By Randy Rossi -
Two recent polls regarding what young people think about socialism in America should scare the heck out of every rational and informed American. First, Gallup did a poll that found that 58% of young people aged from 18-34 prefer socialism to capitalism.
That is scary enough. But a new poll done by YouGov found that 70% of Millennials would probably vote for a socialist and 33% would probably vote for a communist.
How does that sound as we watch the people of once prosperous Venezuela starve to death with no electricity thanks to socialism? That YouGov poll also found that only 57% of Millennials think that our Declaration of Independence better guarantees freedom and equality than the Communist Manifesto does. And not only do these people get to vote, they will soon be the voting majority in America as us “Baby Boomers” fade away!
Those of us that have been to and worked in socialist and communist countries and seen first-hand the pain and suffering that socialism and communism bring to the people continue to be amazed at how gullible and uninformed so many young Americans are regarding the pain of socialism and communism. Over 100 million people have starved to death or been murdered under socialism and communism in the last 100 years. Based on those facts, how could any rational and informed person favor socialism and communism over the capitalism that made America the most prosperous nation in the history of this planet?
Having just returned from spending 12 days in Portugal which has been and remains a socialist nation, I was reminded once again of how lucky we are to live in America. I wanted to kiss the runway when we landed at O’Hare!
Don’t get me wrong, Portugal is physically pretty and has beautiful hills, mountains, and vineyards all over the place. But much of Portugal is falling apart because of its poor economy and the Portuguese people are suffering economically. The average income there is only about $12,600 per year and the birth rate is only 1.5 children per woman because it is too expensive to have and raise children. Yet our Portuguese guides bragged about how great their “free healthcare” system is! When I asked them what their taxes were, they had no problem with the fact that their income taxes were 40% and their sales taxes were a whopping 23% because they got “free healthcare”! I tried to explain to them that their healthcare was obviously not free, they were paying for it with their insanely high taxes which were killing jobs and incomes! But they simply did not understand and were perfectly happy that the government was ruling their lives, not them!
Portugal is a perfect example of how fragile freedom and prosperity are. At one time Portugal was one of the most prosperous and powerful nations in the world which discovered much of the world outside Europe (i.e. Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan). Portuguese is the world’s 5th most common language since Portugal once ruled Brazil, parts of Asia, and parts of Africa. But today Portugal is a tiny country of just 10.5 million people which is essentially irrelevant to the world. How did Portugal fall so far? For hundreds of years, the Portuguese people allowed themselves to be ruled by the government instead of the people ruling the government. They allowed kings, the Catholic Church, and a socialist government to rule them unlike Americans who came to America demanding freedom who gave themselves a Constitution, Bill of Rights, and an Electoral College to protect that freedom.
The Portuguese people have become used to being ruled by the government and are willing to allow that government to rule every aspect of their lives. Despite the poverty of so many Portuguese people, the government has made getting rid of fossil fuels a higher priority than improving the prosperity of the average citizen. Amazingly the Portuguese people seemed to be OK with that as they suffer in poverty. I was amazed to see socialist flags all around Portugal featuring a hammer and sickle to promote the socialist/ “Green New Deal” party in the elections that occurred just a week before we got there. Despite the high taxes and low incomes of the average citizen, the Portuguese people chose the socialist party to rule them in that election. As an American who lives in the most prosperous nation in the world which is driven by freedom and capitalism, it was impossible to understand why the Portuguese people chose more socialism and government control over freedom and prosperity. One would think that the Portuguese people watched the tragic decline and fall of Venezuela and other socialist countries because of the failure of socialism and would vote against socialism, buy they have become used to the government running their lives and are willing to trade freedom for what they think is security.
As I look at those polls that show that 58% of Americans aged from 18-34 favor socialism and 70% of Millennials would vote socialist and 33% would vote communist and watch them cheer on Democrat socialists Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren who want to cripple America’s economy with the $93 trillion “Green New Deal”, $52 trillion “Medicare for all”, and open borders and free health care for illegal immigrants; I fear that America is about to follow the painful path of Portugal and other socialist nations in Europe and Latin America. Sadly, because 65% of Americans have never left the shores of this great nation and have no idea how painful and destructive socialism and communism are, too many of them are willing to trade their freedom for socialism and government control of their lives. These are scary times and this election will determine if Americans still deserve the freedom and prosperity our Founding Fathers gave us.
