President Joe Biden joined a long list of politicians and authoritarians in history who demonized their opposition in response to their own failed socialist policies. Never mind that Biden promised to unify the country. The political currency of socialists is and has been to push class warfare and/or scare voters into relinquishing their rights — Joe Biden is no different.
Yet, there he was — standing in front of Independence Hall no less — the birthplace of the world's greatest experiment in throwing off government power. He stood there just after his politicized federal police force raided an ex-president. What can be more dangerous to democracy than a massive and partisan FBI and DOJ?
He stood there after he presided over dramatic increases in power of the federal government, including the unconstitutional "forgiveness" of student debt (just ask Nancy Pelosi) and after signing two massive pending bills. One should never forget that history is littered with governments that fell in debt in the name of the common good.
Apparently, it is also unknown to Biden that growing, centralized governments have been the greatest threats to democracy in history. So, too, has been rampant inflation brought on by governments printing money to "pay" for uncontrolled spending, such as the Weimer Republic.
According to CNN, "Biden painted a dark portrait of his political opponents." Of course, it is not irony but ignorance that Biden is unaware that the patriots of Independence Hall, those that fought for our freedom, were labeled extremist and worse by those in England. The truth of history has never burdened big government socialists.
To the contrary, it is a fact of history that they have demonized their political opposition since the time of the birth of democracy in Greece. Consider the words of the legendary Greek educator and rhetorician Isocrates not long before the fall of Greek democracy:
He complained in 353 B.C.: "When I was a boy wealth was regarded as a thing so secure and admirable that almost everyone affected to own more property than he possessed; ... now a man has to be ready to defend himself against being rich as if it were the worst of crimes."
According to historian Will Durant, at that time, the "poor schemed to despoil the rich by legislation." At the end, class-warfare violence helped end Greece's experiment with democracy.
If we advance to 300 A.D., the socialist Roman emperor Diocletian justified his socialist policies that took over industries and featured exorbitant taxes that caused the rich to flee across borders — because of the threat barbicans at the gate. Centuries before that, the Roman Republic ended amidst class-warfare, government giveaways and violence.
Of course, in more recent times, Adolf Hitler demonized and murdered Jews en route to his taking of freedoms away from the German people. But that was not all.
Hitler's National Socialist Party also demonized capitalists. Hitler blamed the economic hardships of his country, not on the polices of government, but on capitalists and promised a better life for his people. Once Hitler took power, he also took control of companies or otherwise dictated their production and services.
In America today, it is a little-known fact that even before the latest $750 billion Democrat spending bill, that government spending was 44% of the U.S. economy. Read that again. 44%. When you add in the costs of federal regulations, over $2 trillion per year, government spending, taxes and edicts dictate over half the U.S. economy.
Of course, that dwarfs any other U.S. industry – such as healthcare, which is 17% of the U.S. economy. Even that figure is misleading, however, given that government spending and regulations dominate that industry.
So, who is at fault for the problems of today?
In 1896, the Democrat nominee for president, William Jennings Bryan bellowed that "There are those who believe that if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them."
Nothing has changed for the Democrats in the 125 years since. In that time, they have turned to big government programs (too often with the help of Republicans) and spending at every turn and with what results? Inflation? Unemployment? Falling workforce participation? Soaring and unpayable national debt? Incomprehensible tax codes?
In the final analysis, Mr. Biden, you cannot simultaneously be for big government and democracy. They are sworn enemies. A huge portion of the American populace understands that. Demonizing them while big government policies, including your own, fail is the ultimate proof of that.
Tom Del Beccaro is an acclaimed author, speaker and national columnist as well as a radio and television commentator. He also appears on Newsmax TV. Read Tom Del Beccaro's Reports — More Here.