What Do Leftists Really Want?
I need to preface this article with the statement that I really don’t know what I am supposed to call the political left. Some get angry if I call them leftists, even though they identify themselves on the left of the flawed political spectrum. Their political party is mainly the Democratic Party, but they are divided into liberals, progressives, socialists of various types, a few communists although communism has become a derogatory term because of all the followers of Karl Marx who created numerous repressive regimes in the last 100 years. Collectivist is a broad term to describe them because they generally oppose individualism, even though each of them as individuals support collectivism. Or maybe they are of one mind, not really thinking for themselves, group-think. Can you see my bewilderment when it comes to trying to understand what the left wants? I can’t even label them without getting angry replies, and even the mere attachment of labels is considered divisive and demeaning because why? Because each of them is an individual? Argh!
Let’s get into the politics and economics of what the left want. They universally want democracy, at least that is what they chant during some of their protests. The simple fact that they are allowed to gather and speak and chant would suggest they already live within a democracy, so one could applaud them for celebrating their democracy. Yet do they want MORE democracy? Or a different type of democracy? And what exactly do they mean by the word democracy?
It is apparent that there are so many definitions of “socialism” and “democracy” that it is easy for everybody to be talking yet nobody is understanding. It’s like the leaning tower of Babel.
Democracy, in a general sense of the term, means political freedom where government isn’t a tyranny, citizens can speak out against it and live in an environment of freedom. A more precise meaning of direct democracy as a form of government is when each citizen has direct input into the functioning of the government. Each issue that affects a country would be voted on by everybody. How practical would that be? Not at all. That is why the founders of the United States created a representative democracy. All voters elect officials to represent them in the government.
What form of democracy do the leftists really want? Do they want a nation that keeps individuals free? We have that. Do they want direct democracy? Not practical. We have a representative democracy, but does the left want to change that? And if so, do they really want to change the nature of our government into a direct democracy?
I’ve tried to understand what the left wants, but their logic collapses soon after they open their mouths. U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has become the poster child of democratic socialism. She says capitalism is ‘not a redeemable system’ and is flawed to the core, run by an elite minority who is purely motivated by profit. She names the favorite villains of the left, the terrible, evil, greedy, chuckling in their lair of evil and greed, the Koch brothers, as the poster senior citizens of capitalism. Progressive Elizabeth Warren has suggested workers being elected to the governing boards of companies. She claims that we can have markets where businesses and ways of producing, trading, selling goods are controlled by giving more power to workers.
Some questions quickly come to my mind. Are these markets that are “controlled” by workers going to be “free” markets? And how will the workers control the markets? Or will the socialist politicians really be controlling the markets? Do socialists really understand what is meant by “free” markets? It isn’t as in everything is free and costs nothing, take what you want (although I wonder if that is what some people on the left think free markets really are). Free markets are when government doesn’t impede people from running their own businesses or dictate how to run them. If workers don’t like how the business that employs them is run, they are FREE to start their own business, or go work for another business. Nobody is stopping them.
Let me repeat that: nobody is stopping workers from starting their own businesses. That is what capitalism is about, competition in a free market where producers and consumers voluntarily interact. Workers can invest their money in the stock market. Nobody is stopping them. If the leftists don’t like how capitalism operates, then what will they change about it? Would these businesses be nationalized in some manner? Exactly how would control taken away from the owners and given to the people who work for them? So many questions, so few real answers. Meanwhile, capitalism keeps chugging along…
Mainstream Democrat politicians routinely tell us they “support” capitalism, but it needs to be tempered with realistic regulations to make it more humane, or statements of that nature. Tell me, after more than 100 years of our present form of capitalism, where trustbusters broke up corporations, new deals, creation of a panoply of regulatory agencies, along with an enormous social safety net that encompasses at least 50% of our government spending, people still aren’t happy with capitalism? So much so, they want socialism, even though we already are up to our necks in socialism. We have the Marxist income tax, we have Social Security, government spends enormous amounts of money on social programs. That isn’t enough. The socialists want more. What do they REALLY want? Does the left really want communism? NO, NO, NO they exclaim, we don’t want communism, but we do want to destroy capitalism they mutter under their breath. AOC tells us capitalism is flawed to its core, doesn’t that imply she and her followers want to destroy capitalism? Then replace it with what? Something that isn’t capitalism but looks like socialism but isn’t communism.
Perhaps the political left is so frustrated and angry because they are like children who can’t articulate what they want. Can they even conceptualize what they want? I’ve tried following the leftist’s ideas of decades, and much of it is still a mystery. Maybe I need to immerse myself in a Marxist re-education liberation retreat, where lack of nutrition and eight hours a day of lectures (after eight hours of hard labor) would enlighten me.
Politicians of the left make entire careers pandering to their supporters, telling them how bad our system is, that it needs to change, but they can’t explain what exactly will change and how to do it. Democrats like Nancy Pelosi gets fabulously rich because her husband makes smart investments in the stock market. She panders to her political base with socialist rhetoric, but then defends her wealth saying the USA is a free market. Does she want free markets or not?
Here is my bold statement: leftists in power want kleptocracy, where they get rich essentially stealing from the public treasury by voting for programs that they know will get filtered into their private investments. Their supporters want kleptocracy, where they themselves, or their favorite class of victims, get direct benefits from the public treasury. And who pays into the public treasury? The evil, greedy rich, the people who build and run businesses.
At least in theory the rich are supposed to be punished with high taxes, but they have their loopholes that allow them to not pay as much, or none at all in some cases. That leaves the workers who make enough income to qualify to pay into the public treasury, leaving them financially insecure and dependent on their jobs. Then the leftist politicians tell the workers they are being exploited by the greedy businesses, so vote for Democrats who will redistribute all that money and let you run the businesses instead of the greedy people who run the business.
Isn’t it greedy for Democrat politicians (and Republicans, they inhabit the same swamp) to vote for laws that spend money from the public treasury on projects and programs to corporations that are owned by politicians who voted for those programs? Isn’t that a conflict of interest? Or is that what Democrats call a “free market”? And they want to end it…someday.
Sources:
https://www.cbpp.org/most-of-budget-goes-toward-defense-social-security-and-major-health-programs-2