Why People Keep Falling for Socialism, Despite the Evidence

Written by Walter E. Williams

Poverty is no mystery, and it’s easily avoidable.

The poverty line that the Census Bureau used in 2016 for a single person was an income of $12,486 that year. For a two-person household, it was $16,072, and for a four-person household, it was $24,755.

To beat those poverty thresholds is fairly simple. Here’s the road map: complete high school; get a job, any kind of a job; get married before having children; and be a law-abiding citizen.… Continue Reading

What The Rise Of Kamala Harris Tells Us About The Democratic Party

Written by Perry Bacon Jr.

In the days after Hillary Clinton’s defeat, the two people who seemed like the Democratic Party’s most obvious 2020 candidates, then-Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, hinted that Clinton had gone too far in talking about issues of identity. “It is not good enough for somebody to say, ‘I’m a woman; vote for me,’” Sanders said.

Other liberals lamented that the party had lost white voters in such states as Ohio and Iowa who had supported Barack Obama, and they said Democrats needed to dial back the identity talk to win them back.… Continue Reading

The Left is Always Wrong: Election Meddling Edition

Written by Tom Trinko

Twelve Russians have been indicted for hacking the DNC and releasing DNC emails showing that the DNC had violated its own rules and worked against Bernie and for Hillary in the primaries.

Leftists are talking about the Russians meddling in the U.S. election as a result.  The problem is that while hacking the DNC is illegal and the Russians should be prosecuted, how can telling the voters that the DNC conspired against Bernie be considered “meddling” in our election?… Continue Reading

The Race for Chicago Mayor: Winter is Coming

Written by John Biver

Chicago is the city where I was born — and I remain proud of that fact, as many people hold an allegiance to where their roots were first planted.

Am I proud of Chicago’s murder rate that I just heard is larger than Los Angeles and New York City’s combined? No. Am I proud of the city’s reputation for political corruption dating back a century or more and is measured yearly by the number of public officials found guilty of crimes?… Continue Reading

Capitalism vs. Socialism

Written by Walter E. Williams

Several recent polls, plus the popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders, demonstrate that young people prefer socialism to free market capitalism. That, I believe, is a result of their ignorance and indoctrination during their school years, from kindergarten through college. For the most part, neither they nor many of their teachers and professors know what free market capitalism is.

Free market capitalism, wherein there is peaceful voluntary exchange, is morally superior to any other economic system.… Continue Reading

Dancing with Socialism, Ignoring Reality

Written by Robert Knight

In the United States, surveys show that many Millennials are not merely soft on socialism but openly support it. They think capitalism benefits only the “one percent” and no one else, despite America’s matchless record of upward mobility and prosperity.

Since the 1960s, the media, Hollywood and the education system have presented a warped view of America along with a sugarcoated version of socialism. So, we should not be surprised when we see so many young people fooled by the false promises of redistributive economics.… Continue Reading

Buying the False Promises of Unexamined Socialism

Written by Robert Knight

Since the 1960s, the media, Hollywood and the education system have presented a warped view of America along with a sugarcoated version of socialism. So, we should not be surprised when we see so many young people fooled by the false promises of redistributive economics.

The millennials are the main force behind Vermont’s Democratic Socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, and they are pushing the Democratic Party even further to the left.… Continue Reading

Transgressing the Diversity Dictate

Written by Robert Knight

“All I know is what I read in the papers,” Will Rogers used to say when opening his vaudeville act. In that spirit, here are two items in the news that shed light on our current culture.

In a full-page newspaper ad that ran during the Winter Olympics, Edward W. Stack, chairman of DICK’s Sporting Goods, basically paraphrased Rodney King’s admonition to the Los Angeles rioters in 1992:  “Can we all get along?”… Continue Reading

Hate, Bernie Style

Written by Robert Knight

Two remarkable things unfolded last month.

The Democrats openly embraced socialism in the form of single-payer health care. And they announced a secular, anti-Christian test for public office. The two go together like Abbott and Costello. Or better yet, since this is far from funny, Marx and Lenin.

“Democratic Socialist” Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ scheme for a single-payer, government-run health care system has already been endorsed by 16 Democrat senators.… Continue Reading

Dick Durbin Joins Leftist Colleagues Seeking to Impose a Religious Test on Court Nominee

Written by John Biver

A few Democrat U.S. Senators, including Illinois’ own Dick Durbin, have been criticized for their questioning of 7th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Amy Coney Barrett on the grounds that they were attempting to impose a religious test in contravention of the U.S. Constitution.

The National Review’s Alexandra DeSanctis provides the background:

Barrett is a law professor at the University of Notre Dame who has written about the role of religion in public life and delivered academic lectures to Christian legal groups.