Jenny Beth’s Journal: Are we surprised that most Democrats don’t get capitalism OR socialism?

The recent Gallup poll reveals that 57 percent Democrats prefer socialism and snub the idea of capitalism. But why is that? Jenny Beth Martin has a simple answer: they’re just uninformed.

The Hill has Jenny Beth’s commentary:

The typical graduate of the typical four-year college in this country thinks better of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Ho Chi Minh than he or she does of Ronald Reagan.

They simply do not know, or understand, that socialism is but one step removed from communism, and communism kills.

Ask the survivors of Pol Pot’s Cambodian killing fields (where upwards of 2 million out of a population of just 8 million were killed), or the survivors of Stalin’s purges (where upwards of 20 million were killed) what THEY think of communism and its “softer” cousin, socialism.

The Democrats (and Democrat leaners) who said they have a positive view of socialism clearly do not understand the link between economic freedom and political freedom. History shows you simply cannot have one without the other.

That’s why the United States was able to leapfrog over the older, more established, more socialistic nations of Europe to become the world’s dominant power in the middle of the last century.

…

Individualism is the heart of the American experiment. Risk-taking is what allows the son of a Syrian immigrant to build the world’s most valuable company. Entrepreneurialism is what allows a college kid building a software solution for rating girls to turn his idea into a multibillion-dollar company in less than a dozen years. Capitalism is what allows an entrepreneur to build an online bookseller into a company whose sales will surpass $200 billion this year.

Do any of the Democrats (and Democrat leaners) polled in the Gallup survey think Apple, or Facebook, or Amazon – or any of literally thousands of other companies that provide value to their customers and employees – could have been birthed in Sweden?

Capitalism is, at its core, inextricably linked to the American experiment. Ours is a nation of risk-takers, not risk-avoiders.

And for those who insist that capitalism is inherently selfish, and ignorant of the challenges faced by poor people around the world, keep this in mind – our capitalist system has done more to pull people out of poverty both here and abroad than any other economic system in the history of the planet.

History has shown us that capitalism has helped our nation grow and survive economic pitfalls while socialism for other nations have stalled economic growth and contributed to poverty. Maybe now is a good time to remind socialism-loving Democrats to pick up a history book. If they really want to know what socialism looks like, they should ask Trish:

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