European nations have embraced socialism long ago, but did you ever think this failed ideology would take root in the USA?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #236 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
During the COVID pandemic I wrote about things I saw in American government, politics, and culture that I never thought I’d see in my own country. Perhaps I was naïve but I was certainly shocked, then discouraged and concerned at the power grab and overreach of American governors, mayors, and some federal officials. And more so, I was nonplussed by not simply the willingness or acquiescence of American citizens at these constitutional violations and attacks on liberty but the public outcry asking for these things. Apparently, even today, there are millions of Americans who now want what Christian philosopher Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer predicted: people would trade liberty for perceived security and what they wanted most of all was just “personal peace and affluence.”
Now I am seeing it all over again, this time in Americans’ foolish, ahistorical, and dangerous enthusiasm for socialism, or what current politicians like to soften calling it “Democratic socialism.” Someone once said that a jerk for Jesus is still a jerk. I’d apply that logic here. A democratic socialist is still a socialist.
Of course, I am referring first to New York City electing Zohran Mamdani as its next mayor, a man who is unapologetically a Democratic Socialist. Several other candidates who called themselves democratic socialists were also elected in Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, New York City, Austin County Texas, Portland.
Now it’s one thing for these people to affirm their allegiance to democratic socialism, but it’s another thing to note that they attracted enough electoral support to get elected.
Now, how is this possible in a pluralistic democratic republic like the USA?
Well, for one, much of American public education has been systematically educating one if not two generations in leftist, illiberal pathology like, the USA is not to be trusted, it was founded on slavery not liberty, the US is a colonizing, settler state, capitalism is suspect if not bad, socialism is about the oppressed, free speech should be controlled, objective good, objective evil, or objective truth do not exist, nothing can really be known because everyone has their own truth.
Leftists, or specifically Democratic Socialists, “view the world not through the Judeo-Christian lens of right versus wrong, but through the lens of power.”
“Train a child to hate, and that is what he will do. Lenin understood this very well: ‘Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.’ The Left knows this. And they took over our educational system and still control it. And the seeds they have been sowing in America are now sprouting. They will be difficult to uproot.” “Two-thirds of Americans ages 18-29 (now) hold a ‘favorable view’ of (socialism).”
But “socialism is built on conceit. It is assumed that a society’s problems are a matter of poor management, and once the right people are in charge, utopia will be in reach.” “(The Socialist) agenda is almost exclusively designed to make more people dependent on government to empower themselves.”
Orwell ostensibly once said, “Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.” Socialism is one of those ideas.
“The seeds of modern leftism were planted in the French Enlightenment of the 18th century (and perhaps even a little earlier) and sprouted in the French Revolution and the guillotine. The ideology gained momentum under German rationalism, Darwinism, and especially Marxism/Leninism, and bloomed fully in the 20th century communist movements.”
“Today, (many politicians on the left are) trying to morph America into the very thing that we spent countless billions of dollars to defeat, and that so many great, wonderful American men and women gave their lives to keep from infesting our shores. The leftism we fought so mightily to destroy is now, like a horrible cancer, spreading through America—rapidly, with determination, and often violently.”
Charles Cooke, the editor of NationalReview.com, bluntly says socialism is not and never can be “democratic.” “(He) writes that voters should not be fooled by the left’s attempt at rebranding. “‘There is no sense in which socialism can be made compatible with democracy as it is understood in the West.’
At worst, says Cooke, ‘socialism eats democracy, and is swiftly transmuted into tyranny.’
“At best, socialism ‘stamps out individual agency, places civil society into a straitjacket of uniform size, and turns representative government into a chimera.’”
Cooke notes that “6,000 years of civilization” (have taught us) “never relinquish the right to free speech, the right to free conscience, the right to freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, or the right to a jury trial. Whatever you do…don’t be seduced by socialists bearing promises. But if you are seduced, ‘get out before it’s too late. You have nothing to lose but your chains.’”
The irony of all this—think back to Orwell’s comment about stupid ideas—is that history is replete with mountains of evidence that socialism, like leftism, destroys everything it touches. Look at Venezuela, the nation with more proven oil reserves than any other in the world, yet “Venezuela’s economic catastrophe dwarfs any in the history of the U.S., Western Europe or the rest of Latin America.”
“Under Chavez-Maduro socialism, the child mortality rate has increased 140%. Ninety percent of Venezuelans now live in poverty. This year inflation will hit an unbelievable 10 million percent.” Yes, 10 million percent.
Lenin and Stalin’s mass socialist terror in Russia killed tens of millions, as did Mao Zedong’s reign in China, Pol Pot in Cambodia.
“Economist Jeffrey Tucker (makes a) damning comment: ‘Among the most conspicuous of socialism’s failings is its capacity to generate vast shortages of things essential for life.’”
“The subtitle of F.A. Hayek’s last work ‘The Fatal Conceit’ is ‘The Errors of Socialism.’”
Socialism, yes Democratic Socialism, is a time bomb in a pretty package. The pretty package is all marketing and messaging, not historic reality.
The reality of socialism is known all too well for those who care to look: low growth, mass unemployment, social strife, and a general mood of pessimism, people selling heirlooms or themselves for food, the sick untreated, unburied dead in the streets, trash piling up, contaminated drinking water, rampant deforestation, and frequent oil spills.
After years of leftist socialist nationalized economic controls that brought the UK to its knees, “Margaret Thatcher walked into 10 Downing Street and proceeded to denationalize coal, steel, and utilities; bring down inflation; spur economic growth; and refuse to give into organized labor’s draconian demands. Thatcher’s message: ‘The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.’”
“Free everything — except your independence. But in the real world, nothing is free.” Socialism “destroys competition and consequently destroys innovation.”
- “Socialism is not compatible with the Constitution.
- Socialism, the idea that millions killed for, is a mirage.
- Socialism is very good at generating vast shortages of the essential things in life.
- Socialism can never know enough to plan all our lives every day.
- Socialism tries to make all of us equal to one another.
- Socialism is very good at promising all the benefits we’ll never see.
- Socialism in Great Britain had one outstanding success—Margaret Thatcher.
- Socialism was responsible for making Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union the most polluted and degraded places on earth.
- Socialized medicine as practiced in Great Britain and Canada is bad for people’s health.
- American socialism is on the rise because of widespread social and cultural poverty in America.”
Winston Churchill said, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
Young Americans voting for utopian socialism—this is a generation motivated by values that will destroy them and their country.
God forbid.
God grant we develop young adults who know truth and work to make it known.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2025
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