Be it Resolved

Earlier this year, the House of Representative resolved to denounce socialism, in all its forms. The resolution lists a number of regimes and concludes that all socialism is horrid.

I suspect the framers of this resolution hope to cast aspersions on socialized medicine and Social Security, among other "horrors of socialism." Does the House condemn our strongest allies, Western European nations with national health care and strong safety nets for their citizens? Israel and Hungary have excellent national health plans, so must they too must be struck from the list of "good guys"?

A lot of Democrats along with all but three Republican members of congress (who apparently were out of town) voted for this resolution. I suppose they didn't want to face voters who might ask, "How could you refuse to denounce Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, and Kim Jong Un?!"

The resolution lists these and other brutal dictators. It fails to mention that each of these dictators was an authoritarian. And, because they denounced only the socialists instead of all authoritarians, they missed some biggies, such as Hitler and Mussolini.

So I drafted a similar resolution, which covers all the bases of H. Con. Res. 9 and then some. It also puts the ideological blame where it is due. If we can find a sponsor, maybe voters will get the chance to confront their Representatives: "How could you refuse to denounce Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini?!"

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CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Denouncing the horrors of authoritarianism.

Whereas authoritarian ideology necessitates a concentration of power that has time and time again collapsed into Communist and fascist regimes, totalitarian rule, and brutal dictatorships;

Whereas authoritarianism has repeatedly led to famine and mass murders, and the killing of over 150,000,000 people worldwide;

Whereas many of the greatest crimes in history were committed by authoritarian ideologues, including Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Jorge Videla, Pol Pot, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un, Daniel Ortega, Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin, and Nicolas Maduro;

Whereas tens of millions died in the Bolshevik Revolution, at least 10,000,000 people were sent to the gulags in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and millions more starved in the Terror-Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine;

Whereas 6,000,000 million Jews from across Europe were deemed “vermin” and slaughtered;

Whereas another 6,000,000 non-Jewish people from Germany, Poland, Russia, were murdered by the Nazi regime and its allies;

Whereas authoritarian regimes initiated and perpetrated World War II, which led directly to the deaths of 50,000,000 to 60,000,000 people and the death of another 20,000,000 due to war-related disease and famine;

Whereas between 15,000,000 and 55,000,000 people starved to death in the wake of famine and devastation caused by the Great Leap Forward in China;

Whereas the authoritarian regime in Cambodia led to the killing fields in which over a million people were gruesomely murdered;

Whereas up to 3,500,000 people have starved in North Korea, dividing a land of freedom from a land of destitution;

Whereas authoritarian dictators in Africa and South America, such as Idi Amin and Augusto Pinochet, brought oppression and death to millions of innocent citizens;

Whereas the authoritarian Castro regime in Cuba expropriated the land of Cuban farmers and the businesses of Cuban entrepreneurs, stealing their possessions and their livelihoods, and exiling millions with nothing but the clothes on their backs;

Whereas authoritarianism in Venezuela turned a once-prosperous nation into a failed State with the world’s highest rate of inflation;

Whereas the author of the Declaration of Independence, President Thomas Jefferson, wrote, ‘‘A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people’’;

Whereas the ‘‘Father of the Constitution’’, President James Madison, wrote that ‘‘The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands whether of one, a few or many...may be justly pronounced the very definition of tyranny’’;

and Whereas the United States of America was founded on the belief in the rights of all individuals equally to have a say in who represents them, to which rights authoritarian systems in all forms are fundamentally and necessarily opposed:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress denounces authoritarianism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of authoritarian policies in the United States of America. 

Sheep's Clothing

Mike Johnson, the dapper, recently elected Speaker of the House, responded to a question about his views, "go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it—that’s my worldview."

I'm guessing that how he reads his Bible is different from how Bible translator David Bentley Hart does. In a recent interview, Hart said:

National conservatives—the people who think Jesus would have loved the Second Amendment and hated Mexicans—are simply not Christians. There’s nothing about their vision of reality and their relations to their fellow human beings that bears the slightest resemblance to who and what Christ was and what he taught. There’s not even a meaningful debate to be held on this: the Christian right is a movement whose ultimate ends are to extinguish real Christian convictions in society.

One can argue whether Hart or Johnson is more extreme. Both claim their political views are informed by the Bible. Hart is a Christian socialist. Johnson condemns socialism in all its forms and condemns anyone who disagrees with this.

Johnson's Bible apparently favors the rich. Hart's would favor the poor.

Hart is a member of Democratic Socialists of America. Johnson, having condemned all socialism, despises this organization and its members. But are we sure it's because it includes "socialists" in its name? Maybe its the "democratic" that he worries about.

Johnson has given up on democracy. He knows perfectly well who won the last presidential election, but he's willing and eager to lie about it. He would forfeit rule of the people, by the people, and for the people to protect his personal religious and political views.