As America prepares to celebrate a day of Thanksgiving, it is important to look back and consider the lessons of our forefathers. All the way back to its humble beginnings at Plymouth Rock, the American legacy has shined as an example of what freedom and liberty can accomplish.
But in recent years, socialism has been on the rise in America. According to Pew Research, 42 percent of Americans have a positive view of socialism. In addition, the nation has seen increasingly socialistic policies based on the concepts of big government and high taxation. In light of such circumstances, it is important to consider another episode when socialism was in America – and the failure of such socialism.
This story of socialism in America happened with none other than the Pilgrims themselves. When the Pilgrims set sail on the Mayflower, their voyage was financed by a group of investors called the Merchant Adventurers. As a means to pay back the investors, the Pilgrims initially set up a socialistic economy, with a portion of the communal proceeds going back to the investors. However, this system proved to be a failure from the start.
William Bradford, the second governor of Plymouth Colony, described what happened: “The failure of this experiment... [proves] the emptiness of the theory that the taking away of private property, and the possession of it in a community, by a commonwealth, would make a state happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God. For in this instance, community of property (so far as it went) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment which would have been to the general benefit and comfort.”
To replace this failed approach, the Pilgrims instituted a system of private ownership, with each family having a farm to call their own. This led to the bountiful successes that culminated in long-term prosperity. Such a failure of socialism, when compared to capitalism, comes as little surprise. The basic principles of individual liberty and personal responsibility will always be more successful than the principles of coercion and a lack of private property.
From Plymouth Rock, all the way to the Soviet Union, socialism has an unbroken record of failure. The successful “American experiment” rejected socialism from its very start, and an embrace of socialism would ultimately spell its end. For the legacy of the Pilgrims and the Founding Fathers to continue, the lessons of history must be heeded and followed. As families gather across the nation to thank God for the blessings of the year and look back on America’s legacy, it is important to ensure that future generations will be able to reap the blessings of freedom. As the rise of socialism seeks to undermine the country's future, a return to America’s foundation just might start by looking back to the lessons of Plymouth Rock.
On practically every level, America has been a shining display of freedom and prosperity. According to the vision of its Founders, the nation has shined as a beacon of hope to a world full of tyranny and hardship. Despite these successes, America’s legacy has been under attack over the last several years.
With a focus on the failures of an imperfect but inspiring history, revisionist historians have attempted to paint the nation as a society that was ultimately built on oppression and evil. Yet, such claims do not hold validity when you look at the track record of the country.
In 1630, the world was filled with empires and monarchs. In Europe, several wars overwhelmed a continent plagued by imperial rivalries. The Ottoman Empire stretched from Turkey to Sudan with the rule of an iron fist. Spain and Portugal imposed a reign of terror over Latin America. The nations existed for their rulers. Meanwhile, far from the centers of world activity, a few dozen settlers quietly sailed up the Charles River into Massachusetts, led by John Winthrop. With a vision for a righteous society of liberty and justice, Winthrop proclaimed his aim that the settlement they established be a “city on a hill” and that “the eyes of all people are upon us.”
That settlement would become the city of Boston. One hundred forty-five years later, the War for Independence would begin 10 miles away with “the shot heard around the world.” In the wake of American victory and the founding of the nation, 245 years of history have shown that America has indeed been a “city on a hill” placed prominently in the view of the whole world.
In January 1989, President Ronald Reagan spoke of America in his farewell address as a “city on a hill.” True to its legacy, America had recently stood up to the might of the Soviet Union and led the free world in the fight to preserve freedom from the tentacles of Communism. Less than a year after Reagan’s farewell address, the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989. By 1992, the Soviet Union itself had collapsed and America still stood as “the shining city.”
The year is now 2021 and most of the tyrannical regimes of the last 245 years have been resigned to the dust bin of history. Direct assaults on Winthrop and Reagan’s shining city have all proved to be futile. But the enemies of liberty have not yet given up.
Instead of trying again to attack the shining city directly, new ideologies have instead questioned whether the shining city ever existed in the first place. Defining America as a nation of racism, oppression, and subjugation, this revisionist history threatens the very foundation of America through philosophies such as Critical Race Theory. The opponents of liberty know that the only way the nation can ever lose its exceptional legacy is by the destruction of its history. This is why so many advocate for the deconstruction of history.
The fact that America has truly been “a city on a hill” stands firm. The success of the nation refutes any claims to the contrary. The nation that is called “the land of opportunity,” the nation that countless scores have built their lives in, the nation that has stood for freedom of religion and speech, this country’s historical legacy cannot be changed.
Yet, this legacy can only continue if America looks back to the foundations of former days. Americans must teach their history so that future generations can know the nation’s exceptional story. Efforts must be made to push back against the revisionism of those who assault the nation’s legacy as a city on a hill. The future of the nation depends on it.
Happy Constitution Day! As we celebrate one of America’s founding documents, it’s worth asking: what made America so great?
When we declared our independence in 1776, America was just a fledgling experiment in self-government which the rest of the world expected to fail miserably. All of the wealth and power was in the Old World, with its palaces, empires, and powdered wig-wearing aristocrats. America was considered the boondocks, full of log cabins and fur cap-wearing farmers, trappers, and frontiersmen.
A few years later, America had fielded a Continental Army that defeated the largest military power in world history, and had become the freest and most prosperous country in the world.
America became great because the Constitution limited the power of government and empowered individuals to lead their lives as they saw fit. The framers of the Constitution did not know what America would look like 230 years in the future. But they knew they were tired of being subject to the whims of a king. They carefully constructed a government that had just enough power to impose civil order, protect citizens from foreign invaders, and secure individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but not enough power to violate those rights itself. To achieve this, the framers confined the powers of the federal government to those specifically listed in the Constitution and divided that power among three branches of government.
The framers also took a belt-and-suspenders approach to protecting the rights of the people. They added a Bill of Rights to the Constitution to ensure that certain important rights were never violated, even though the framers themselves said that the Constitution had not granted the federal government the power to violate those rights to begin with. Additional amendments were later added to the Constitution to extend its protection of rights to all people, regardless of race or gender, and to keep state and local governments from violating the people’s rights.
If you don’t recognize this strictly limited government, you would be forgiven. Today, politicians say they can do just about anything they want, except what is explicitly forbidden by the Bill of Rights, and even that is up for debate. When asked where the Constitution authorized a proposed law, one congressman admitted, “I don’t worry about the Constitution on this to be honest.”
The rest of Congress appears to feel the same way. Every detail of our lives is subjected to government rules. The Federal Register, which contains all proposed and final regulations issued by federal agencies, has published over 3.2 million pages. If it were printed and stacked, it would be taller than the Washington Monument. This does not take into account all the laws passed by Congress, or by state and local governments.
Because of all these rules, the cost of doing business in America is staggering, and startups and small businesses are at a competitive disadvantage to big businesses that can easily afford it. Those large companies can also afford to pay lobbyists to convince lawmakers to pass even more laws that keep new competitors at bay. All the while, countless Americans are prevented from pursuing their version of the American Dream.
Where did we go wrong? The framers envisioned the judiciary as the guardians of individual rights. But over time, the courts have become more interested in picking and choosing which rights to protect or neglect. In the process, they have invented government powers that do not exist. The result is that our government is far more powerful than the founders ever intended. You may have heard the term “activist judges.” We certainly don’t need those. But we do need an engaged judiciary that takes seriously its role in the system of checks and balances so carefully designed by the framers.
The good news is that we can all play a part in restoring the American vision. Courts will only take our constitutional rights seriously if we do. We need citizens who are willing to stand up for their rights, and attorneys who are willing to advocate for those people, simply because it is the right thing to do. At the Mississippi Justice Institute, we have made that our mission.
Jimmy Carter’s presidency is starting to look not so bad after all.
The 39th US President’s four years in the Oval Office were not a happy time for America. Abroad, the United States was humiliated by a series of foreign policy debacles. At home, energy costs and inflation soared. Things got so bad under Carter people started to believe in America’s inevitable decline.
Japan, they said in the late 1970s, was going to overtake America economically. The Soviets were supposed to prevail around the world. America had lost her sense of direction, and her enemies were emboldened.
Something very similar is happening right now.
Whether you agree with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan or not, it is hard to imagine a worse way of handling it than the Biden administration managed last week. Artificial deadlines for the US departure were announced. Precious few plans for an orderly evacuation were made. Tons of US taxpayer military equipment was left for the Taliban.
A recent arrival in the United States, over the past seven months I have often found it hard to find any objective news or analysis about the Biden administration. Mainstream journalists seem so partisan that what they tell us often says more about their own personal preferences than it does about the achievements of this administration.
Last week that changed. Not even the most partisan apologist for this administration could ignore the images of the disaster unfolding in Kabul.
If Washington’s politicians are so inept at extricating the US from Afghanistan, what about their judgment on everything else? What confidence can we have, for example, in the billion-dollar boondoggle Biden & co have conjured up known as the Green New Deal?
Having spent eye wateringly large amounts of money, the government has caused inflation. This inflationary effect, officials insist, is only transitory. Really? How can we have confidence that an administration unable to see two weeks ahead in Afghanistan knows what lies on the economic horizon in the months and years ahead?
Wealth taxes, the radical progressives insist, are essential. Only by redistributing America’s wealth, Washington insiders say, can they provide us with the public services we want. I am not sure I would trust this lot to run a bath, let alone to know what public services people in Mississippi want.
At times like this, it is easy to give in to despair. Federal officials seem so hopeless and those that preside over public policy seem so inept, it is easy to become despondent. But remember this; no one ever won by betting against America.
If we feel that the American Republic is under pressure at home and abroad, imagine what it must have felt like in the 1940s or the late 1970s? Then the challenges America faced must have seemed overwhelming. Yet the United States came through.
America will find a way through these challenges. Foreign policy drift will be replaced by resolve. High tax and spend policies will pave the way for a return to good economic housekeeping.
The key to reviving America’s standing in the world and overcoming the legion of domestic problems created by big government intervention is to stay true to America’s Founding ideals.
America is unlike any other country in the world because she is, and she remains, an experiment in self-government. Under the US Constitution, government remains limited, power is constrained. Those that make public policy are held accountable to the people.
Provided the United States stays true to those principles, this period will pass. It will be morning in America again.
This opinion piece by Douglas Carswell, President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, originally appeared in the Northside Sun
Protesters around the world seem to know what too many Americans have forgotten: that the American flag is the greatest symbol of independence and liberty that has ever been known.
That is exactly why a number of Cubans continue to wave and march with American flags in their hands as they protest the failing communist regime on the island.
Thousands of protesters in over 40 cities have now taken to the streets in Cuba to declare their desire for freedom and voice their frustrations with their communist authoritarian government. This is no small thing. Never before have we seen in Cuba protests of this scale.
These are people who know the potential cost of their actions. Their public opposition to the regime could mean their death. Already, over 100 people have gone missing. Dozens have been arrested. Protesters have been beaten by security forces. Cuba’s president has labeled protesters “counter-revolutionaries” and has called for force against them.
For over 60 years, dictators have run Cuba, oppressing the people and stifling growth and prosperity. While the people starve, party elites have sucked up power and wealth. While housing crumbles, new hotels and resorts are built to bring money to the government. While the communists declare liberation, they silence and crush the freedoms of the people.
In order to stifle the protests and the transmission of videos highlighting government violence, the Cuban government shut down internet on the island. This was a blatant attempt to block communications amongst the grassroots organizers of this tremendous display of opposition.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis even called on Florida-based companies to attempt to provide internet access to the people of Cuba during this time. He noted in a press conference that communist regime leaders “don’t want the truth to be out, they don’t want people to be able to communicate.”
Just 90 miles away from American shores, many of the Cuban people look to our nation for hope. Thousands of Americans themselves have experienced the horrors of the Cuban regime or have relatives that are still there, which makes this moment all the more important.
Every American should seek to support the Cuban people and denounce the communist government. After 60 years, a nation stands stuck in the past, clinging to a broken economic and political system that has left far too many in poverty. Our political leaders should be held to account and we ought to demand the utmost clarity in their condemnations of the Cuban regime.
The failures of the Cuban government are a stark reminder to those who call for socialism and communism to be implemented in the United States. Those political ideologies have failed in both a spectacular and consistent manner. They have failed systematically across cultures and continents. The loud cries of the Cuban people should be a chilling wake-up call to all those who advocate for or tolerate these vicious ideologies in Mississippi and the rest of the United States.
“People overestimate what they can accomplish in one legislative session and underestimate what they can accomplish in ten.”
In this series, we are conducting a review of all Mississippi lawmakers have accomplished over the last 10 years. Again, the list provided here is not comprehensive, and we feature only the policies we like, some of which were initiated by MCPP (marked by an *asterisk* below).
Conservative lawmakers are often criticized for using “God and Gun” policies to distract voters from what are suggested by some to be more important issues. We see no reason why lawmakers need to choose between broad civil liberty protections and economic liberty. In the last few weeks, we have highlighted legislative accomplishments in three areas: religious liberty protections, pro-life protections, and Second Amendment (and Other) protections.
Here are Mississippi’s best-in-the-nation religious liberty laws:
In 2013, the Legislature passed the Mississippi Student Religious Liberties Act (SB 2633), sponsored by Senator Chris McDaniel. The law protects the free speech and freedom of assembly rights of students wishing to pray or express a religious viewpoint in a public-school setting.
In 2014, Mississippi joined 19 other states in enacting state-level RFRA protections (SB 2681), sponsored by Senator Phillip Gandy. RFRA stands for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. It requires that the state of Mississippi not enact policies that would “substantially burden” the free exercise of religion. The federal “Equality Act,” which has already passed the U.S. House, specifically overrides federal RFRA protections.*
In 2016, the Mississippi Legislature passed the “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act,” sponsored by Speaker Philip Gunn (HB 1523). This law prevents the state government from enforcing discriminatory policies against those with strongly held beliefs related to the proper ordering of marriage and human sexuality. The law protects adoption agencies, businesses, and churches, among others. It is the strongest law of its kind in the country. The law has been upheld by the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.*