing here) and also WHY those systems always fail.
God bless, and Happy 4th to All!
Even Sweden had to back off of socialism because it encouraged lack of productivity. Read about on Wikipedia even.
Socialists: Takers, NOT Makers. Bernie has been wrong all along.
You mentioned Hitler and Stalin. Both of those dictators stopped any debate in their “fatherlands”. You either followed blindly or was interned in a camp where not many survived. We no longer debate in our schools and universities. They are so afraid that the indoctrinated might get convinced by just hearing the other opinions. They’ll shout you down, shut you down or in Charlie’s case, shoot you down.
Basic Economics, supply and demand, guns and butter-level, would just about suffice.
But then they’d have to find someone capable of teaching it….
The US has accomplished a lot in 3000 months or 31,044 weeks or 92,312 days.
Rogue capitalism is just as bad as rogue socialism. Teddy Rooevelt would be shocked at the way large corporations, such as Paramount purchasing Warner Brothers, are eliminating competition and driving up prices for consumers.
Fear is a great motivator. Contributors to this forum have caught the Great White Father’s new strategy to label all who disagree with him as socialists or Communists. Welcome to America of the 1950s!
Your first point is just wrong. The worst negatives of capitalism, as terrible as they may be, at least are accompanied by huge societal benefits. For example, treatment of Native Americans in the 19th century USA was horrific, but that time period also saw the industrial revolution and all its inventions, the ending of slavery, the emergence of a strong middle class, and a general rise in standards of living, and the global exportation of a governing philosophy based on protecting human rights. The wealth inequity that occurs with capitalism brings with it innovation that benefits everybody from communication, to healthcare, to transportation, food security… the list is endless. What did the world get out of 69 years of Soviet Socialism besides oppression, poverty and death. What great benefit to human civilization has come out of China since Mao? Name a single positively transformational thing that’s come out of socialist governance anywhere? I’ll wait.
As for your second point about “re-naming” the Democrat Party, it’s not Republicans doing that. It’s The original Democratic Socialist Bernie, AOC, Mamdani, Graham “Nazi Tattoo” Platner, et al who are taking over the Democrat Party and claiming it as their own.
Reminds me of China’s “Red August,” when from 1966-76, cadres of militant young vigilantes (mostly high school and college students) sought to purge their nation of traditional authority figures, such as teachers, professors, and others reviled as class enemies. Ten years of devastation began with a blood-soaked month in China’s capital city, Beijing. According to a number of sources, as many as 10,000 people were murdered, and nearly 100,000 families were forced from their homes.” Now I’m thinking about the lunatic who murdered Charlie Kirk. These anti-fascists are the REAL fascists. They are just too entitled, arrogant, stoned, stupid, and full of the Marxist purple Kool-Aid to get it. I can see this happening in the States, and it is a frightening prospect.
Our government has given Elon Musk $38 billion in subsidies since 2003, and subsidizes the oil companies to the tune of $35 billion a year. Don’t be fooled, this country believes in socialism, just for the elites. And they do that by getting the politically ignorant riled up that Bernie has three houses.
Politically ignorant as opposed to politically smart, nonpolitically ignorant or nonpolitically smart?
(Slight pause while I wait for an insult)