A few weeks ago, a member of the Democratic Socialists
of America (DSA) wrote an article for Vox explaining the movement’s
goals – to
end capitalism and radically change America.
In normal times, the declarations of a fringe party and
ideology in America would not merit much attention. However, these are
not normal times. A new
Gallup poll shows that 57 percent of Democrats have a favorable view of socialism – while only 47 percent view capitalism positively.
This pattern has been building for a while. Sen. Bernie
Sanders of Vermont took socialism mainstream in the party during the
2016 Democratic presidential primaries. Since then, Democratic Party
candidates have been increasingly attaching themselves to the ideology.
Most notably, a telegenic young member of the
Democratic Socialists of America named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated
a senior Democrat in New York City’s 14
th Congressional District and has since been on a whirlwind media tour, spreading the gospel of socialism.
So the Vox article (or manifesto) is worth taking seriously. Reading it, I was struck by how remarkably honest it was.
The writer, Meagan Day, a member of the East Bay
Chapter of DSA, explicitly debunks the apologists in the mainstream
media trying to paper over the group’s radicalism.
Day quotes several prominent news “analysts” who argue
that Democratic Socialism is just New Deal liberalism rebranded. She
then dumps a bucket of cold water on them, writing that “in the long
run, Democratic Socialists want to end capitalism.”
In fact, she writes that the liberal, big-government
reforms the movement has chosen to rally behind in partnership with the
Democratic Party are simply steppingstones to this eventual goal.
“Social democratic reforms like Medicare-for-all are,
in the eyes of DSA, part of the long, uneven process of building that
support, and eventually overthrowing capitalism,” she writes.
This explicit goal of ending capitalism makes clear what Ocasio-Cortez meant when she
said cryptically in a recent interview, that “capitalism has not always existed in the world, and it will not always exist in the world.”
This is a clear threat to the system which has made us
prosperous and the envy of the world, but I appreciate the honesty.
Ultimately, the United States is a democratic republic.
If Day, Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders want to try and
convince most Americans to end capitalism and embrace a planned, totally
redistributionist economy, they are welcome to use the democratic
process to do so. It is up to those of us who know better to convince
Americans of socialism’s folly.
However, the second notable item in Day’s article
suggests that Democratic Socialists don’t value democracy all that much.
Day also identified herself as a staff writer at a New York-based,
socialist magazine called Jacobin. In fact, several members of the
Democratic Socialists of America are writers and editors at Jacobin
magazine.
A magazine that would enthusiastically embrace this
title is signaling that, like socialist movements of the past, the DSA
is willing to drop the “democratic” part of its moniker and instead rely
on the traditional method for socialist revolution – bloodshed,
violence and tyranny.
The Jacobins were the most violent and radical
political group of the French Revolution. Led by Maximilien Robespierre,
the group responded to a growing backlash against the revolution by
executing anyone their so-called Committee of Public Safety deemed
insufficiently loyal.
The Jacobin clubs located throughout the country were
used as a secret police force to root out dissent among politicians and
the general populace alike.
Historian Timothy Tackett estimates that almost 40,000
people were killed under the Jacobin control of the French government.
Many were beheaded by guillotine in a grotesque public spectacle after a
show trial, and others were brutally executed with firearms.
In the case of one period in the city of Lyon, people
were executed en masse by cannon fire. This period of carnage was known
as the Reign of Terror.
A few years ago, Callista and I saw “Dialogues of the
Carmelites” at the Washington National Opera. It is a moving, true story
of the Carmelite nuns who refused to denounce Christ at the peak of the
Reign of Terror. (The French Revolution was virulently anti-Catholic –
many churches were closed and reopened as “Temples of Reason.”)
The nuns were beheaded for their unwillingness to
denounce their faith. Moments before the guillotine dropped, they
displayed the power of God’s love by singing hymns and renewing their
vows.
A few years later we visited the Picpus Cemetery in
Paris. It holds the graves of the martyred nuns and more than 1,300
victims of the Terror in a six-week period of 1794. It is a very sober
reminder of what the Jacobins did during the Reign of Terror. It is not a
record for which any American should advocate.
Christopher Hibbert’s “
The French Revolution”
contains more vivid details of the horrors the Jacobins inflicted upon
the people of France. In one instance, he writes, “a woman was charged
with the heinous crime of having wept at the execution of her husband.
She was condemned to sit several hours under the suspended blade which
shed upon her, drop by drop, the blood of the deceased whose corpse was
above her on the scaffold before she was released by death from her
agony.”
Make no mistake: This is the history of violent
revolution, religious oppression, and dictatorship that Jacobin
magazine, the DSA, and opportunistic Democrats are embracing – whether
they know it or not.
Sen. Sanders, and more have recently shared articles from Jacobin magazine on their social media accounts.
Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., once sent a Jacobin piece to everyone in Congress.
It is hard to imagine a modern-day Reign of Terror
happening in America. But consider the recent phenomenon of outrage mobs
on social media demanding people be fired and ostracized for expressing
un-PC points of view.
Think about the left-wing activists taking over
classrooms to prevent conservative voices from speaking. Think about the
rash of people being attacked for wearing MAGA hats. Think about the
violence of Antifa.
Perhaps it is not so difficult to imagine.
While I do not know Ocasio-Cortez, I have interacted
with Bernie Sanders numerous times in my career. He is an earnest guy,
and I seriously doubt he would countenance violence in pursuit of his
socialist goals.
Sanders should keep in mind, however, that the Jacobins
eventually turned on Robespierre (in fact they executed him). So
perhaps Sanders and Democrats rushing to embrace Democratic Socialism
should be a little more careful about the demons they are unleashing to
win elections.
Newt Gingrich is a Fox News contributor. A Republican, he was
speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999.
Follow him on Twitter
@NewtGingrich. His latest book is "
Trump’s America: The Truth About Our Nation’s Great Comeback.”
