Why socialism matters

Often, when I read an article contending that Obama and his coterie are socialists, I write to the article’s author requesting a follow-up to the article:  the author needs to explain why this socialism matters.

The problem is that, since the 1960s, average Americans do not understand why their parents and grandparents feared socialism so much.  Despite the evidence of the Soviet Union and China and North Korea and any other corpse-filled socialist paradise, Americans have been assured for 40 years that American socialism will be different.

What they need to be taught is that a nation’s underlying composition isn’t what matters, it’s socialism itself that matters — and socialism is never a good thing.  Whether you have the swift tyrannies of China and the Soviet Union, or the slow economic and structural attrition, and the cultural suicide, in Europe, socialism never strengthens a nation or helps its people.  It only weakens the nation and imprisons its people.

Today, Kevin Williamson takes a stab at explaining what socialism is and why it matters.  I urge you to check out his article.