By JAMES K. FITZPATRICK
It is often said by liberal commentators that Americans on the right are being “alarmist” when they argue that the social programs of the Democratic Party will put us on a slippery slope toward totalitarian socialism. They insist that there is no reason to assume a socialist endgame at work when proposals are made to help the poor through, say, food stamps or increased spending on education.
Fair enough; we can’t read minds. But that does not mean we should ignore the track record of liberal Democrats. It never fails. They are never satisfied. They — always, continually, persistently — push for greater control over our lives by government officials.
They may do this with good intentions, with proposals to help the needy, the downtrodden, those who hunger and thirst for justice’ sake. But the point is that they are never satisfied. They are driven by the urge to redistribute wealth, with the government assuming more and more control in areas that few thought required government intervention in the past. And that is a classic slippery slope, a progression that leads to authoritarian socialism.
Socialists put us on that slope calculatedly; liberal Democrats perhaps knowing not what they do.
Check the record.
Social Security is set up as a supplement to personal retirement savings and as help for the impoverished elderly, but it becomes a program which we are now told must enable retired Americans to live comfortable “lives of dignity.”
The minimum wage is established to help young and inexperienced workers enter the work force, but is now judged by how well it provides a “living wage” for a family of four.
Food stamps are enacted to provide the poor with the “necessities” of life, but we are now told they must provide the poor with a diet indistinguishable from that of the working middle class.
The case for “free” public schools has been extended to a call for “free” college educations.
We could go on.
But the question is why liberals, if they do not have a hidden socialist agenda, proceed in this manner; why are they are never satisfied?
I submit that the answer is that new programs for “social justice” are indispensable for liberal politicians; they can’t get elected and re-elected without them. If liberal politicians cannot offer new free stuff, what can they offer the voters? A promise to get tough on crime? To defeat our enemies in the world arena? To grow the economy? That is what Republicans offer.
The late Tip O’Neill put it in a nutshell: “Tax, tax; spend, spend; elect, elect.”
Which brings us to New York City and its mayor, Bill de Blasio. De Blasio is providing us with a textbook example of the liberal impulse I am describing.
Remember a few decades back when liberal Democrats were pushing for pre-K programs such as Head Start? It was seen as a radical proposal at the time. But liberals carried the day. Head Start is now found in many school districts.
So de Blasio is now calling for pre-pre-K programs: public school for three-year-olds. He is depicting those who oppose this massive increase in spending as ignoring the “needs of our children.” Which is, of course, the standard tactic in these battles. It doesn’t matter how expensive the program will be, or whether it will work. It is always “about the children.”
De Blasio claims to have found $36 million in the city budget to pay for his pre-pre-K, but the consensus is that the program will cost some $1.1 billion. But that does not matter, New Yorkers are being told, if it will improve the lives of New York City’s children. As long as a program sounds noble on paper, liberal Democrats will defend it. And use it as an election slogan.
De Blasio is pushing his program, even though there is no research to indicate that three-year-olds will benefit from being taken from their mothers at this early age.
In grades three to eight, only 36 percent of kids in New York City Department of Education schools are earning a passing score in math. In English, the pass rate is 38 percent. Twenty percent of black students pass the math test; 27 percent pass the English test. Three-year-olds are not likely to fare better in de Blasio’s pre-pre-K.
None of the above matters to de Blasio. Let’s face it: What de Blasio is offering is free daycare, a handout, a new entitlement for every family in the city, even for those who could easily afford to pay for their own childcare.
It is hard not to conclude that an attempt to secure the votes from these families is behind de Blasio’s scheme. (And in de Blasio’s case, some vision of a socialist utopia. The man is hardcore left. Remember: He honeymooned in Castro’s Cuba and did volunteer work for the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.)
If you are saying to yourself that this is a problem only for those New Yorkers who voted for de Blasio, think again. De Blasio is asking the state and federal government to kick in most of the money for his pre-pre-K program.
He is not likely to get those funds. De Blasio is a rival of Cuomo’s within the Democratic Party. Both men see themselves as future key players in national politics. And Donald Trump is not likely to lead the charge to get federal funding for de Blasio’s scheme. He is no fan of de Blasio.
But the point just now is not whether de Blasio will succeed in establishing this new entitlement, as much as what it shows us about the seemingly insatiable desire of liberal Democrats to increase taxes and expand the government’s role in our lives.
Some may argue that I am being unfair; that a concern for social justice is more likely to be the motive for calls by liberal Democrats for programs to aid the poor and the needy.
Fair enough. But this proposition requires that we accept that what drives the Clintons, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Cuomo is compassion and Christian charity, and not winning elections. Have you seen many news stories about these individuals spending time at charitable work? I haven’t.
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Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about this and other educational issues. The e-mail address for First Teachers is fitzpatrijames@sbcglobal.net, and the mailing address is P.O. Box 15, Wallingford, CT 06492.
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