The Path to Recovery Has Just Begun

November 26, 2024 by E. Jeffrey Ludwig

We Trump-supporters are tempted to exult in his victory over the leftist attack on American history and culture that is the policy hallmark of the Democrat party.  Trump-supporters are not only offended by the distortions of the woke agenda, where people are allowed to choose their sex, but by the far-fetched and inadmissible ignorance of communist ideals that economies are to be run by “meeting needs” instead of by utilitarian goals such as “the greatest good for the greatest number” or the Christian goal of glorifying Almighty God in all our activities, including those related to economics.

Pres. Biden’s signing a 110-page pact with the Bernie Sanders camp in July 2020 represented a symbolic and real-time caving into leftist ideals, policies, principles, and revolutionary goals.  That pact was in contrast to Pres. Truman in 1948 not signing any agreement with Henry Wallace, who, even more than Truman, was a mover and shaker within the Democrat party, having served as secretary of commerce and as V.P.  But Wallace was an open voice in support of positive attitudes and policies toward and with Joseph Stalin, dictator and scourge of the USSR.  So, in 1948, there was no deal struck and no pact written between Wallace and Truman.  Truman ran as a Democrat on a pro–New Deal platform, and Wallace ran for president as a “Progressive” (a term adopted to avoid the stigma of being a leftist and claiming to represent a tradition begun by Presidents Roosevelt and Wilson). 

Sanders is always shouting, huffing, and puffing (normal speech cadences are alien to this commie) that there should be a much higher minimum wage.  But he ignorantly ignores the economic reality that this will mean layoffs of minimum-wage workers and that such a dramatic rise in wages will drive prices higher, forcing many businesses to close their doors.  Government setting prices and wages is a policy leading to a decline in productivity; a decline in motivation of the workforce; and a disruption of the pro-consumer, pro-worker, and pro-owner dynamics of a capitalist marketplace.

The lassitude produced by government control is like a disease in the economic and political landscape, and it leads to increased alcoholism (vodka was the booze of choice in the USSR) and drug addiction because the controls affirmed by government management and ownership of all the means of production suppress the inherent sense of human initiative and fairness.  Our USA society in recent decades has multiplied the rules and regulations in place over every aspect of our economic lives to the point where we are on the verge of a fascistic state (understanding that fascism is a type of leftism — not “right-wing”).  This writer watched an interview a few years ago where President Obama, without any hesitation, said that in the near future, we could expect heating or air-conditioning in private homes and apartments to be controlled remotely.  He was suggesting that this would be an instance of “progress.”

In a competitive economy, the less able are better off than in a communist society of arbitrary political party decisions and long lines for basic commodities and food.  This writer had students in the 1990s whose families had left Russia and other countries of the former USSR.  They told my classes of people having to wait in long lines for hours simply to buy a chicken, and of the need to bribe even butchers.

Despite the Marxist claims of “meeting needs,” the individual’s needs are in practice submerged under the “needs” of the ever-expanding bureaucracy.  Even under fascism, where government maintains a veneer of free enterprise, the government leverages maximum control over so-called “private enterprise,” which becomes part of the government network of total control.

Under the present cumbaya mentality that the left attempts to generate even though leftist ideology tends to fragment our society, the communists and fascists are in an unspoken and unwritten pact to defy individual liberty and the natural rights philosophy underlying our constitutional republic.  Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are but two of many enemies of true liberty and Adam Smith capitalist values who are trying to further break down the constitutional realities that have already taken many hits.  This writer is thinking of the Supreme Court case of Kelo v. New London, where government’s right under certain circumstances to take over private property (eminent domain) was extended.

Thankfully, with the election of President Trump, it seems that the population is beginning to see through the premeditated balkanization of our country, where ethnicity is emphasized at the expense of national unity.  It may also be that we are beginning to see through the feigned joyfulness of drag queen shows that dismiss critics as being overly cranky and overly political in their resistance to “fun shows” for children.

Yet the expansion of moral turpitude will be hard to stop.  Marijuana is being used more than ever, and weed’s most potent ingredient, THC, is stronger than it was decades ago.  On the internet, we see films of fellow citizens standing in zombie-like stupor or lying numb and drugged on street corners in our major cities.  This writer was deeply pained to see in one video block after block of homeless and drugged out persons in the Kensington section of my former hometown city of Philadelphia.

Further, huge numbers of babies are being born outside marriage, and more and more families need to meet expenses with both parents working.  When that is the case, the children are being raised in daycare facilities or by babysitters instead of by their mothers.  These children are thus deprived of maternal love and devotion, the key ingredient in a young child’s well-being.

Further, people are becoming more slovenly and informal in their attire under the illusion that they are more relaxed and down-to-earth than previous generations.  Women are more likely to wear pants or leggings than they did 20–25 years ago, and in warmer climates, they are wearing more and more revealing clothing.  Relatives of mine who recently returned from touring in Europe noted that the citizens of Switzerland and France wore much more respectable attire than we do in the USA.  At the risk of sounding prudish or uptight, this writer is concerned that the casual, informal mindset may be part of a decline in productivity and motivation.

It is to be hoped that this election victory by Trump and the Republicans will usher in a time of greater efficiency in government by downsizing the administrative state as well as oversee deregulation of oil production to engender lowered inflation.  Also, our government has shown contempt for its own laws by allowing millions upon millions of unvetted persons to enter our country and be supported at taxpayer expense, but we will now move into a more realistic phase of immigration enforcement.

Renewal is needed and is possible, but it will take enormous commitment and zeal for a better future.