Over
the past several months, I have had the distinct pleasure of attending
several Left-of-Left student events around the country. And as for
these Liberals, I have gained serious respect for their movement. I
have no respect for their very Clintonesque ideology, but there seems
to be a looming power in their numbers. The current generation's
radical form of liberalism will be a formidable political force in the
near future.
Throughout a calendar year, thousands of students
flock to various campuses across America to see how to better enact
change for the advancement of radical communism, socialism, and
liberalism on individual campuses. Sure these students may be eating
out of dumpsters, backpacking across the country, and resting wherever
they may fall, but the leaders of the left are serious about changing
America for better or worse.
Cracking down on capitalism,
opening the borders of the world, and allowing the government to care
for those in need all seem to be popular topics for discussion. But,
one strand of thought I found among these liberals was the urge for
armed struggle to overthrow the government of the United States of
America, replace it with an overarching Utopia of government dependence
so the individual lives with no consequence or responsibility except to
the community. These ideas are frightening, but they are real.
These
militantly liberal students have not been taking the advice of the
teacher, Karl Marx. He thought these changes can be enacted inside a
current political system. In 1848, Marx also laid out his 10 planks of
Communism:
1. Abolition of private property and the application of all rent to public purpose.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the
State, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the
improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of Industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual
abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable
distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form.
How
many of these ideas are currently enacted in some way, shape, or form
in the "Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave?" Actually all 10
are currently at work, today, in the United States of America. Limited
government should no longer be a slogan, but yet a platform with a plan.
A week or so back, former Governor Romney said,
"Hillary Clinton just gave a speech the other day about her view on the
economy. She said we have been an on-your-own society. She said it's
time to get rid of that and replace that with shared responsibility and
we're-in-it-together society...That's out with Adam Smith and in with
Karl Marx."
The students who were once leaders in the local
chapter of Students for a Democratic Society and other left-winged
groups are now University administration and faculty. In 2007-2008,
Conservative students should be challenging these professors who want
to end social, individual, and economic liberty.
When the
Berlin Wall came crashing down, Communism did not fall with it, but
yet, internationally, it only stumbled. I agree with the Governor.
Along with the uphill battle of liberal indoctrination, those who sugar
cote the community message as a power grab, and the subtle movements of
a transient American bell curve, this socialist agenda is closer than
we may want to believe. It is time we open our eyes to see the pending
danger of Big Brother's government before it is too late.
David Ferguson serves as President of the American Conservative Student Union. He can be reached at President@ConservativeStudent.org.