BEYOND THE WORDS
Words are the fuel of politics. During an election cycle as important as this one, Americans are bombarded with words that are interpreted according to the experience, education, and existing beliefs of the audience. One of these terms, “share the wealth,” has been a cry of the progressive utopians, socialists, and communists. Hitler’s Germany used the promise of shared wealth and “every one belongs to the government.” Nazi Germany was not a right-wing autocracy. They called themselves The National Socialist Party. Lenin and Stalin’s Russia was a dictatorship of the proletariat (today’s have-nots.) This, too, was extreme left wing group. Land, bread, peace was the early slogan. Class warfare was the end result. Share the wealth certainly fit this monstrous regime. Mao’s communist China also promised a wealth-sharing economy.
Is there anyone who would like to live under any of these regimes with left-wing roots who practiced genocide and class warfare in the name of “sharing wealth” and with all people swearing allegiance to the government and all benefits coming from the government? Everyone belonged to the government. Party and government were the same. Only the leaders of government or party benefited. To various degrees, the people under these regimes struggled to overthrow these totalitarian regimes.
We, in America, have a history of well-meaning populists, progressives, or socialists writing about the beauty of living in a utopian society where everyone worked for the good of the society, with all sharing in the common good. These societies all fell. The experiments all failed because the reality of leveling society means the exceptional or better than average have to be pulled down for everyone to have equality and sharing of the wealth generated by others. The field of civilization can not be evened by everyone being pulled up to be exceptional. Everyone can not be exceptional. But everyone’s status in life can be improved by hard work in a society that does its best to give everyone equal opportunity.
One of the enduring lessons of history is that some level of government is necessary and circumstances can cause the relative size of government to increase to meet threats. The more powerful a government becomes, the greater danger it is to individual freedom. Under President Obama, the federal government is constantly increasing in size and scope. The Executive Office has assumed powers formerly and constitutionally left to Congress and the states. Cabinet officers now routinely issue Department orders, not Executive Orders, that have the force of law. In the first two years of his administration, while we were all consumed with the push to nationalize health care, the ground work was laid to steadily increase the power of the Executive Office. Four more years of this type of government and Greece will look good. Beware of leaders who espouse class warfare, using the slogan “everyone pays a fair share” and sharing of wealth and the joy of belonging to the government.
http://www.factsandfictions.com Author of the Jack Brandon Thriller Series
Barry Kelly | Facts and Fictions 