By Joseph Lord
The U.S. Home of Representatives on Feb. 2 handed H. Con. Res. 9, a invoice “denouncing the horrors of socialism,” over opposition from Democrats.
The invoice was launched by Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.). It handed in a bipartisan 327–86 vote. All Republicans and 109 Democrats voted in favor of the measure. 13 Democrats voted current.
Salazar defined her rationale for unveiling the invoice now in feedback to NTD.
“As a result of 44 % of People imagine the Communist Manifesto is healthier than the Declaration of Independence,” Salazar replied rapidly.
Salazar represents Miami, the world capital of communist refugees fleeing from the socialist methods of Cuba, Venezuela, and others within the southern hemisphere. She grew up in Fidel Castro’s Cuba, the place she skilled the deprivation of fundamental necessities which have traditionally been half and parcel of socialist states.
Republicans pointed to the atrocities and human rights violations traditionally frequent to socialist states just like the Soviet Union, the Chinese language Communist regime, and North Korea.
Based within the political philosophy of Karl Marx, a German who spent a lifetime in unemployment, socialism and its offshoot communism push for state possession of the technique of manufacturing—that means capital items like factories, equipment, and different gear for manufacturing.
In Marx’s formulation, a communist nation in its ultimate kind has no want for a state; nonetheless, as a transitionary machine Marx referred to as for a so-called “dictatorship of the proletariat,” a nominally short-lived physique meant to transition a society from capitalism to communism.
Up to now, nonetheless, no communist state has moved past this primary conceptual stage.
In the meantime, guided by Marx’s ideology, socialists are accountable for the deaths of upwards of 100,000,000 individuals throughout the twentieth century.
‘The Biggest Crimes in Historical past’
“Socialist ideology necessitates a focus of energy that has time and time once more collapsed into Communist regimes, totalitarian rule, and brutal dictatorships,” Salazar wrote within the invoice.
Socialism, she continued, “has repeatedly led to famine and mass murders, and the killing of over 100,000,000 individuals worldwide.”
“Lots of the biggest crimes in historical past had been dedicated by socialist ideologues,” Salazar argued, pointing to figures like Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, and others.
Salazar then listed a slew of examples of rights violations beneath socialist regimes: the horrors of Stalin’s dictatorship in the us, which killed tens of hundreds of thousands and despatched hundreds of thousands extra to rot in terrifying gulag labor camps; the destruction dropped at China’s inhabitants by Zedong’s “Nice Leap Ahead,” which killed upwards of 55 million human beings in China. She pointed to the so-called “killing fields” of Pol Pot’s Cambodia, which left over a million lifeless; she pointed to mass hunger that continues to this present day in Kim Jong Un’s North Korea.
Socialism, Salzar argued within the invoice, is opposite to the founding ideas of the US.
Salazar famous: “The creator of the Declaration of Independence, President Thomas Jefferson, wrote, ‘To take from one, as a result of it’s thought that his personal trade and that of his fathers has acquired an excessive amount of, with a view to spare to others, who, or whose fathers haven’t exercised equal trade and talent, is to violate arbitrarily the primary precept of affiliation, the assure to each one in all a free train of his trade, and the fruits acquired by it.’”
Likewise, Salazar cited a quote from former President James Madison, recognized in American historical past because the “Father of the U.S. Structure.”
Madison wrote that it “shouldn’t be a simply authorities, neither is property safe beneath it, the place the property which a person has in his private security and private liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of 1 class of residents for the service of the remainder.”
“Whereas the US of America was based on the idea within the sanctity of the person, to which the collectivistic system of socialism in all of its kinds is essentially and essentially opposed: Now, due to this fact, be it Resolved by the Home of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress denounces socialism in all its kinds, and opposes the implementation of socialist insurance policies in the US of America.”
Democrats’ Response
In flooring responses to the decision, Democrats argued that Republicans had been making false equivalencies between the insurance policies pushed for by Democrats and people supported by communists.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), one of the outstanding left-wing progressives within the decrease chamber, mentioned, “No Democrat believes there needs to be authorities fuel stations or authorities automobile corporations.”
“So what does the Democratic Get together imagine? We imagine each individual in America ought to have childcare; Republicans’ reply: ‘Take a look at how many individuals Stalin killed.’”
Khanna continued: “We are saying ‘Let’s give everybody healthcare.’ Republicans say, ‘We will’t try this, take a look at how many individuals Pol Pot killed!’”
“Give me a break,” Khanna mentioned. “The American individuals are catching on.”
Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) echoed these sentiments.
“This decision … equates Medicare with the Nice Leap Ahead,” Sherman mentioned.
Sherman then pointed to so-called “Capitalist Authoritarians,” beneath which label he positioned historic figures like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Spain’s Francisco Franco, and Chile’s Augusto Pinochet.
Notably, the Russian financial system because it exists right now is extra an oligarchy, managed by those that benefitted most from the collapse of the Soviet Union, than a capitalist financial system.
Likewise in Spain, Franco was an adherent of fascist ideology, which is at a core stage against capitalism. Probably the most well-known proponent of the fascist ideology, Adolf Hitler, usually made clear that he thought of capitalism as a lot an enemy as socialism and communism.
With the passage of the decision via the Home, it may now be taken up within the Senate.
Nonetheless, given Democrats’ crucial reactions to the decision within the decrease chamber, it appears unlikely that Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will allow a vote on the laws.
NTD’s Melina Wisecup contributed to this report.
