Monday, February 11, 2019

Washington Post Columnist: "Trump’s War On Socialism Will Fail"

By Robert Wenzel

President Trump's attack on socialism during the State of the Union address appears to have provided a strong dose of courage to many who have desired for a very long time to promote socialism in the United States.

The reaction to Trump's comments should come as no surprise. I warned immediately that this would occur. (SEE: The Horrific Lines in President Trump's Speech).

Trump may think he is shoring up his base by this attack, but it is a miscalculation that could have grave consequences.

First, his base doesn't need to be supported in this manner. It is not like the MAGA people are going to turn out and vote for a Democratic alternative such as Elizabeth Warren or Kamala Harris if someone doesn't tell them socialism is a bad idea.

Instead of attacking socialism from the House chamber, which did nothing but open up for discussion amongst the clueless masses and the lefty media whether socialism is all that bad, what combover man should have done is attack single-payer healthcare, and an expansion of welfare, as socialist programs. With the hidden implication that socialism is bad. Since the masses (and most of the media) are one step thinkers, their focus would have been on whether single-payer healthcare and expansion of welfare are socialist programs. Thus, buying into the correct view that there is something wrong with socialism.

But the New York City street hustler did not do this. He has launched a debate about socialism when almost all of the media are socialist sympathizers.

And thus, the American socialists amongst us are starting a propaganda blitz in response to Trump.

They are going to be as hardcore promoting socialism as they are in attacking this president.

Paul Krugman, less than 48 hours after the Trump STOU, launched support for socialism in his New York Times column.

He wrote:
[V]oters overwhelmingly support most of the policies proposed by American “socialists,” including higher taxes on the wealthy and making Medicare available to everyone...Let’s just hope that the rest of the media report the clean little secret of American socialism, which is that it isn’t radical at all.
And on CNN, Smerconish promoted socialism this weekend (The March of Socialism and the Future).

Now, The Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. is out with an essay titled, "Trump’s war on socialism will fail."

Dionne, it should be noted, is not some green-haired millennial vape-smoker just brought in fresh-faced to write for the Bezos rag. He is 66 years old and has been writing his column for decades. Only now does he feel comfortable openly cheering on socialism.

From his column (My bold):
Socialism goes back a long way in the United States, and it has taken doses of it to keep the market system alive...

Think about this when pondering the Green New Deal put forward last week by Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y). It’s sweeping and adventurous. There is virtually no way it will become law as long as Republicans control the Senate and Trump is president. And if something like it eventually does get enacted, there will be many compromises and rewrites.

But there would be no social reform, ever, if those seeking change were too timid to go big and allowed cries of “socialism” to intimidate them...

[I]n referring to “new calls to adopt socialism in our country,” [Trump] had a point. Open advocacy of socialism is now a normal part of our political discourse. Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America...

[A]ttacking socialism isn’t the cakewalk it used to be...

Jerome Frank was right: Those slurred as socialists really do have a good track record of making capitalism work better and more justly. The s-word is not now, and, in its democratic forms, never should have been, an obscenity.
Like it or not. the battle against socialism has entered a new aggressive stage, with the socialists gaining ground. I am not so pessimistic to declare Dionne correct that the war on socialism will fail but I can see why he thinks that way.

This is no time for free-market advocates and liberty lovers to be wimps and give into socialists on any points. They have advanced too far already. They must be stopped now.

Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher of




4 comments:

  1. This groundswell for socialism is dovetailing perfectly with the current surge in the seizures of firearms by way of Red-Flag Laws. Gee, by this time in 2021 most of us will be in a concentration camp.
    Somebody save me a spot in the bunkhouse by the coal-fire furnace.

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  2. Robert, can you give some steps we could take in trying to repel socialism? Or perhaps write a version of Rules for (Libertarian) Radicals post haste?

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  3. It's coming, still laying some groundwork, but it will be at Target Liberty.

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  4. Krugman and Dionne are so backward it's not even wrong.

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