Friday, October 25, 2019

Millennials are bamboozled by far-left politics






      "Millennials" is the common term given to Americans born between the early-1980s to the mid-1990s.  Their generation follows "Generation X" but comes before "Generation Z".   In general, they tend to be hard-working and technologically brilliant - and politically very far left-leaning.  They constitute the bulk of support for Democrat Presidential challenger Bernie Sanders, and his ilk.

      Who or what is to blame for this leftward trend?  There is plenty of blame to go around, starting with our educational system.  These kids are raised in schools that run by the government and staffed with members of teacher labor unions.  Civics classes are becoming non-existent.  Does anyone really expect these schools to teach the benefits and advantages of free-market economics? 

     Then they go to college, where things get much worse.  An article in the Chicago Tribune publicizes some shocking statistics regarding the political lean of many of America most prestigious colleges, based on polling of teaching staff.  Here is the worst of the worst:  at Wellesley, at Williams and at Swarthmore, the ratio of Democrat to Republican professors is a whopping 120 to 1.   Does anyone expect a student there to get any kind of balanced, fair political indoctrination?

      Another target of blame are Conservatives.  They turn people away with their rhetoric and policies, starting with their advocacy of unlimited military intervention in pursuit of imperialistic control of the entire world from Washington DC.  Then there is their vain and foolish attempt to win people over to God via prohibitions against drugs and other vice crimes.  And let us not forget that, when it comes to fiscal responsibility, Conservatives are all talk and no action.  (Or as we say here in Texas:  All hat, no cattle.)  Not that I ever was a big fan of Conservatism, but it was supposed to be a bulwark against leftist "progressive" economic policies.

      And then there is the news media, and that includes both traditional print and broadcast media AND web-based news.  Like our higher ed system, many major news organizations are saturated with liberal left-wing advocates.  No, they are not "the enemy of the people", as Trump often declares, and many news organizations do make an honest attempt to be fair and impartial.  But the media does indeed have a lot of power over what we think and feel, and free-market economic theory tends to get cast aside.  Millennials, with their impressionable young minds seeking answers, are easily swayed.

      Leftist-liberalism is like the Dark Side of the Force:  it's very seductive.  Admittedly, it's rather appealing on the surface.  It preaches that we can reduce (or even eliminate) poverty by exerting control over the greedy, selfish portion of our society who hoard all the wealth.  After all, all men are created equal, and even the Bible commands us all to be generous and help the needy.  Who could possibly be opposed to that?  The Millennials hear it and say:  where do I sign up? 

      Ok, here comes the rebuttal:

      To begin:  the part that the leftists tend to downplay centers around the pronoun "we" in the above paragraph.  "We", of course, is the government.

      Let's make one point very clear:  government does not give a flying flip about helping the poor.  Leftist-liberal policies such as wealth redistribution, wage & price controls, tax-supported "free" services, and all the others are justified by saying it's all to help the poor, or the sick, or the elderly, or the babies, etc, etc, etc.  Well, that is a lie.  The true goal of these programs is:  power.  The power to control us.  The power to decide who gets to spend my paycheck and what to spend it on.  Government is all about force and coercion.  Government says do this, or don't do that, and if you have contrary ideas, they will punish you using whatever level of physical violence is necessary to teach you who's boss.  (More on this later.)  Government is not some fantasy combination Santa Claus, Superman, and God.  It's just a bunch of ordinary, fallible humans who are in no way superior to you and me - but with more power.

      If you truly care about the poor and want to help alleviate suffering and poverty, there's a much better way:  advocate freedom.  Do you doubt it?  Just look at history.  Throughout the ages, there is a clear and irrefutable correlation between freedom and prosperity.  Nations that have employed heavy-handed governmental control over their citizens always find themselves wallowing in misery, their citizens willing to risk their very lives to escape.  But nations like the United States became prosperous and wealthy because of a culture of liberty and limited government.  Yet the Bernie Sanders of the world want to turn the USA into another Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba, Afghanistan, Syria, or Soviet Union.

      To preempt confusion, let me clarify that "freedom" means:  the right to run your own life SO LONG AS your actions are peaceful and honest.  Leftist-liberals like to use instances where wealthy business-people have been dishonest or coercive as an argument that free enterprise doesn't work.  No, that is NOT "free enterprise".  I absolutely agree that dishonesty and force are never acceptable - but let's be consistent here.  The initiation of force or fraud must always be banned, regardless of WHO you or your employer is.  Nobody gets a free pass - not even government employees.

      So if the government does not help the poor and downtrodden, who will?  Yes the poor do indeed exist, even here in the USA.  The reasons for their existence vary.  Some are victims of circumstances beyond their control; some just simply need guidance and a helping hand.  So, if you feel they need help ... then help them!  There is no need to employ government as a middle-man, extracting their rather hefty handling fees to pay six-digit salaries to legions of politicians and bureaucrats and other poverty pimps so they can interfere, restrict, impede, and constrain us every step of the way.   

      Furthermore, the Bible does not say that helping our fellow man is a governmental responsibility.

      And please spare me your pitiful arguments about inequality and how the bulk of our nations' wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few.  This is nothing but pure envy.  Wealthy people are so because they are smart, have high ambitions, and work their butts off.  They come up with solutions to problems or figure out what people want and need, produce it, make a profit, and then use some of those profits to create jobs, hire employees, and pay them money.  Successful people are not the bad guys here.  The real bad guys are the Bernie Sanders of the world who want to pick our pockets clean, or tell us how to run our businesses and private affairs.

      So by now, you're probably thinking:  do we even need government at all?  Does it even have a role in a free society?  Actually, yes.  I will address this topic in a future article.  Stay tuned.


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