You Can Call Me Ray

Recently it was reported that 70 Members of Congress belonged to the Democratic Socialists of America. The source was a bit dubious, but none of the “outed” legislators has denied the claim, either.            

A check of the DSA website reveals a political philosophy that is plainly anti-American.  They argue that Americans are wrong to “believe that their security results from personal responsibility and individual initiative.”  The socialists’ faith in government is equaled only by their disdain for Liberty.

The DSA reject our Constitution’s Bill of Rights, and seek to impose a collectivist substitute called the 21^st Century Bill of Rights.  I present it here with amplification quoted verbatim, along with an italicized rebuttal commentary which is, of course, my own.  

1. Everyone has the right to a living wage job.   

“…government, at the federal, state or local level, will necessarily be the prime mover in creating jobs that meet the social needs of an advanced industrial society”.

Wrong.  Trusting government as the “prime mover” has left 15 million Americans without any job whatsoever.

2. Everyone has the right to a sufficient amount of nutritious and safe food. 

“The answer to this is federal funding…profit alone cannot be the standard for such a necessity.”

Oh, please. Look at the shapes of the workers exiting any federal government building at quitting time and tell me you want those people deciding what you should eat.  

3. Everyone has the right to affordable and safe housing.   

“The goal of affordable and safe shelter can be realized by government programs and subsidies with mandated targets and timetables. Then and only then…”

Hello? We tried this – it was called sub-prime lending and it broke the world, remember?

4.  Everyone has a right to preventive, acute and long term health care. 

“…and we must legislate the financing mechanism consistent with this belief: single-payer national health insurance.”

Relentless, like Chucky. Health care is the product of someone’s labor. You have a right to buy it; you don’t have a right to steal it.  

5.  Everyone has a right to free, high quality public education.  

 “…the institutions of tenure and faculty-shared governance must be defended…and the “business model” of the university must be resisted.”

You can’t be serious. I’m pretty sure when the Creator was endowing us with our equal and unalienable rights, university tenure was not on His mind.  But now we all know where these loopy ideas originate.

6.  Everyone has the right to give and receive care. 

 “The United States is unique among advanced democratic nations by making caring for one’s loved ones primarily a private burden.”

Are you guys smoking crack?  The 90% of Americans who are not socialist wingnuts do not view caring for our loved ones as a burden; it is our greatest joy.        

7.  Everyone has the right to income security throughout their life.   

“The result is a society that moves towards its economic potential and an economic policy whose goals are for all of us to live “wisely, agreeably and well.”

Ok, how about Lindsay Lohan?  I hear she is in a “transitional phase” – how much income does LiLo have a right to?  Let’s ask mom Dina what they would both find “wise, agreeable, and well” and then deduct it from Congressional pay.

8.  Everyone has the right to leisure time.   

“The pursuit of profits by capitalists is in direct opposition to leisure time.”

Alright, give me the pipe. Sure, let’s just chuck Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, and go with Tenure, Early Pension, and Time Off. This is what happens when government workers write the specs for Utopia.

9.  Everyone has the right to a healthy environment.  “

Our posterity will inherit a healthy planet only if we end the profit-driven throwaway corporate economy…”

Excuse me, but the last time you socialists ended the profit-driven economy someplace, we got Chernobyl. Nobody washes a rental car, comrade.

10.  Everyone has the right to associate in whatever organizational form they choose.  

 “Only a major mobilization….could put enough spine in timid Democratic politicians to pass any substantive reform like EFCA.”

You mean the right to associate in any organizational form that is a union or ACORN.  What about my right to associate with tea partiers, libertarians, NRA members, non-unionized co-workers, stockholders, raw milk drinkers, smokers, drivers who don’t want to pay your stupid train fare, talk-radio listeners, and people who feel like endorsing candidates on Facebook?  I didn’t think so.

Well, there you have it, my friends – that’s the game plan.  Not a peep about speech, religion, arms, privacy, property, states’ rights, warrants, jury trials, or press freedom; in fact, there are no individual rights whatsoever - just a collective right to be a soulless and dependent ward of the State.   

And can you tell me the plank that President Obama or Speaker Pelosi would oppose?  Can you name the goal you have not heard them plead in their own words?  Whether or not there are 70 card-carrying DSA members in Congress is irrelevant; there are hundreds who gleefully carry the water every day.

I call them socialists because it is what they are; we should quit pretending otherwise.     

“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment and order his new book, “Tooth Fairy Government.”