American Socialism: Tried and Failed, Like Usual

As history professor Larry Schweikart of the University of Dayton shares in this video from Prager University, we tried socialism back at the very beginning of the American nation. It failed as abysmally back then as it does today. Perhaps even worse, since today, socialism is often saddled onto nations that previously built up prosperity under a free market, but in the early colonial days, they were starting from scratch…and socialism nearly wiped out these first colonies.

Some of the early colonists who were Christians based their decision to set up a socialist-style colony did so on a misunderstanding of what the Bible tells us early Christians did in the New Testament.  The New Testament tells us about Christians sharing their property and giving generously to help those in genuine need.  What these misguided early colonists failed to realize is that NONE of the New Testament examples involved (a) government wealth redistribution, (b) government forcing people to surrender their property, (c) a surrender of all property.  The New Testament Christians did NOT have a communal or communist system. They gave of SOME of their property, to help those in genuine need, while continuing to work at their vocations and businesses and collect for themselves the fruits of their own labor.  They shared willingly, in the measure they felt led of God to give.

These early socialist-leaning colonists also failed to take into consideration one of the most fundamental teachings of their own Bible: the fallen nature of all human beings.  You’ll learn more about that in the video, too.

For the early American colonists, it was only turning away from socialism and implementing free market principles and personal responsibility that saved these colonies.

It takes a special brand of recklessness to try a bad idea again after you’ve already tried it and found it to be disastrous. Yet America is flirting hard with socialism today, even after defeating the socialism of the Soviet Union 25 years ago.

The only way socialism appears to work at all in some Western countries today, even at mediocre and grossly inefficient levels, is because it is doing so on the back of the free market which (a) built up a reserve of wealth and vitality that socialism now coasts on and (b) which like a host is kept just alive enough to keep the parasite (socialism) alive.

America became great on the model of freedom, personal responsibility, and the free market. We know socialism doesn’t work, and short of outright communism, is the most pathetic socioeconomic system ever devised. At best, it produces mediocrity and makes everyone poorer, and at worst brings tyranny and suffering (the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, et al). Both socialism and communism are simply slightly different forms of Marxism, with socialism being the transition from a free market to communism. The more pure the form of Marxism implemented, the greater the tyranny and suffering. That should tell us something profound.

We know freedom and the free market DOES work.

Let’s get America back to the engine that made us successful, and end this dangerous flirtation with something that never works anywhere it is tried in the world.

ADVERTISEMENT

This article is printed with the permission of the author(s). Opinions expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the article’s author(s), or of the person(s) or organization(s) quoted therein, and do not necessarily represent those of American Clarion or Dakota Voice LLC.

Comment Rules: Please confine comments to salient ones that add to the topic; Profanity is not allowed and will be deleted; Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader’s own opinion will be deleted.

Similar Posts:

• Socialism is Killer–and Not in a Good Way
• Fascism Alive and Well in America
• What the Left Wants for America
• Why Liberals Idolize Marxist Murderers
• Free Market: The Most Moral, Efficient System There Is

Bob Ellis has been the owner of media company Dakota Voice, LLC since 2005. He is a 10-year U.S. Air Force veteran, a political reporter and commentator for the past decade, and has been involved in numerous election and public policy campaigns for over 20 years. He was a founding member and board member of the Tea Party groups Citizens for Liberty and the South Dakota Tea Party Alliance. He lives in Rapid City, South Dakota with his wife and two children.

Bob Ellis

View all articles by Bob Ellis