Selling Socialism to America

By Linda Goudsmit

Socialism is a tough sell to Americans who evaluate ideas based on facts and a remarkably easy sell to Americans who evaluate ideas based on feelings. The adult world of facts is a foreign land to the infantilized world of feelings where low-info millennial voters currently dwell. The heated political battle between Americanism and Socialism parallels the battle between parents and their children who refuse to grow up emotionally and leave the nest.

Becoming an emotional adult requires embracing a fact based cause-and-effect view of the world that rejects the fantasies of childhood. "No Johnny, you cannot fly like a bird even though you really really really want to." What happens if Johnny insists that he can fly and takes a confident leap from a tall building?

Socialism and Johnny have a lot in common – both insist they can do what objective reality proves they cannot do.

So, what is the problem?

America is being challenged by a Peter Pan generation that refuses to grow up and lives in a world of subjective reality where feelings rather than facts determine public policy. Their fragile selves require enforced political correctness and safe spaces to protect them from unwelcome facts and opposing ideas. Johnny climbs to the top of a tall building because he "feels" like a bird – he refuses to accept the fact that he is a human being and cannot fly. Human beings have limitations just like Socialism does.

The limitations of Socialism make it impossible to provide the social justice and income equality that it promises. First, the Peter Pan principle of robbing the rich to pay the poor eventually leaves everyone penniless. Second, Socialism is actually a binary political system with a very small wealthy ruling class and a very large population who service them. There is no middle class in Socialism because there is no private property and no upward mobility. The government confiscates and controls everything. Ask the Venezuelans.

Socialism's free stuff is never free because you forfeit your freedom. That bears repeating. Socialism's free stuff is never free because you forfeit your freedom.

Low-info low-level political leaders like Alexandria Ocasio-Ortez (AOC) have emerged to help sell Socialism to America. Who is buying? AOC's supporters are low-info millennial voters who have been indoctrinated toward collectivism by the leftist liberal narrative that dominates public education K-12 and dictates university curricula. The leftist takeover of college campuses and its rejection of objective reality is discussed in chilling detail by Andrew Cunningham in his 3.8.19 American Thinker article.

It is painful to listen to AOC and to hear the absurdity of the public policies she proposes. After reviewing her Green New Deal one has to ask, "Did this woman really earn a degree in economics from Boston University?" Did she attend classes? I think she did.

AOC is the disturbing outcome of the feeling based education that intentionally values feelings over facts. Worthless degrees are awarded that celebrate the regressive, infantilized, subjective reality of children and not the fact based world of adults. Education in America has reversed itself. Rather than teaching the foundational facts necessary to succeed in the adult world, American education's focus on student feelings has had a paralyzing effect and produced a Peter Pan generation of low-info dependent voters.

Peter Pan's classic song is Socialism's anthem.

I Won't Grow Up

Peter Pan: Are you ready for today's lesson?

All: Yes, Peter

Peter: Listen to your teacher. Repeat after me:

I won't grow up,
(I won't grow up)
I don't want to go to school.
(I don't want to go to school)
Just to learn to be a parrot,
(Just to learn to be a parrot)
And recite a silly rule.
(And recite a silly rule)
If growing up means
It would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree,
I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up
Not me!
Not I,
Not me!
Not me!

I won't grow up,
(I won't grow up)
I don't want to wear a tie.
(I don't want to wear a tie)
And a serious expression
(And a serious expression)
In the middle of July.
(In the middle of July)
And if it means I must prepare
To shoulder burdens with a worried air,
I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up
Not me,
Not I,
Not me!
So there!

Never gonna be a man,
I won't!
Like to see somebody try
And make me.
Anyone who wants to try
And make me turn into a man,
Catch me if you can.
I won't grow up.
Not a penny will I pinch.
I will never grow a mustache,
Or a fraction of an inch.
'Cause growing up is awfuller
Than all the awful things that ever were.
I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up,
No sir,
Not I,
Not me,
So there!

I won't grow up!
(I won't grow up)
I will never even try
(I will never even try)
I will do what Peter tells me
(I will do what Peter tells me)
And I'll never ask him why
(And I'll never ask him why)

We won't grow up!
(We won't grow up)
We will never grow a day
(We will never grow a day)
And if someone tries to make it
(And if someone tries to make it)
We will simply run away
(We will simply run away)

I won't grow up!
(I won't grow up)
No, I promise that I won't
(No, I promise that I won't)
I will stay a boy forever
(I will stay a boy forever)
And be banished if I don't!
(And be banished if I don't)

And Never Land will always be
The home of beauty and joy
And neverty
I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up
Not me!
Not me!
Not me!
Not me!
No sir!
Not me!
Songwriters: David B. Chase / Morris I. Charlap / Carolyn Leigh

We do not live in Never Never land. We live in the United States of America where freedom and opportunity require a commitment to living in the adult world of objective reality. Socialism demands a return to childhood dependence and the infantile world of subjective reality epitomized in the Green New Deal. We must grow up and embrace the fact that human beings are not birds – they cannot fly even when they really really really feel like they can.

Socialism will kill America as surely as Johnny trying to fly.

© Linda Goudsmit