You may have seen memes circulating recently regarding Bernie Sanders’ and liberals’ demand for the minimum wage to be raised to $15 per hour and how the math actually works against ordinary people. As Democratic candidates jockey for position to be more collectivist than every other Democrat by accusing each other of being soft on “the rich,” the details and math get fuzzy regarding how they will pay for all the free things they are promising to their special-interest group followers.
Setting aside the fact the $15 minimum wage and other suggested policies have already been implemented in leftist-controlled cities with bad results, liberals are never concerned with mathematical impossibilities or example after example of their proposals failing and creating chaos where they are put into place. They do not care.
Their proposals for “free” things are only bait. It is a pretext. The goal is control.
Notice the common denominator in liberal proposals is always increased control over the population by the government – made up of liberal overseers, of course. (Do you think they would ever support the idea of increased control if it were their opponents wielding that power?) A favorite generic promise of the left to get voters to give them more control is “fairness,” while other promises, like free health care, wiping out student loan debts and increasing minimum wage, are more tangible. But they all come with the same ultimate cost: our individual freedoms. Their promises are never actually about whatever they purport to be. They are merely pretexts. Bait.
Rational adults see the math and historical examples and know that the bait being offered will not be realized and the cost to attain it will be high. This forms the basis for nearly every current political discussion and social-media argument. People who desperately want the shiny object being dangled in front of them by leftists accuse those who disagree of being cruel or heartless, while rational people accuse those falling for the trap of being foolish.
Everyone can see the real-world examples of Cuba, the Soviet Union, North Korea, Eastern Europe, Cambodia and others to that see collectivism creates a nightmare for the population, the economy and the environment. The fact these nations were forced to build containment walls or kill their own citizens who try to flee is a testament to the misery of life under Marxism. Over the past 15 years Venezuela has been the perfect test case of a wealthy modern nation being driven into economic collapse and humanitarian disaster by Marxism. Facts are of no concern to the left, though. Fairness, higher wages, “free” health care, “free” college – all of them are just the bait for people unwilling to think critically. People with such strong emotional desires for something are willing to ignore reason and give anything to someone who promises it to them.
To increase the pressure, the left uses flattery to assure their followers they are virtuous and morally superior to those who refuse to be fooled by the scam. The goal of leftists is to convince a critical mass of people to take the bait so those “progressives” can seize the ability to impose their desired control over everyone. Whether through violent revolution (the Soviet Union, Cuba), an internal war (Vietnam, Korea, China) or through election (Venezuela), one way or another Marxism results from some sufficient number of the population giving dictatorial control to a merciless ruling elite who use the force of government to grind the citizenry into submission. In each instance, however, it began with glorious promises that were never fulfilled.
Remember when Obamacare was being sold as the miracle cure for American health care? Democrats promised that health care would be cheaper for everyone, better for everyone, and nobody would ever have to worry about medical bills again. The left made so many crazy promises that, to every rational person with basic math skills, were obvious lies. But the left is shameless, and not constrained by honesty. All that matters is promising whatever is necessary to get a critical mass of suckers to give them more power.
When their plans fail, the left explains it by claiming a need for more of whatever policy has failed. Minimum wage increases hurt business, increase unemployment and reduce hours? The problem is the minimum wage needs to be even higher! Obamacare caused prices to skyrocket, services to decline and millions of Americans to lose their coverage? Socialized medicine is the cure! This pattern plays out with every leftist demand. Their failure is used as evidence they need more of the same. The vicious cycle begins when leftists seize power to control the population in some regard, things begin to collapse, the left explains the problem is they still don’t have enough control, and the cycle continues. The cycle always results in more power for leftists and their bureaucrat henchmen and less freedom for the American people.
