Skip to main content

Lessons of Mao Tse-tung not lost on progressive liberalism

Lead Summary
By
-

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

The first progressive liberal was Teddy Roosevelt. His signature shady act was creating the National Park System.

Read his historians and you will learn that TR and his advisers did not know if it was lawful to do so (The American Antiquities Act of 1906), but they gave it a shot.

The Supreme Court has never been asked to validate this law. After all, who could be against national parks, legal or not (besides your humble columnist)?

Progressive Liberals took note and were emboldened.

Expansions of the federal government's dominion over the citizens, all legal, were built following the Teddy Roosevelt model.

President Taft promoted what became the 16th Amendment – the federal income tax.

After these two nefarious Republicans set the course, FDR came along with Social Security, LBJ with Medicare and now we have Obamacare, endorsed by a federal Supreme Court chief justice appointed by a Republican president.

Democrats don't have to be so defensive, either. The record clearly shows, as I have outlined above, that Republicans have played a key role all along the way as the steady drum of progressive liberalism and the concomitant reductions in personal freedom have marched down through the last 106 years.

Midway through march of progressivism on our shores, Mao Zedong is claimed to have uttered the phrase "Fight, Fight, Talk, Talk, Fight, Fight..."

He reportedly said it in disdain as occasional peace talks were held with Chang Kai-shek's forces during the time Mao and his communist forces were engaged in taking over China.

Yes, Mao would talk, but he never took his eye off his goal and he never stopped fighting. Mao would say anything, do anything, but he never gave up his fight.

Likewise, the progressive liberals in the United States have fought against those of us who value freedom. They will say anything, do anything to achieve their goals. They will accuse their opposition of the vilest intent should it use the very tactics they are using.

Progressive liberals have deluded themselves into thinking they have some higher calling whereby the ends justify the means. Hence being liars themselves while calling freedom lovers' statements lies bothers them not in the least, even if exactly the opposite is true.

So, what is next on the progressive liberal agenda?

The president has already introduced it: Class warfare.

I can tell you exactly how this will play out. On May 17 of this year, my wife and I visited the Museum of Communism in Prague, Czech Republic. The Museum of Communism consists of a set of dioramas depicting life in the Soviet days.

In the elementary schoolroom setting, there is a poster on the wall explaining what was taught to the children. It states (exact quote): "The Communists did not doubt that the long-term success of their social experiment depended on whether they succeeded in raising a 'socialist man.' A socialist man should be satisfied with a modest income while conscientiously fulfilling the work tasks, improving his knowledge of communist doctrines, cooperating with the state bodies and watching closely and being observant as to whether someone in his environment does not disturb the social order."

The example was the "Soviet man", as it was depicted in Stalinist literature. Therefore it was necessary to re-develop the Czech education system according to the Soviet example, in order to produce comparable human types. Pupils were "raised" or encouraged from first grade towards class hatred against more wealthy classes, hostility toward democratic states as well as towards religion in respects to the revolutionary traditions."

By the way, do the Czechs long for their communist days? Not hardly. I would say Prague is the most capitalistic place I have ever visited. They love to charge you a fee for everything, including a cover charge for sitting at a sidewalk cafe table for lunch. And, they proudly use their own money. They are not caught up in the Euro fiasco, at least not yet.

Soviet style socialism is still visible in their rear-view mirror and they want nothing to do with such a system. Members of the European Union, they are cautious to overly embrace a system they feel is close to that whose shackles they broke not so long ago.

The United States is on a path that will result in our grandchildren, as adults, living in a society indistinguishable from the old Soviet Union. The powers-that-be know giving the citizens goodies makes the citizens slaves.

They also know the more people on the federal payroll, regardless of political leanings, the more votes they have for an ever broadening and restrictive federal bureaucracy (who is going to vote to eliminate their own job?). The cuffs are around our hands.

There seems to be precious little time left to throw them off before they snap shut for good.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga., following decades of wandering the world, and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.

[[In-content Ad]]

Add new comment

This is not for publication.
This is not for publication.

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
Article comments are not posted immediately to the Web site. Each submission must be approved by the Web site editor, who may edit content for appropriateness. There may be a delay of 24-48 hours for any submission while the web site editor reviews and approves it. Note: All information on this form is required. Your telephone number and email address is for our use only, and will not be attached to your comment.