Are You Confused About Democratic Socialism?

Social democracy … was born of Marxism …[the] other camp called for a gradual transition to socialism — one country, one institution within a country, one system, like a healthcare or school system — one step — at a time. This was what came to be called social democracy.

~Umair Haque, writing for Eudaimonia

Many of our friends on the left mean well enough. Understandably, they don’t want children shot in schools. They don’t want to see their neighbors go hungry. They don’t want someone shot simply because their skin tone was wrong. What they don’t understand is that those of us on the right don’t want those things, either.

The difference is in the way we approach what we all agree the problems are. Folks on the right know human nature is what it is, that the only real solution to problems that are moral in nature is for each individual to acknowledge their shortcomings and strive to improve. Those on the left have latched onto a shortcut, a lazier way to attempt a solution, but advocating government step in to restrict any freedoms that might potentially be unsafe. Little do they realize that if they spent half the energy they do on convincing us of their piety on effecting the change in moral attitudes, we all could along much better.

But it is far easier to throw their money (and yours) at the government, in the hope that even if government cannot effect the proper change in attitudes it can at least effect a begrudging change in behavior. The problem is once the boot heel is removed, the natural state of things quickly returns – and government must then reinforce the preferred behavior, almost invariably by force.

I doubt a sweeping preponderance of liberals understand how allowing a pair of humankind’s natural proclivities – sympathy and sloth – to guide their lives is being used by hardcore Marxists to assume power. They refuse to see, or worse, have resigned themselves to what they see as a depressingly required way of survival.

Of course, the goal for the committed left is still for the world to live in a Marxist state of being. By their own admission, the Marxists have just simply changed tactics – from outright, bloody coups to a much more insidious revolution. Unfortunately, too many people allow their sympathies to be manipulated into compliance. They chant, “but the children!” or “racism!” or “income inequality!” or simply knowingly nod their heads at those who do. Then one day, they awaken to find they have no freedom left and no idea how it even went away; if freedom was ever more than an illusion of the past, much less an idea of the effort it takes to win it back. All because they have no idea of the effort required to even protect their freedoms from the rampaging mob.

We thought fighting for the ideals of Locke, Jefferson, Madison, Smith, et al., had ended with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. Little did we pay attention to that other branch of Marxist ideology, the “democratic socialist.” Now we stand on the brink once again, but the threat is more insidious. As opposed to the in your face Marxism of the Soviet, this branch is playing a long game. It is not looking to use overt acts of violence to destabilize civilization. Rather, this one uses the very tools of civilization to usurp and overthrow individual freedom, relegating our God-given liberties to a burial ground, potentially for centuries to come.

So, it remains up to us, those of the committed right, the classical liberals, the conservatives – it is our mission to win this battle. Failure cannot be an option, for our failure will mean the abdication of the principles that have guided humanity from wretched feudalism to our current prosperity.