Socialist Incrementalism: A Plague of our Time
Socialist Incrementalism is a policy of slowly promoting change toward leftist politics and policies. This distortion of our Constitution and all the ideas America stands for is ever so slowly moving toward a form of oligarchic socialism. The realization by the British Fabian Socialists in the 1880’s that violent revolution would not be acceptable in England, America and the Western World is once again rearing its ugly head. This incremental movement to the left over the last six years of the Obama administration is currently reintroducing this foreign mode of governance into our political environment.
The Ventura County Conservative Action Alliance, of which I am a member, is on the march to locally identify and defeat this social incrementalism. Areas of concern are Common Core teachings, diluting educational goals and separation of the parent student paradigm, which goes far beyond intellectual education. In addition, Common Core goes far beyond its outwardly promoted goals and into areas of inappropriate age-level sex education, blurring and confusion of male-female gender identifications in schools and other areas.
Whenever and wherever allowed by the voting public, socialist incrementalism quietly configures government toward the left while promoting itself as progressive politics.
The high points of this plague of American politics ebbed and flowed as in the following historical points:
· Socialism gains acceptance in the USA with President’s Wilson, which quickly faded during the Roaring Twenties
· Making major progressive inroads in the 1930’s with FDR’s New Deal
· Faded under the force of the dynamic Post-World War II economy
· Gained some acceptance during the John F. Kennedy administration
· Achieved validity with the strong egocentric desires and deal making of LBJ with his “War on Poverty,”
· As money flowed into central cities and poor areas of our cities, socialism gained power and then reared its head violently in the late 1960’s.
· As a rebuttal to the recognized creep of socialism, the election of Richard Nixon slowed the advance amidst intense pressure from the media and press
· Then we voted in another dose of socialist incrementalism during Jimmy Carter’s inept presidency in the latter half of the 1970’s
· The decade of the1980’s allowed the full flourish and accomplishments of American conservatism to drive Socialism underground for a time.
· Then the two center-right political presidencies of the Bush family aided by the interregnum presidency of Bill Clinton provided the means for socialist incrementalism to re-grow like an unchecked infection.
· Now for the last six years this administration has gone beyond incrementalism and Obama’s ‘hope and change’ is turning into a political assault.
· Starting with the Obama administration’s Affordable Health Care Act in 2009, we are experiencing a socialist and racketeering activities, the likes of which Americans have never experienced in all the 239-year history of this country.
The ability of this administration to set up legal manipulations, executive order scenarios and anti-constitutional situations that force our representatives and the Supreme Court to make left-leaning decisions is unprecedented. It seems as though they have people working night and day to twist the words and meaning of our documents of freedom. The Declaration of Independence and The United States Constitution, are being reworked by executive fiat into something that eventually could result in a set of laws far removed from the original intent our founding fathers and votes by the US Congress. This effort will diminish our liberties and freedoms to the point of modern-day feudalism.
Our government was originally intended to be minimal in scope rather than an all-powerful omnipresent and overbearing ruling body. Actually, we have no one to blame but ourselves because we voted for those that promised us a glorious future, but that prospect is growing dim. The main problem is our listening to a candidate’s words and not comparing his or her works to others. Even a diligent comparison can be deceiving because of media distorting facts.
Now we’re wallowing in what we can refer to as political mire. It is time to clean up the farm and bring in some true conservatives. We need strong-willed political minds that are free to think around and through left-leaning progressive theories to convince weak-willed candidates to stand up and go conservative. Conservatives must be brave enough to convincing fence sitters that in the end, bending to the power of money, guile and deference to progressive wishes is not beneficial representation.
Let’s face the fact that social media, with its feel-good charm and vast scope to change opinions on a dime, is ephemeral and short on depth. How much time for quiet reflection and rational contemplation does one get in that helter-skelter world of what is new this very minute? It would be interesting to learn how many voters felt a pang of conscience after selecting a candidate based on fast-dealt social-media based promises.
This situation can only be resolved with quiet and rational nominations at local level by making a potential nominee a test case if you will. Because that is where all sound politics begins. To improve the tenure of our governing bodies, observant and rational conservatives must move strong potential candidates into positions that will test the unassailability of their political thought.
It is inevitable that after an elected representative arrives and settles down in a governing body, the pressure to accept the leftist go-along to get-along mantra is tremendous; that is the real test of a legislator’s resistance to incrementalism. Once a person has yielded and sipped from the leftist cup, the pressure to conform will be relentless.
Nevertheless, by strengthening conservative political relationships, using the power of well-conceived personal judgments and intelligent personal communication, the ballot box can be use to eventually remove the progressive boot off our political throats. Some insight into how this can happen is becoming apparent in universities, where students are not buying the daily indoctrination of the left.
A endeavor such as the California School Project, in which university students, supported by churches, help high school students awaken their interest in religion. As a personal opinion, religion with its spiritual, ethical and thought elevating aspects is a fundamental pillar of conservative politics. On the other hand, leftist, secular humanism is a shiny trinket that espouses nihilism; once accepted this ‘gift’ makes a politician vulnerable to any freedom suppressive scheme.
The most damaging aspect of the latest iteration of socialist incrementalism is the artificial competition from government, where it borrows heavily from the US Treasury, in an attempt to disenfranchise the health service industry, and replace it with a contrivance of their own design. Supposedly, this service was to be less expensive than the private industry but now, the price of good health care is double or even four times higher in states without federal support. To demonstrate that leftist incrementalism is persuasive as well as invasive, the US Supreme Court is legitimatizing the Obama health care scheme by first declaring that it was a tax and second, allowing state-supported programs to obtain bailout money and support. This process, according to the US Constitution, is not correct in that federal laws are supposed to apply equally to all states.
Currently this administration is forcing the US Congress to fight rear-guard actions in order to stem or thwart Obama’s incessant social agenda. The coal-fired electrical power industry won a victory in the Supreme Court when it pushed environmentalists back into their laird for a time.
Socialist incrementalism is like a multi-headed Hydra; kill one and several others sprout up to threaten your existence. Even when we elect conservative, freshmen US Congressmen socialist and middle-of-the-road politicians throw up such roadblocks that going along is tantamount to getting along. No one wants to be a total pariah in any group. Therefore, the idea of a US representative sticking his or her chest out and saying, “I am a traditional American, I have strong conservative values and I won’t partake in this socialist scheme to remove liberty from our lexicon,” is becoming more difficult to hear, as each day passes. Our only ‘hope for change’ in the US Congress is the election of 2016 where some of the out-of-favor center-left representatives or older termed out Congressman will make room for new conservative faces.
Ronald L. Lyons,
VCCAA member