By Bert Black
Einstein is often credited with saying, "Insanity Is Doing the Same Thing Over and Over Again and Expecting Different Results." Ben Franklin is also credited with that quote. Regardless of who actually said it first, it is now a universally recognized truism.
It's true in politics as in other endeavors. And nowhere is it truer than with the political organization that calls itself the "Democrat Party." The Party continually campaigns for votes from the masses of "usefully ignorant" by promising to create a Utopia in which all people are "happy, healthy and prosperous" due to the State's benevolence. That's the same tactic that the Communist Party uses to gain power. So, why is it that, once in control, the Communist Party never delivers those promises? Look at the leading Communist nations in the world, such as the former USSR, Russia, and North Korea. None have been successful in raising the economic condition of the masses. All they have done is make everyone in society (save for the Party elite) equally miserable.
But the name "Democrat Party" is a misnomer. The Democrat Party is not democratic, it's autocratic, run by elite authoritarians who espouse thinly disguised socialist precepts, with popularist slogans, such as "tax the rich," "make the rich pay their fair share." But they carefully never define how much wealth constitutes "being rich." Nor do they ever define what one's "fair share" is, because both are moving targets. First "the rich" targets are "the billionaires." Once they're gone, it will become "the millionaires." Those two groups comprise large groups of people who became "successful" by going beyond the minimum requirements of their job. They used their education, knowledge and hard work to invent, innovate, and invest their rewards to build wealth, both for themselves and the nation as as whole. They create jobs and opportunity for all those willing to work. That economic system is called "capitalism." It is the only economic system ever devised that actually increased the population's standard of living for entire nations.
The Democrat Party slogans are only a means to an end—to gain lasting power and gradually make everyone an economic dependent of "the Government," with the core elite of the Party as the adjudicators of who is "worthy of the Party's benevolence." Then, once gaining power, no dissent is allowed in the resulting one-party state. That, my friends is exactly what Communism is all about. Under Communism, all individual property is confiscated, and the State redistributes the nation's wealth to benefit the Party's rulers, who live in luxury while the "proletariat," i.e. working class, gets only the bare necessities to sustain life so they can labor in virtual slavery. There is no "incentive" for people to use their brains or talents to achieve "success" because there is none achievable. Work hard or not, there is no reward for human achievement, unless one is chosen to become among the Party elite.
I began with the definition of insanity. The Democrat Party always appeals to individuals' inate desires for the elusive "good life." But what it delivers is the opposite. A case in point is Virginia's newly elected Democrat Governor, Abigail Spanberger, who campaigned as a "moderate," and a "person of the people," who would make life better for all Virginians. But, what's the reality, once elected in a Democrat Pary sweep of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and control of both houses in the state legislature? Judge for yourself. Here’s a list of new taxes and tax increases Democrats have proposed in Richmond just this month:
- Additional local sales tax in all Virginia counties and cities
- New personal property tax on electric leaf blowers and electric landscaping equipment
- Large employer tax
- Gun and ammunition tax
- New income tax brackets
- Delivery tax, which would hit Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx, and UPS orders in Northern Virginia
- Investment income tax
- Event tax
- Storage facility tax
- Gym membership tax
- Dog walking tax
- Dog grooming tax
- Counseling tax
- Digital personal property tax
- New car taxes and highway use fees
- Increase in the hotel tax in Arlington
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Statewide speed cameras (not called a tax, but results in more fines for drivers)
- Vehicle repair tax
- Home repair tax
- Dry cleaning tax
- Rideshare tax
- Fantasy sports tax
“fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”
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Bert Black is a friend of the Montgomery County Republican Party