Editor,
I keep pinching myself hoping I will wake up but all I get are bruises and the realization that the world has descended into insanity. This is happening in multiple areas, let’s look at the Democratic Party which is slowly being taken over by the Democratic Socialist Wing, i.e. Communists. Most members of the Democratic Machine except for a handful of elected Democrats are welcoming this group of childish radicals to their “big circus” tent, willing to support anything that lets them win.
Let’s consider the official platform of this group. Some of the things they advocate for are: Medicare and housing for everyone; cancelling all student debt; free higher education; ending cash bail; mass incarceration; amnesty for all immigrants; abolishing ICE; opening the borders; extending voting rights to noncitizens and felons; abolishing the U.S. Senate; replacing the President and Supreme Court with an executive and judiciary chosen by the House; public ownership of major corporations and essential industries; implementing proportional representation; ranked-choice voting in all elections; doing away with the electoral college; ending U.S. military aid and overseas bases; and defunding the department.
So how are they going to pay for all of this, by taxing the rich out of existence? Well, this all sounds great if you are clueless or live in an academic bubble of self-reinforcing wishful thinking where you never had a job in the real world and believe that you can change human nature. If you are in favor of these ideas, I suggest you look at examples of how these ideas have worked in the past and present. Let’s consider taxing the rich. To begin with, the rich in this country pay a significant % of total taxes paid. In 2023 the top 5% of earners collectively paid nearly $1.3 trillion in income taxes, or about 60% of the national total. But the socialists would say they can pay more. What happens in the real world when you squeeze the stone too hard for more money. It is not the 1950s with no options, capital now moves.
Several countries have tried or are currently trying this approach, it has always failed, France, Britain and Norway being a few examples.
We also see this on a smaller scale with Seattle, New York and California driving out their tax bases. Let’s look at another case study, Venezuela was once a country with a high standard of living and GDP rivaling many first world countries until they went full socialist. This utopia got so bad that over 8 million fled and starvation became a problem for the average citizen.
Our system to include Trump and the Republican Party are far from perfect, but few things in the real world are. A political class that gets elected for life and makes this their priority, along with a massive tax code full of loopholes bought by the super-rich corrupting Congress are the top of my long list. Despite all these problems the Democratic Socialists are not the answer just as the National Socialists of 1930s Germany were not the answer. If you just believe in live and let live and don’t bother to vote or have anything to do with politics which I admit can be sleazy and unappealing, remember it only takes a small number of radicals that do vote to destroy this country. The time to stop this dangerous childish insanity is now. To those who will say this time it will be different, since we will do socialism right, those that have killed millions pushing this crap have said this for over 100 years.
Joe Kaffl
Hillsboro
