As I said in my previous post, “Anatomy of a Bolshevik,” history is never a carbon copy of the past but it does provide useful parallels. So when I looked through the pages of Gordon Woods’ brilliant book, American Revolution, I was struck by certain similarities between the past and present of our country. In the book’s preface, Woods writes:

Unlike the French Revolution, which had been caused by actual tyranny, the American Revolution was seen as a peculiarly intellectual and conservative affair, as something brought about not by actual oppression but by the anticipation of oppression, by reasoning and devotion to principle….The key here is  ”anticipation of oppression” because our country today is filled with such anticipation.

The founding fathers realized that a government by its nature is an institution of tyranny and designed the constitution to protect citizens from government oppression. It took many years for a large group of highly educated and dedicated people to convince the American electorate that their ideas about America’s role in the world and America’s internal social and economic policies required dramatic revisions, including a greater role for the government to control the economy and engineer the distribution of wealth. This agenda brought with it subsequent changes to the moral and economic principles that guided this country for more than 200 years.

In that they did a very good job, using the impending economic crisis to create a fertile ground for a talented demagogue to seduce the nation and elect a majority of representatives who share their views to Congress.

These people see capitalism as evil and tools for exploiting people. They honestly believe that only government is capable of establishing social justice and saving us from our problems.

The ideas of these people, who should be called socialists, liberals, progressives, or Bolsheviks, are not new and have been tried quite a few times with horrible consequences.

The outcome of those ideas was greatly exacerbated by the fact that, contrary to popular belief, liberalism is not a social science, it is a religion.

The difference is that science requires a proof, whether by conducting an experiment, knowledge gained through experience, or historical precedents. Religion, on the other hand, requires none of that. Religion is just a set of beliefs.

Liberals for the most part are like religious fanatics. There is no sacrifice too big or price too high to pay for achieving their ultimate objective – creation of an egalitarian society.

I once discussed this issue with a KGB General whom I befriended during my long emigration ordeal from the former Soviet Union. I pointed out to him that the great experiment with socialism had failed despite the heavy price tag — economic decline and 30 million victims executed during the process of building the new society. His answer was, “We just executed the wrong people.” He would not hesitate to start over again because this time he knew who the “right” people to execute were.

The major challenge facing the American people nowadays is to understand the danger to our democracy from socialist fanatics who refuse to accept that the ills of society cannot be fixed by the government.

If the American people do not accept this fundamental, American Democracy may not live for much longer. The current socialist administration has enacted a series of laws that unless repealed will change this country forever.

As the recent elections demonstrated, the American people do get it. But the challenges of taking America back from the political elite are enormous. The people of California and New York who are heavily dependent on government subsidies voted in the same people who bankrupted their states so as to ensure a continued culture of entitlements. In these states where professional politicians were voted out of the office they were defeated by a slight majority. The Left amassed enormous power with their constituency that possesses organizational skills and very substantial financial strength. After the defeat the President and members of the administration have been talking about working together with the Republicans and hinted at possible compromise. But the American people should have no illusions.

Bolsheviks may make a tactical retreat but they will not abandon the struggle to destroy capitalism and this democracy. As Lenin taught, “First try with a bayonet: if soft, push it in all the way; if hard, back off and look for a soft spot.”

If this government has its way we will become the unfortunate generation dying bankrupt and telling our children and grandchildren, “Work hard and pay, pay, pay forever and remember our utopian dream.”

Will Americans use “reasoning and devotion to principle” and in “anticipation of oppression” be able to resist the power of demagoguery and lies, detect the danger, repair itself and continue its path to what Alexander Hamilton described as the path to “greater perfection and happiness that mankind has yet seen”? The verdict is still out.