America Better Get Woke on Socialism Versus Freedom

In the age of being “woke,” Americans need to wake up to the dangers of socialism and the ways they are being taught to accept it, hook, line and sinker.

As Senator Bernie Sanders stands as the national front runner in the 2020 presidential race, it should alarm us that a majority of our young people are completely unaware of the dangers of socialism. Ultimately, it is due to our great lack of civic and history education that so many young people are blind to the major red flags that Sanders represents.

If the Democratic nominee winds up being a self-described Democratic socialist, do people have any idea of the dangers our country is about to enter? Are our young people even aware of the freedoms and human rights that they are about to forfeit for the sake of free education and Medicare for all?

Last fall, a poll by YouGov–Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation revealed that 70% of Millennials say they would vote for a socialist candidate. While many young people are enticed by the endless free pitches by the Democratic socialist candidate, they are being swooned by socialist ideals without any awareness of its aggressive history and great dangers.

In the last few decades, there has been a big movement in higher education, celebrating aspects of socialism as an academic experiment. Professors tend to teach students the ideologies of socialism, without exploring the many threats tied to it. Schools have educated our students on socialism, just as Sanders has sought to educate Americans on socialism — as some glorified equality and nothing else.

However, what we fail to teach young people is that a socialist government would remove individual freedom of choice for more government control. The price of free education, as Sanders would represent it in the Wall Street Tax, would mean an increase in taxes for the wealthy, taxes on future earnings, as well as limiting freedom of choice in education. This, in turn, would decrease the overall quality of education.

In a broader concept, Sanders is suggesting that there would be no private property; all property should be state and government-owned.

Our school system has failed to offer students an adequate civic education. Yet if the youth of our nation had been taught properly on these issues, they would be able to see through Sanders’ free-for-all pitches as a means of total government control. Voting for a Democratic socialist will be at the cost of the great value of humanity.

How classrooms have been approaching this topic has been a concern for years, and now the dangers of not educating our people on civic matters of importance may just reveal itself in this election if Sanders becomes the Democratic nominee. In the fall of 2018, a Washington Post interview with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos explored the correlation between the rise of young people embracing socialism and American schools failing to provide adequate civic and government education. As trends moved in this direction well ahead of the election, DeVos argued that our schools were to blame for young people’s gravitation towards a socialist candidate.

In the interview, DeVos said, “I recall visiting a classroom not too long ago where one of the teachers was wearing a shirt that said ‘Find Your Truth,’ suggesting that, of course, truth is a very fungible and mutable thing instead of focusing on the fact that there is objective truth and part of learning is actually pursuing that truth. So, roll it back, there is a very important need for students to know the foundations of our country and the ideas around which our country was formed.”

Classrooms are failing to educate students on the very principles our founding fathers established our country on. Rather, these academic exercises have indoctrinated an entire generation of voters with the thought that life is better without freedom.

As students are taught that socialism is some means to greater equality, are they even aware of the freedom of choice that will ultimately be taken away in exchange for an increase of government control?

Freedom is what our founding fathers fought for, and while many free things, such as healthcare and education, are momentarily enticing, they will be at the price of our freedom, independence and equality.

As President Ronald Reagan said in his inauguration speech as governor of California, “Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people.”

If we are not careful, we can so quickly lose this freedom. Voting a Democratic socialist in the Oval Office would wipe out all our nation has fought to achieve. If we allow our young people to move towards a mirage of socialist freedom, without properly equipping them, we can quickly lose the freedoms our nation has worked so hard to achieve.

We have to teach this next generation that our way of life and our freedom as people only exist if we are willing to stand up and defend those freedoms. Across the world, more and more people are being persecuted for their beliefs. Yet our freedom in America has enabled us to live, believe and explore endless possibilities more than any nation in the world.

Call it socialism, call it Democratic socialism, call it anything you want, but electing a leader with socialist ideals will only bring an end to our freedom, human rights and equality.