Socialism: A Youthful Passion, A National Problem

It is one of modern history’s more famous quotes: “If a man is not a socialist at 20, he has no heart. If he remains one at age 40, he has no head.” These words (and variations thereof) have been attributed to everyone from Disraeli to Clemenceau to Churchill. Whatever the true source, they convey a wisdom that frequently is going unheeded in America. And we risk becoming an ever more controlled and corrupt society.

This January, the public relations firm Axios released the results of a SurveyMonkey online poll of nearly 2,800 U.S. adults. Respondents were asked how they felt about capitalism and socialism. Capitalism produced a favorable response among 61 percent of all respondents, yet socialism was well-received among a sizable 39 percent. Fully 58 percent of persons ages 18-24 and 51 percent of persons ages 25-34 viewed socialism in a positive light; a positive view of capitalism among these age brackets, respectively, were 58 percent each.

This survey was no fluke. A Harris Poll conducted for Axios in February of more than 2,000 U.S. adults revealed very strong support for socialism among Millennials (born 1980-94) and Generation Z (born 1995 and after). These combined cohorts backed universal health care and tuition-free college, respectively, by 73.2 percent and 67.1 percent. Fully 49.6 percent said they would prefer living in a socialist country. Meanwhile, a Gallup Poll released last August showed that 51 percent of adults ages 18-29 had a favorable view of socialism, but only 45 percent felt this way about capitalism. The figure for capitalism, alarmingly, was down from 68 percent in 2010.

Granted, socialism comes in a variety of forms. Some are more tolerable than others. But even the big bad wolf of socialism – Communism – is getting a reprieve among young adults. According to a survey released in October 2016 by the Victims of Communism Memorial, only 55 percent of respondents born during 1982-2002 believed that Communism is, or ever was, a problem. The respective figures for baby boomers and the elderly were 80 percent and 91 percent.

It may be that similar views prevailed in prior decades. After all, the impulse to “change the world” reaches full flower during young adulthood. That’s long been the case. Career, marriage, childrearing and homeownership supposedly bring the starry-eyed down to earth. But to what extent? Doubtlessly many young socialists of today will come to support capitalism. But just as likely, many won’t. Callowness can’t explain everything.

One would think the events of the last 100 years would have rendered support for socialism almost nil by now, with Venezuela the latest casualty. Yet the dream lives on. Quite possibly, the survey numbers reveal not simply a replication of a classic tendency, but the dawn of an era defined by the likes of Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren.

Why are so many young adults today, to say nothing of their elders, warming up to socialism? I briefly offer some explanations.

First, much of our formal education system, especially at “prestige” colleges and universities, is driven by an imprimatur of faculty and administrators who lean far leftward. It’s hard to imagine many Columbia University students and recent graduates, for example, possessed of much enthusiasm for capitalism even if they work for a capitalist enterprise.

Second, radicalism, especially at the national level, is rapidly supplanting the modern liberalism of the New Deal and the Great Society. Radicals, many of whom are seeking the Democratic Party nomination for president, routinely exploit public discontent over certain recent outcomes of capitalism (e.g., the 2008 stock market crash, auto industry bailouts) for the purpose of discrediting capitalism as a whole. And many in their audiences believe them.

Third, many journalists at leading newspapers, webzines, and cable news outlets are public relations agents for socialism. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., right now just might be the most photographed and quoted woman in America.

Fourth, large-scale immigration, especially by Asians and Hispanics, is creating a generation of new voters whose resentment of the white majority and capitalism are of a piece. Ethnic identity can’t so easily be disaggregated from ideology.

If America goes socialist, it will not happen all at once. And it won’t involve five-year industrial plans, farm collectivization, wholesale government takeovers of businesses or other Soviet-era relics. What it would involve is a gradual adoption of populist-Left hobby horses such as “free” college education, health care and day care, plus Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’ scatterbrained Green New Deal. There also would be large-scale transfer payments from whites to “people of color” under the guise of reparations. A better recipe for inefficiency, divisiveness and corruption hardly can be imagined. More than ever, economic success would be determined by political connections and an erosion of the rule of law.

“We are born free, and we will stay free,” remarked President Trump during his State of the Union address in February. “Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.” Those words caused gnashing of the teeth among those who want Trump out of office. But the debate between capitalism and socialism will be around long after he leaves. For defenders of capitalism, there is much teaching to be done. And for young America, there is much to learn.

Decades of eliminating factual and (positive) passionate American history and government throughout grade school (by intentional design) is finally taking strangle hold.

I can see why schools go socialist. It's because Government is funding them so they pay tribute to the pay master. It's a tougher issue to figure out why the left manages to get the commanding heights of culture. My theory is that it happens out of necessity. Without the ability to brainwash people the left cannot exist so it motivates them to take the high ground in the culture war. The liberty loving side merely wants to be left alone and only engages in the culture war in self defense when it acts at all.

Leftism is a substitute religion - I think only that can explain how people cling to it all the more after each spectacular failure. And for people who leave the left what they describe is similar to someone leaving a cult. And it promises people things without them having to work for it. There are enough simple people who believe a system like that can work. Then there are the ambitious people who image they will be a Commissar in the new system and they will have a cushy job writing lists of people to arrest or writing party propaganda and they will be treated like royalty. They are too stupid to know that they could wind up as a virtual slave in a factory or they could make a tiny mistake and be the next to go in a party power struggle.

If America goes socialist, it will not happen all at once.

At best, the timeline would be something like Venezuela's, which took about 15 years before the damage of socialism became unavoidably obvious. Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998, took office in 1999, and the country has deteriorated ever since. In America, the left is so violent and so adamant about total control that the time course until total collapse may very well be quite short compared to Venezuela.

It's a tougher issue to figure out why the left manages to get the commanding heights of culture.

This is the result of a Soviet program that began several decades ago. They planted moles in influential places (entertainment, media industry, universities) to constantly plant the seeds of subversion. The Soviets were also masters of propaganda, so even as they were planting and nurturing the ideas of anti-freedom, they were also conditioning people to believe that authoritarianism is compassionate. After these decades of effort, we are seeing the results: the leftists in Hollywood truly believe that only they are moral and humanitarian, even as they promote murder and the idea that those who do not toe the socialist line have no right to exist. And many of our young people have swallowed the party line and believe the same way.

I doubt that the remnants of the USSR are still conducting this program, but the rot they introduced has grown so much that it continues to fester.

"Greatest Generation" and their Baby Boomer children elected politicians who implemented policies that would ship every blue-collar manufacturing job overseas, import an army of foreign slave-wage labor for those that remained, skyrocketed the cost of a college education into the six figures while mandating that any job that paid over $10/hour require a bachelor's degree.

Is it any wonder that young kids find socialism appealing?

I’m not surprised.

Many years ago, Democrats vigorously promoted an economic system that provided free health care, free housing, free food, free clothes, free education, guaranteed employment and “equality for all”.

That is, “all”, except for the master and his favorites.

At that time, the Democrats called “Socialism” by its correct name: SLAVERY.

Socialism is all about taking the money from the middle class and giving it to the well connected political “elite”.
It is one of the nuvo feudalism systems. Creating a new set of royalty that lives off the backs of serfs. Ever notice how freely the left “elite” use royal related terms. They all want to be royalty.

Socialism Is Legal Plunder - Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

https://usdebtclock.org

http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html

It can bring down the greatest nation in the history of civilization.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.