When the Soviet Union was the great bear of the East, spy-on-spy was always communists versus capitalists, personified by events and people like the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers getting shot down, and finally Reagan and Gorbachev.
I am a child of the Cold War era. I entered the military during the Cold War. An entire generation has no frame of reference for kids conducting nuclear bomb drills in school.
I’m glad those days are gone. But I wonder if America today may now embrace communistic ideals because they’ve never seen the devastation that communism can wreak on society.
Every nation that has tried communism has failed. The weight of communism is unbearable. There is no way for anyone to feed everyone when no one has freedom.
To know that you can be rewarded for your efforts, that what you build is yours, that government is secondary to the will of the people, and personal liberty is more valuable than government action – those are the hallmarks of a free capitalist society.
Communism destroys personal incentive. It stands for the individual being subordinate to the collective. The central government is the driving force in all decisions, including what people do with their time, energy and resources. Everything is communal; therefore, everything is shared. Communism requires the redistribution of wealth and kills innovation.
Personal liberty in communism is considered dangerous, therefore the state must decide who can do what, when, and with whom. In that vein, Vladimir Lenin once said, “It is true that liberty is precious – so precious that it must be carefully rationed.”
Yet, inexplicably, the vice president of the United States of America just released her economic plan filled with the idealistic overreaches of communism.
In 1979, my family was stationed in England as part of my father’s Army career. We visited the main continent of Europe in a whirlwind week, breezing through Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt and Heidelberg. We saw so much so fast that I don’t remember much of it.
But there was one part of the trip that left an indelible mark on me: West Berlin.
At the close of WWII, the Allied governments split Germany into four occupation zones for post-war action. But the Soviets, intent on building a communist bloc, placed West Berlin under siege just three years after the war, blocking all rail and road access. Water, food and fuel were cut off. The U.S. and UK responded with a massive airlift that lasted more than a year. The Berlin Airlift was so profound at its peak it is said a cargo plane landed at West Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport every 45 seconds.
Capitalism and freedom prevailed. The Soviets chose to wall in what became known as West Berlin. Over three million East Germans fled to the West before the wall was completed. The Berlin Wall was not to keep the world out … it was built to keep people in.
West Berlin became a free island in a sea of communism.
My family traveled to West Berlin by overnight train — which was an adventure in itself. I saw East German soldiers out my window as we passed various towns. We made one stop along the way and were told in no uncertain terms not to disembark. It all seemed so dreary.
Arriving in West Berlin, I saw it full of life. Restaurants, museums, churches, theaters, businesses, good roads, and people out and about. Then we went to Checkpoint Charlie.
Checkpoint Charlie has been in countless spy novels and movies. On the western side, it was no big deal with a small guard shack, a café and a tourist viewing station. On the eastern side, there were armed guards, cleared fields of fire, searchlights, minefields, a watchtower, zig-zag barriers and a multi-lane shed where cars and their occupants were checked.
As a 13-year-old tourist, I walked up the steps of a wooden viewing platform and stood looking across the wall at communism. I will never forget it.
East Berlin was like an old black-and-white movie. Everything was shades of gray. I turned to look back, and West Berlin was lights, motion, color, life and purpose. Looking east to west was like Dorothy waking up in Oz, and suddenly, the movie was in technicolor. West Berlin looked like hope.
I don’t want to live in the Communist States of America. Not for a second! I want to know that if I work hard, the state is not going to swoop in and take what I’ve done and give it to someone else. Communism stifles joy, crushes the human spirit, and abolishes benevolence. You are happy when the state tells you to be happy, you must think like the collective, and there is no reason to give unto others because the state will do that for you. In communism you don’t thrive, you just survive.
I want no part of that. I will resist that.
Kamala Harris just announced the largest plan ever devised to redistribute wealth. In the history of the U.S. there has never been a greater effort to subvert the free market. The Harris plan calls for price controls, which will only lower quality, diminish innovation and destroy free market incentives. She plans to build government housing at epic rates. I’ve seen government housing – no thank you! She previously announced plans to steal the hard-earned patents of various companies. She plans to tax unrealized gains, thereby disincentivizing hard work. She plans to crush the energy sector, control the schools, open the borders and control the ability of Americans to travel.
Harris should just build the border wall, but this time it will be needed to keep people in, not keep people out.
Kamala Harris wants us to be the Communist States of America.
Not on my watch.
To contact Phil or request him for a speaking engagement, go to www.rightsideradio.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819News.com.
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