By Robert Pembroke
My wife and I had our first brush with socialism/communism on a business trip to China many, many years ago. We were flying on a Chinese-owned airline from Canton to Hangzhou and I could not get my seat to lock in an upright position. A person behind me then made the following comment: “Don’t worry about your seat; worry about the pilot because he only makes $99 a month.”
Both communism and socialism are based on theory of equality for all. There is a difference, though. In pure communism, the state owns everything. People do not have money to spend. In socialism, the state also owns everything but an individual earns money and can spend it the way he wants. Both societies believe in free education, free healthcare, universal child care and paid family leave. The operative word here is “free.”
Folks, nothing is free and this is where communism and socialism start to become unhinged.
Historically the Democrats used to be of a “center-left” ideology. Some of their major supporters were the blue-collar union members who now seem to be leaving the party in significant numbers.
Even The New York Times now is commenting that the Democrats have become supporters of big government liberalism. They are pushing socialized medicine, free public college, universal child care and paid family leave. But I am most saddened by their policy of using regulations to control the American public.
I have been reading the number of interesting columns that suggest that the American electorate is not concerned with ideology. For instance, in a New York Times essay written by Philip Converse, “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Politics,” the author said that only 17 percent of American voters could correctly assign the terms “liberal” and “conservative” to the nation’s two major political parties.
After pondering these articles and columns, I came to the conclusion it’s all a bunch of hogwash and the American public couldn't care less. All people are interested in is whether they have enough money to put food on the table and the opportunity for a better life for themselves and their families.
History is a great predictor of the future and we should all take notice of what’s been going on in socialist countries, past and present. China has now gone to a one-man rule for the foreseeable future. This is dynamite and many societies that have tried it ended up in violent revolutions. Just check out Germany under Hitler, Rome under the Caesars, Chiang Kai-Shek in China and Russia under the czars.
Socialistic countries such as France and Denmark are doing OK but the piper has come calling and now they’re having trouble paying their bills. Remember Margaret Thatcher’s memorable statement: “The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
The Republicans are now in the throes of trying to pass tax reform and after reading the comments about their bill, it looks like the middle class is going to get some relief. But trust me, folks, it is not going to help them enough. If the bill passes as is, the Republicans will temporarily win a few elections but, watch out, Republicans, soon the middle class will realize that they’ve been taken to the cleaners again.
I have harped over and over that the 6 million small-business owners who have employees must become politically active in order to get their employees to understand why it’s so important for them to vote their pocketbook. The small-business electorate, the American dream, is the most powerful political party in our country and now it is time for them to exercise their votes in an organized and intelligent way.
“What is the American dream? The American dream is one big tent. And on that big tent you have four basic promises: equal protection under the law, equal opportunity, equal access and fair share.” - Jesse Jackson
Robert Pembroke is chairman of Pembroke’s Inc. and considers himself on a permanent sabbatical. He can be reached at pembroke894@gmail.com.