The Long March
14 Mar 2006
Socialism may be defined as the deifying of the state. The state becomes everyone’s all and all; everyone does all that they do to prop up and preserve the state. Communists have been called socialists in a hurry. Instead of incrementally capturing the educational system until a whole generation of young socialists has been produced, and instead of establishing socialism in the land by swapping the populace benefits from the public treasury in exchange for their rights and freedoms, communists attempt to swiftly create the socialist’s utopia by using military force. In place of slowly brainwashing the masses into believing that the state is above all, atheistic communists simply outlaw God and declare that the state is all that there is.
It is often said that the fatal flaw in communism is man’s desire for freedom; however, a more accurate explanation for why communism can never succeed is the sinful nature of man. True, communism itself is a product of man’s sinful nature. It is one of the worst monsters ever created by the darkened heart of fallen man. Yet, the very thing that spawns and spurs it, slays it. Fallen man’s insistence to do what is right in his own eyes makes it impossible for communism to ever succeed. Not even military force can keep the sinful nature of a rebellious race from eventually breaking out all over the place.
Socialism is different from communism. Whereas communism is the involuntary subjection of the masses, socialism is the masses’ voluntary coronation of the state. Having been incrementally brainwashed into believing that Big Brother can take better care of them than they can take of themselves, the adoring subjects of the socialist government gladly hand over to the state the reigns of power. Granted, what is initially perceived to be “a dream come true” inevitably turns out to be a nightmare, but the socialist’s promise of national utopia always proves too strong a temptation for men to resist.
Today’s liberal Democrats are socialists. Although they howl and wail at the top of their lungs against such a label, the evidence is irrefutable. It is also evident to any opened minded student of history that socialism has been incrementally advancing in these Untied States since the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was F.D.R., who during a time of national crisis, namely, the Great Depression, proposed to the country that the federal government become the caretaker of the country’s citizenry. A decimated and impoverished populace gratefully acquiesced, granting to their beloved president an unprecedented four terms in office.
With such loyal and unwavering support, Roosevelt, the country’s perceived savior, attempted a brazen coup de tat. He attempted to pack the Supreme Court and take over the judicial branch of government. If he had succeeded, he would have been able to redo the Constitution and set up a rubber stamp judiciary for all of his socialist programs. Gratefully, Roosevelt failed in his attempt to take over the judiciary; and Congress, having witnessed the danger posed by a four term president, past a law limiting all future presidents to two terms in office.
Do you remember the cry of the sixties radical Allen Ginsberg, “We’ll get you through your children”? Like communists, the sixties radicals attempted to swiftly force socialism on America in a single decade. Unlike communists, once force failed, they switched to their backup plan. After the fading of the flower-children’s fantasies of political revolution, they changed their strategy to take over America to what they called “the long march through the institutions.” Defined by Herbert Marcuse as “working against the established institutions while working in them,” this new strategy called for the flower-children’s infiltration of America’s institutions—government institutions, institutions of higher learning, etc.—for the purpose of destroying them from within in order to raise up socialist institutions in their place.
Tragically, and unbeknownst to most Americans today, the long march of the sixties radicals is almost over. To a large extent, it is yesterday’s flower-children that are in charge of today’s American institutions. Consequently, our institutions have been slowly but surely socialized, our future generation brainwashed and converted to socialism, our courts hijacked by socialists to enforce upon our nation their socialist’s agenda, and our citizenry led to believe that Big Brother is the cure-all for all that ails us. From Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” to Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society,” to the “nanny-state” ideology of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, our country has been incrementally conquered by socialism.
Many of today’s Americans are afraid that militant Islam may someday take over our nation and destroy it. Islam, though a dangerous threat to Western civilization, is not the real danger to our nation’s future. The real danger is within—democratic socialism. Furthermore, its take over and destruction of our country is almost complete.
My wife asked me recently why so many people in our country today count on the government for everything. Whether we’re talking about food, shelter, healthcare, employment, education, or a bailout from some financial or natural disaster, most Americans seem to think that the government owes it to them. This kind of thinking has been years in the making. It is part of the “long march through [our] institutions” and the socialists’ indoctrination of America. By creating a populace dependent upon government, socialists can create a socialist state, one in which the state reigns supreme as caretaker of its citizenry.
Unlike communism, which is swiftly implemented by force, socialism is slowly implemented by indoctrination. Do you remember Hitler’s youth? If so, take a good look at the current crop of college students on American campuses. Now, I don’t mean to suggest that today’s college kids are Nazis, but merely that they have been brainwashed into believing that Big Brother is the answer to all of our questions. This explains why they protest against the government over the world’s unsolved problems—poverty, AIDS, global warming, etc.—but still look to the government as the solution to them all.
You’ve probably heard the glib retake on Christ’s golden rule: “He who has the gold makes the rules.” Although a far cry from our Lord’s, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” this glib revision of our Savior’s teaching does address an unfortunate reality in this sin-cursed, fallen world. Our wily politicians are not ignorant of the fact that whoever holds the purse strings controls the people. The more dependent people become upon their government, the more control the government can exercise over the people. Once the people are totally dependent upon their government, the government will have achieved absolute control over the people.
I’m afraid this is the course America is racing down today at breakneck speed. We’ve come too far to turn back and we’re going too fast to stop. Many will protest that by electing conservative Republicans to office in place of liberal Democrats we can rectify our present perilous plight. However, a quick glance at the presidency of George W. Bush will dispel this myth once and for all. During the first five years of Bush’s presidency, our government has grown expeditiously; in fact, it is larger now than it has ever been in history. Spending has grown more during Bush’s presidency than at any other time since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. President Bush is putting both Presidents Carter and Clinton to shame when it comes to the creation of the “nanny-state.”
President Ronald Reagan once vetoed a bill simply because it contained 150 pork barrel spending projects. President Bush, who has never used his veto pen during his five years of Oval Office occupancy, recently signed a bill into law that contained over 6,000 pork barrel spending projects. Of course, pork barrel spending projects are the sacred fetishes of today’s Congress. How else can congressmen and women bring home the bacon to their local districts in order to assure themselves of reelection?
I know that there is renewed talk in Washington today over the line item veto. Still, I would advise you not to hold your breath until Congress passes legislation permitting the president to strike unrelated pork barrel projects from congressional bills before signing them into law. Washington understands that it has to buy us before it can own us. The only remaining question is: “How cheap will we come?”
All of this reminds me of a famous quote: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse [generous gifts] from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, [which is] always followed by a dictatorship.” Beware of any rising socialist star on the American political horizon, especially one who promises to take care of us all no matter how much it cost.
Don Walton
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