Progressives Believe Government's Always The Answer

by Michael D. Hume, M.S.

More than a century ago, the world was afire for collectivism. Whether by the communists in the old Soviet Union, or by the national socialists in Hitler's Germany, bloody revolution was the method the collectivist/statists used to eliminate the "capitalist greed" from their societies and establish total control by an authoritarian state.

Collectivists in the United States knew a bloody revolution wouldn't work in America... so they sought to achieve the same ends slowly, through the "evolution" of progressivism. They've been called liberals, socialists, left-wingers, and a variety of other terms - but the "politically correct" label they prefer is "progressive." That's because the term reminds you of "progress" - but progressivism is anything but.

The fact is, "progressivism" is this method of moving America toward the sort of authoritarian state favored by the collectivists. Liberalism (or communism, or socialism) is the goal - progressivism is the means.

Here's how you can tell when someone seeking your support is a progressive (and how you can tell your freedom and prosperity will be threatened if that person gains power): progressives always think government - and the more of it, the better - is the solution to any problem. America's Founders, by contrast, saw government as the problem, not the solution, and therefore crafted a framework for the new nation which sought to limit government and enable the private economy. In so doing, the Founders enabled America to create the greatest boon of strength and prosperity in history... and established freedom as a standard for the entire world. Under free-market liberty, not only is America safer and more prosperous, so is the rest of the planet.

But it isn't fair. The American system acknowledges the eventuality of winners and losers in life, and frees the winners (the entrepreneurs, the smart, the talented) to be motivated by success and create great things in the world. This helps everyone, winners and losers alike, and that's its brilliance. But if you're one of the losers, all you see is that it isn't fair. So you seek to wrest power from the winners by getting the great mass of people to seek fairness over prosperity and security... and that's progressivism. It's progress, sure, but progress AWAY from the greatest system ever devised by mankind.

Ronald Reagan thought like the Founders did. He famously noted that government isn't the solution to our problems, that government IS the problem - and he won great renewed popular support for that idea. He knew that government can't create wealth, but only destroys it. And he governed the way the Founders would've envisioned, seeking to reduce the size and power of the federal bureaucracy and increase freedom for the private sector.

Barack Obama is the most extreme example in American history of progressivism in power. His ideology causes him automatically to reach for the tool of bigger government as a response to any situation. In fact, Obama governs as though there is no private sector. When he talks about the "growth" of the economy, he's only referring to growth of the government "economy." When he "creates jobs" (which Reagan realized the government can never do), he's adding government workers to the already-impossible burden borne by taxpayers. When he disparages "fat cats" in industry, it's because he and his progressive ilk seek to transfer all that "fat" to the federal administrative state. And as the government grows, the people diminish, and the very foundation of the free nation is threatened.

Progressives might acknowledge that, in America, there may have to be some private wealth. But they want that wealth to be as small and limited as possible, and constantly seek to move power from the people to the government. Constitutionalists like Reagan believe just the opposite: they'd tell you we do need some government, even in the most free society, but that it should be small and as limited as possible, and that power should constantly flow away from the government and toward the people. Progressives, though they agitate against the "one percent" of the most wealthy, will deliver you a different one-percent - they won't be free entrepreneurs providing you with opportunity, but government administrators providing you with basic subsistence. Constitutionalists always invite you to join the one-percent... progressives, not so much. And that's how it's worked everywhere it's ever been tried, with the clearest examples coming from the regimes listed above.

The progressives have immense power in the America of 2012, regardless of the blowing of political winds. They "own" all the institutions that exert influence over American thinking, from academe to the media to Hollywood. They're in power in government, both politically (in both major parties) and administratively (they dominate the "permanent" but unelected bureaucratic state). They have been very effective in getting average Americans to consent to unbelievable confiscation of their freedom in the name of "fairness." Until these statists are able to collapse our free-market system and establish true totalitarian control, America will not likely become fed-up enough to hit the reset button and re-establish the constitutional republic it was founded to be.

The best preparation you can now make for the onslaught of the new collectivism is to educate yourself (finding unbiased advice from economic experts who are not trying to sell a particular investment), protect your investments (moving to things like precious metals and away from more transient instruments, such as securities), and start a business (even if you only run an internet business on the side) so you'll have a revenue stream you can call your own.

Progressivism is dangerous, it's insidious, and it's all around you. It might sound good when it's presented from a well-written teleprompter by a talented speaker. But it sure isn't progress.