By PERRY HOOPER, JR.
Our founders created the greatest country in the history of the world, where all men are created equal and anything is possible. We have the freedom to get an education, raise a family, travel, pick a career, and live in peace. The US is where private property rights and Individual liberties are protected like no other country on this planet. Innovation is king. Since 1902 when the first Nobel Prize was awarded to recognize achievements in the arts and sciences, Americans have won 362 times out of approximately 1,000 awarded, Why? because of the innovations allowed by our freedoms and our free market capitalism. Runner up was Great Britain with 132 where capitalism also rules.
The most radical faction of the Democratic Party is now in control of their party at every level. They claim they are fighting for equality and justice for working Americans. These new socialists Democrats want us to believe that we can redistribute wealth and income and socialize large parts of the economy without harming production, productivity and our ability to achieve. Their form of Socialism is democratic because we will still have our right to vote. Venezuela became a country of Socialist Democrats. At the time they elected their first socialist president they were the richest country in South America. Now it’s a Socialist Dictatorship. Don’t let them fool you: Socialism ends in destruction and loss of liberty, a failing economy and a rapidly falling standard of living every time. In 2011, Senator Bernie Sanders said the American dream is more apt to be realized in Venezuela than the United States. Now the people of Venezuela are starving in the streets and being run over by tanks for protesting the Socialist regime.
Democratic leaders such as “The Squad” have shifted the narrative, saying America needs to emulate Nordic Socialism such as Sweden and Denmark instead. In the 1970s, Sweden began to implement Socialist economic policies. Over the next two decades, the country saw no economic success. In 1970, Sweden was the fourth-richest country in the world. By 1995, it had fallen to14th. During this period, no net new jobs were created in the private sector. Innovation was stifled by government intervention. There was an out-migration of the youngest and brightest. Swedish leaders acknowledged this failure, and gradually began to walk back these Socialist policies by lowering taxes, deregulating the economy, and privatizing the nation’s pension system. Denmark’s Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen scolded Americans who “would associate the Our Model with some sort of Socialism.”
Socialist bills like the “Green New Deal” are incredibly unrealistic and anti-free market. As Americans, we agree that protecting our planet is an extremely important goal but combating climate change and protecting the environment is going to be exponentially more effective if we rely on entrepreneurship and innovation, not government regulation. The greatest advances in combating climate change have all been private sector solutions. Free market countries like the United States have the cleanest environments. Controlled economies like China the worst. Furthermore “The Green New Deal” allows for government control in every aspect of our lives while costing trillions.
Led by Bernie Sanders the Democrats hail “Medicare For All” as some utopian system. Instead it would kick 180 million off their private insurance they like, while costing untold trillions of dollars and putting 400,000 Insurance company employees out of work. Socialized Medicine creates a system of rationing care with long queues of patients waiting for care run by government mandate not medical professionals. Recently Sanders, had a medical procedure to insert stents to open an artery blockage. His doctor immediately scheduled surgery and he was back on the campaign trail in two weeks. In Canada’s government run system bueracrats would have determined his priority based on age and the seriousness of his condition and it would have taken 14 to 28 days for the surgery not counting recovery. In England, ironically, he most likely would have had to drop out the presidential race. He would on average had to wait 44 day for surgery. Utopia I think not.
Every day, we enjoy the freedoms inherent in this great American system. It’s what we know, expect, deserve. But we shouldn’t take it for granted. Complacency is dangerous and so are the Democrats. We our fighting for the very soul of America. Socialism is the greatest threat to the America we know and love.
Perry O Hooper, Jr. is a former State Representative from Montgomery who serves on the Alabama Republican Party Executive Committee. In 2016 he chaired Alabama’s Trump Victory campaign.