President Trump and his Trumpista supporters are making a big deal about Democrats being socialists. They say that if Democrats were to get their way, America would be turned into Venezuela.
What a joke! No, not the part about the Democrats being socialists and turning America into Venezuela. Trump is right about that. It’s a joke that Trump and his Trumpistas are opposed to socialism. The truth is that Trump and his followers are as much socialist as Democrats.
Let us count five ways:
- Social Security and Medicare, the two crown jewels of the welfare state. These socialist programs are based on the Marxian idea of taking money from one group of people and giving it to another group of people. They were not part of America’s founding political system. The concept originated among German socialists and was later imported into the United States.
Trump and his followers are as ardent supporters of these two socialist programs as Democrats.
- Immigration controls, which are based on the socialist principle of central planning and which are enforced by an immigration police state. For decades, there has been a decades-long, ongoing, never-ending immigration crisis, which includes death, suffering, misery, and the destruction of liberty and privacy. That shouldn’t surprise anyone. Those things come with socialism.
Trump and his followers are as ardent supporters of this socialist program as Democrats.
- Public schooling, which is a perfect example of a socialist program. Central planning by local, state, or federal politicians and bureaucrats. State-controlled. State textbooks, curricula, and teachers. Compulsory attendance. Taxation-funded. Regimentation. Deference to authority. Memorization. Ritalin and Adderall. Constant, never-ending education crises.
Trump and his followers are as ardent supporters of this socialist program as Democrats.
- Federal Reserve System, which is a system of monetary central planning, a core feature of the socialist paradigm. Constant, decades-long monetary debasement. Financial bubbles.
Trump and his followers are as ardent supporters of this socialist program as Democrats.
- The military-industrial complex. As Milton Friedman pointed out, the military is “a socialist activity.” Is it any wonder it is rife with corruption and inefficiency?
Trump and his followers are as ardent supporters of this socialist program as Democrats.
If you’d like to see Republicans and Democrats have a conniption fit, suggest to them that any or all of these socialist programs should be dismantled. The thought of living under freedom, free markets, and a limited-government republic drives both of them crazy.