Guest Post by Jess Lawson
There’s an old adage that goes something like this: When Christians die they go to heaven and when socialists die they go to communism. Make no mistake, when American leftists such as Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez extol the virtues of so-called ‘Democratic Socialism,’ what their hearts truly desire is Non-Democratic Communism.
A common thread linking the two political philosophies is their overriding mindset toward wealth. Both socialism and communism are ideologies of envy and greed. You got it… they want it.
In both cases, their solutions are government. The more government control the better, because government knows best. But whereas socialism is essentially the government ownership and control of the means of production, communism goes a step further and seeks to have government dominate all aspects of society, not just production. And to do so requires one-party rule, complete obedience from the citizenry, and the suppression of any troublesome news by a compliant media. Sound familiar?
When forced to explain the utter failures of communism over the years, what leftists in America and elsewhere in the West will inevitably claim is, “Well, the Soviets and North Koreans, they just didn’t implement communism properly, and if done correctly communism is wonderful.” But what they either fail to recognize or insist on ignoring is the fact that no system of government is ever perfect, and that includes America’s own system of a democratic republic. The true question is – Which system of government is least imperfect?
More news from Cuba, which has been socialist/communist for over sixty years now, illustrates once again that communism is unquestionably the most imperfect form of government ever devised.
According to Reuters:
“The Cuban capital of Havana will begin electricity blackouts in August, has canceled carnival and is taking other measures as the country’s energy crisis worsens, state media reported on Saturday. Blackouts have sparked a few small local protests this summer and a year ago in July fueled a day of unprecedented unrest across the country as discontent boiled over.”
“Soaring prices for food, fuel and shipping have exposed import dependence and vulnerabilities such as a decaying infrastructure. The country’s economy declined 10.9% in 2020, recovering just 1.3% last year. Cubans have withstood more than two years of food and medicine shortages, long lines to purchase scarce goods, high prices and transportation woes.”
Reuters continues by correctly pointing out that both COVID and western sanctions against the government have contributed to the current crisis, but the problems run deeper. As the article also recognizes:
“Jorge Pinon, director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Latin America and Caribbean Energy and Environment Program, said (sic) offered a different assessment from Torres. He said the entire power grid was near collapse after recent fires in two of 20 already obsolete plants, with others constantly breaking down. ‘When you keep running the equipment past its capital maintenance schedule it falls into a downward spiral with no short term solution.’”
The decay of Cuba’s energy and transportation infrastructure, and subsequently its economy, may have been accelerated by sanctions and COVID, but the deterioration has been progressing for decades. And Cuba’s communist rot will continue its progression until either reality-denying western leftists or other communist-leaning allies step into help, or to the point where the Cuban people themselves have had enough and revolt.
Regardless of which path the Cubans follow, Americans must watch as events unfold. Our media will do their best to look the other way, and Democrats will pooh-pooh Cuba’s decline, but we must ensure that we and our fellow voters understand… ‘There but for the Grace of God go we.’
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The disease that is bringing down Cuba is the same one that felled the Soviet Union, and is now collapsing the entire western empire. A failure to account for depreciation. Our great-grandfathers built a first world society, but made no plans to pay for its upkeep.
Fizzy – a lot of truth there. But you are missing a bit of further explanation I think.
There were always plans to repair and replace. And the private sector would also have been involved.
But then came taxes, and welfare. Welfare now consumes funds that should have been allotted to repair and replace, and taxes eliminated the private sector from the equation, as the portion they would have spent on such are now taken from them by force, and are then misused/ spent on welfare, defence, etc.
It’s not just welfare in the traditional sense, but all of the expenses of having 45+ Million illegal aliens in our Nation such as medical, housing, education, etc. … and all of the victim groups and the mandatory patronage extracted by them … plus an ever-expanding government at all levels — from local to federal.
So true. I was a military engineer and spent a great deal of my career building new and refurbishing old facilities. Base facility maintenance budgets were decreasing or static, while new facilities were added, but no money to maintain the older infrastructure until it eventually failed. That’s a microcosm of what is happening to the entire planet. Just look at Detroit and New Orleans as two great examples. Mother nature will reclaim it all given enough time… Chip
From what little is ever shown of Cuba though extremely poor, one never sees the trash littering up the streets such as in Philadelphia or any of the other US cities.
I drove up to Raleigh about a week ago, and though being the Capital of NC with the biggest of Democrat populations, the road sides and downtown streets were covered in litter of all kinds.
For many, if there are no consequences for soiling one’s own nest, they… soil away.
The car in the photo isn’t a stretch. They don’t get new stuff so they keep the old stuff going forever if they can. Even making their own parts… Chip
but we must ensure that we and our fellow voters understand
How cute…..
What can’t Covid do?
Cuba is the blueprint for what the Demonrat dream for America is. When Obama was elected the first time, I awoke with the dream, so America will become another shitty 3rd world country. Before he won his second term, I had the dream Obama was a traitor. The traitor dream is 100% true, and the other dream is still being worked on.
While Sandy Two-Lastnames and the rancid old commie Sanders extol socialism for the masses they’re happy to enjoy the fruits of capitalism.
Thirty years ago in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the WSJ’s Moscow correspondent was talking to many of the mid- and upper-level party members leaving like rats off a sinking ship for israel.
The correspondent said that, looking back over the 15+ years he’d been in the Moscow bureau, he’d seen the tens of millions of ordinary citizens suffer all of the typical communist suffering: loss of freedom, economic privation – the works. He said that he also noticed that these bureaucrats that were leaving for israel had lived like royalty on the backs of those ordinary citizens — and asked them to explain that.
In their arrogance and utter disdain for those ‘others’ — the bureaucrats said that ‘the suffering wasn’t meant for them’.
Kind of puts it in a nutshell …
As (purported) Marxist-Leninists, their hearts were pure.
Coming to a neighborhood near all of us courtesy of our embedded commies, both elected and appointed.