Karl Marx was a fan of violently overthrowing any government in the name of socialism. However, he recognized a more subtle approach might be needed in developed republics such as the United States of America. Ten planks from his Communist Manifesto lay out the subversive plan to turn a republic into a totalitarian monstrosity.
Abolition of Private Property
Government can take over private property through eminent domain, a legal doctrine enabling governments to take private land for public use, such as the widening of a road. Just compensation is supposed to be paid to the owner. The government determines what is just, of course. In the USA, eminent domain has expanded beyond commonly understood public uses (such as roads) to include “environmental” uses and even taking property from one person and giving it to another who will develop a property so the state gets more property tax revenue.
Civil asset forfeitures under RICO statutes and seizures by the IRS and other government agencies are also assaults against the concept of private property. Regulation is a more subtle attack: allowing someone to maintain nominal title to a property but prohibiting them from using that property for logging, farming, or living is hardly different from taking their property outright.
Establishment of Heavily Progressive Income Taxes
Some believe that In 1913 the U.S. Constitution was amended to allow direct taxation in the form of an income tax. There are some to dispute this, and have protested the constitutionality of income tax, such as Irwin Schiff. The Constitution had to be amended because the founders, being much wiser than most twentieth century Americans, explicitly prohibited such a tax. A progressive tax takes a higher rate from individuals as income increases–sometimes up to nearly 100% in the highest brackets.
The income tax allowed expansion of government control beyond the early socialists’ wildest dreams. It also made it much harder for Americans to accumulate wealth and capital for their families’ future prosperity. The income tax was initially proposed as a temporary measure to pay off war debt.
Very few Americans paid the early income taxes. The US has actually existed longer without taxes than with; a reality most tax worshipers would like to deny.
Abolition of Inheritance Rights
Speaking of families and future prosperity, socialism cannot prosper in a place where families are strong and can pass strength and wealth on to their children and grandchildren. Thus, steep inheritance taxes are needed to keep families poor and dependent upon government.
Confiscation of Property from People the Government Dislikes
While socialists take property from everyone, they especially enjoy taking the property of anyone who gets in their way. Want someone’s property? Just brand them a criminal, terrorist, or traitor and their property becomes yours. An added benefit is the discouragement of others who might be tempted to speak out in defense of liberty.
Centralized State Control of Credit/Money/Banking
In the USA, the Federal Reserve, an unaudited private entity, colludes with the government to control interest rates, credit, money supply at their whim. One need only see the apoplectic reaction of centralized government to cryptocurrencies to see how the elite value their total control of the banking system.
Centralized State Control of Communication and Transportation
FCC, ICC, AMTRAK, and a host of other acronyms hold sway over everything from radio to television to rail and interstate highways. While the internet itself is decentralized, the platforms built on it are often given favored status by the government and can then control the content of speech that makes it to the masses. Travel and shipping are more expensive and inconvenient than they should be, thanks to government.
Centralized State Control of Means of Production
Government price controls and subsidies are a way of centralizing control over agriculture. Through “corporate capitalism” (not to be confused with actual capitalism) the government picks winners and losers. The covid lockdowns showed this clearly.
Obligation of All to Work for the State
Expanding the national debt has made it almost impossible to sustain the traditional family. Socialists want all children in day care and all mothers in the paid (and taxed) work force. All must work to sustain the government.
Government-Directed Distribution of Population
How can we have a socialist paradise if people can jsut live and work wherever they please? Central planners get to decide. They may, like Mao or Pol Pot, send city dwellers out to farm and starve or they may, like Obama and Biden, seek to destroy the suburbs and concentrate people in a few urban centers where they can be more easily monitored and controlled (under the guise of “saving the environment.”)
Free Government Education of an Industrial Work Force for the State
Children belong to the state and are to be taught to obey and to work in ways that benefit the collective. Children are community resources and must not be too attached to family units.
In conclusion, the United States seems to have traveled well along the path to Marxism. Even worse, many people still believe they live in the “land of the free.” The work of patriots is to expose the plots of the socialists and convince their fellow citizens to see reality while there may still be time to reverse the tyranny. The only solution that the Republican has to fight leftism are more laws. It is a wonderful that Texas and Florida have banned Critical Race Theory. But it is a day late and a dollar short. Unless there is a push to end the monopolistic institutions that crush liberty, there cannot be a great America. More laws beget a bigger state, a bigger state begets more authority, which will eventually be used to thwart the free man. It is time for an anti-political solution.