Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D
The fight to save our country is essentially a struggle between Conservatism and Marxism. However, many of our elected officials either do not agree or fail to understand the threat. Conservatism entails individual freedom, small government and fiscal responsibility. Marxism entails government control, ever expanding government and indebtedness. Another key essential difference is that of individual responsibility. Conservatism requires each person to be responsible for themselves whereas in Marxism taxpayers are required to pay for services for others.
Clearly, the Democrat Party is moving us dramatically towards Marxism, and just as disturbingly, there are some Republican Party elected officials who are not reliably true conservatives. We would not be in the current crisis in which we find ourselves if this was not the case. The recent approval of Medicaid expansion in North Carolina is a perfect example. After years of opposition to Medicaid expansion, many Republicans led by Phil Berger and Tim Moore voted to approve this Marxist action. Of course, they did not bother to determine what their constituents wanted (a limited poll in Craven county was overwhelmingly against expanding Medicaid) and came up with a justification, essentially about federal funding, and ignored the fact that this program is a Marxist program expansion that makes an estimated 600,000 additional people dependent on the government and forces other taxpayers to pay for it. By the way, there is no requirement in the state or federal constitution requiring taxpayers to pay for medical services for others.
Another example is House Bill DRH30118-TC-21A that supposedly will prevent students from harm in our public schools. What the bill does is expand the responsibility of teachers to socialize our children instead of focusing on their true mission of teaching traditional academic subjects. While preventing student harm is a laudable goal, this bill is Marxist to the extent that it shifts the responsibility for socializing and disciplining our children from the parents to the government run schools. Marxism always attempts to weaken the role and authority of the parents/family and take over that role by the government. Remember the old saying that the road to h—- is paved with good intentions. The public schools in North Carolina in many cases are failing to teach academics adequately, and this situation will not be helped by adding additional burdens on the teachers that rightfully belong to parents. Another worrisome factor is that once the schools assume the role of parents, the content of what they teach can be anything the school officials decide. Not good.
The bottom line is we need to support elected officials who reliably put conservative principles first and vote the will of their constituents. Otherwise, the slide to Marxism is assured.