History of Socialism in America
Plutarch, Greek historian and philosopher, 46-127 AD: "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."
William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony,1621: Socialism came to America with the Mayflower in 1620. After a winter of starvation under the philosophy of share and share alike, the pilgrims resorted to capitalism with each colonist benefiting from the fruits of their own labor in order to promote a bountiful harvest before facing their second winter. The First Thanksgiving could easily be viewed as a celebration of the triumph of capitalism over socialism.
James Madison, the acknowledged
father of the Constitution, 1792:
"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution
which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the
money of their constituents." "Remember, democracy never lasts long.
It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet
that did not commit suicide."
Benjamin Franklin:
"When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the
end of the republic."
Thomas Jefferson:
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of
their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and
corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the
people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the
continent their fathers conquered." "The issue today is the same as it
has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself
or be ruled by a small elite."
Congressman Davy Crockett and an
Alamo hero, 1830 in the House of Representatives:
"Mr. Speaker, I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as
much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, as any man in this House. But we
must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the
living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will
not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this
money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the
right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in
charity; but as members of Congress
we have no right to so appropriate a dollar of the public money."
Franklin Pierce 1854:
"[I must question] the constitutionality and propriety of the Federal
Government assuming to enter into a novel and vast field of legislation, namely,
that of providing for the care and support of all those … who by any form of
calamity become fit objects of public philanthropy ... I cannot find any
authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great
almoner of public charity throughout the United States. To do so would, in my
judgment, be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and
subversive of the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is
founded."
Grover Cleveland 1887:
"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I
do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be
extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly
related to the public service or benefit."
Governor of New York, Franklin
D. Roosevelt 1930:
"As a matter of fact and law, the governing rights of the States are all of
those which have not been surrendered to the National Government by the
Constitution or its amendments. Wisely or unwisely, people know that under the
Eighteenth Amendment Congress has been given the right to legislate on this
particular subject (prohibition), but this is not the case in the matter of a
great number of other vital problems of government, such as the conduct of
public utilities, of banks, of insurance, of business, of agriculture, of
education, of social welfare and of a dozen other important features. In these,
Washington must not be encouraged to interfere."
Mark Twain:
"The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private
affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the
rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition,
and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought
and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the
helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him
when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and
when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle
to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to
paradise."
Frederick Bastiat:
"It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater
evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder."
"The state is the great fiction by which everybody seeks to live at the
expense of everybody else."
Frederick von Hayek, 1974 Nobel
Laureate in Economics:
"When it becomes dominated by a collectivist creed, democracy will
inevitably destroy itself."
Lenin:
"While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom
there will be no State."
Nikita Khrushchev:
"We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism,
but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism,
until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism."
Summary
The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are testaments to the collective wisdom and vision of the Founders. The Federalist Papers and our early history are testaments to their leadership. All of these documents recognize the dangers of democracy while recognizing that freedom is best gained and preserved by means of self-government under the restraint and leadership provided by a republic.
During our second century, power seeking and career-oriented or "professional" politicians found and began to exploit a major flaw in the Constitution. Gresham's Law of Politicians (bad politicians drive out statesmen) took root. With help from WE the people and the tools at his disposal Rush Limbaugh can recruit and help elect statesmen exactly analogous to Ronald Reagan and the Founders. The Constitution, and with it our freedoms, can be recovered. Any other alternative is not acceptable.