Dissecting a Well-Shared Leftist Meme, Piece by Piece
As with so many things the left puts out on the web and in print, the accompanying image is a perfect example of their lies and distortions. I thought it would be fun to dissect it, item-by-item to show everyone just how blatant it can get…so, here goes the fun!
Women’s Suffrage– The GOP introduced the resolution that would become the 19thAmendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Democrats fought it for forty years until Woodrow Wilson gave up his resistance to it allegedly because it would help the war effort (although the war was over before it was ratified).
Social Security– One of the gravest mistakes ever conceived by the leftist government of FDR. It was the beginning of the “depend on government to do for you because you are not self-reliant enough to do for yourself”, mentality. If they are proud of that, ‘nuff said.
Minimum Wage Law– There is nothing within the text of the U.S. Constitution that permits the federal government to control wages. It is, and always has been an abuse of federal power. If individual states choose to enact such anti-freedom measures, they certainly can, but the federal government should have kept its hands off and that goes for the entire Department of Labor itself.
Forty Hour Work Week – Overtime Pay– Again, a clearly extra-constitutional exercise of federal power that should never have happened. Punish the abusers but allow the market to deal with the rest. In a healthy economy, employers compete for employees and working conditions have a lot to do with decisions about which job to accept. The second simply guarantees that the cost of doing business goes up and, with it, the cost of consumer products and services as well. Let the market determine what a person’s work is worth.
Conservation Corp – Creating jobs simply because a government can do so to avoid an economic market problem is always ill-advised. The entire problem brought on by the market crash and ensuing depression were caused by government policy errors created by the Democrats/Socialists. FDR perpetuated the depression by failing to get out of the way and allow the economy to recover.
Works Progress Administration – Workers’ Compensation Act – National Labor Relations Act – Unemployment Compensation Act – Clayton Anti-trust Act – Cultural Extension Service – Soil Conservation Service – Rural Electrification Act – Federal Housing Administration – All of these are completely outside the constitutional authority of the federal government. These are all issues and responsibilities of the individual states under the 10thAmendment which specifically states that powers not specifically delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states. These all impact labor or commercial issues that do not necessarily involve (but in some cases do) interstate commerce – one of the most abused clauses in our constitution.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Securities Exchange Act – These might – repeat might – be considered aspects of regulating the currency and financial accountability, so I’ll throw them into the small pile of good things produced by Democrats. Not sure they were truly needed as, again, they tend to reduce freedom for all instead of addressing the abusers individually which is how the law should be structured.
G.I. Bill of Rights – Obviously, taking care of those who served their country and sacrificed so much to protect freedom should be compensated not only with their salary, but the original program was pushed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The Democrat President, FDR, was not supportive of the program because he wanted one that focused on the poor people regardless of whether they served or not. Hardly something to brag about, Democrats.
Marshall Plan– Given the rather dubious benefit that this European reconstruction effort actually achieved, I am surprised that the Dems wouldn’t blame the GOP for getting it passed through Congress when one realizes that Truman was President, but Congress was controlled by the GOP. Blame both sides for this one. It enhanced the European GDP by about half of one percent.
NATO– This one could be debated long and often but suffice it to say that well-intentioned efforts often have unexpected consequences. In this case, for many years (until Trump) the United States spent much treasure on the defense of European nations that failed miserably in meeting their obligations toward their own defense. To claim that as something to be proud of is dubious at best.
Pell Grants– One of the worst ideas ever conceived (second only to student loans), they have been responsible for an ever-escalating cost of obtaining a college education. When the federal government throws money at a problem like college expenses, the losers are the students and the winners are the colleges that have absolutely no incentive to control costs or ensure that the courses offered produce results for the student once they graduate. It might sound great to say that you want to help the poor go to college, but what good does it do when they stack student loans on top of small Pell Grants that wind up burying the poor student in a mountain of debt that will hinder their ever lifting themselves out of poverty anyway.
School Lunch Program– Again, an over-reach on the part of the federal government that has no authority to spend taxpayer funds on individual welfare programs which is what this program became. It has become even more ridiculous when free breakfast and lunch is now being offered in many schools regardless of the family’s financial ability to provide their own food. As with many left-wing programs, they just keep going, and going, and growing and growing. All intended to increase dependency on government instead of encouraging self-reliance and freedom.
OSHA/NIOSH –While Johnson and the Democrats introduced the original legislation, the competing bill introduced by the GOP produced the enforcement mechanism and an independent agency that set the standards. Had it not been for the competing bill and the compromises forced by the GOP’s efforts, the resulting legislation would have been doomed to fail. Great example of Democrats claiming credit for things that they shared with others who made it better.
Operation Head Start – VISTA – AmeriCorps – Peace Corp – All of these programs were aimed at primarily one thing…indoctrination disguised as public service. Head start allowed left-wing education types to get their hands-on kids earlier and thus making it easier to “mold young minds” to thinking that equal results were better than equal opportunity. More dependency on government to break down the bonds of family in favor of letting the government raise your kids.
Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Voting Rights Act of 1965– The only connection to the Democrat Party and these laws was that Lyndon Johnson was President, but he was never a fan of voting rights for minorities or Civil Rights for that matter. It would be fair to say that these laws were created in spite of Democrats rather than with their help. Just like the lie that Democrats freed the slaves.
Not to belabor the point any further, with one exception, the rest of the listed reasons for being Democrat should really be under the heading of “Why I Am a Committed Socialist.” All of the rest fall under one of three headings:
- They happened under a Democrat Presidency
- They increased dependency on the federal government, or
- They exceed the authority of the federal government under the Constitution.
That one exception might be the Freedom of Information Act. While today it provides a valuable tool to obtain information that the executive branch of the federal government would rather we not see, its origins were hatched as a means of undermining President Eisenhower’s firing of hundreds of federal employees who were found to be tied to the communist groups or had communist sympathies. That original intent was right in line with the fact that Democrats are increasingly sympathetic to allowing alien ideologies that are counter to freedom into our country and into the government where they can destroy our freedoms from within.
If this is the list of why people thing that being a Democrat is a good thing, we all need to pray they come out of the dark and into the light of day to realize that they have been misled and betrayed. In the process, we have all lost much of our real freedom to stand on our own and live our life as we choose while at the same time allowing a hugely enlarged federal government take over an enormous part of our lives and our economy. It was never intended to be so. It’s a pretty pathetic meme.
