Founding Fathers vs. DSA

When our Founding Fathers gathered in Philadelphia to write our Constitution, Karl Marx had not yet been born. They were not afraid of Marxism or socialism, they were afraid of everything and everyone.

Our Constitution endures precisely because those who wrote it did not trust one another. They did not place their trust in the virtue of future leaders. They placed their trust in a Constitution filled with checks and balances. In general, those checks and balances were designed to hinder and slow down those in a hurry. In particular, they were designed to maximize the continued autonomy of each individual state.

Our Founding Fathers did not foresee the particular threats from the Democratic Socialists of America. Nonetheless, here are three specific threats from the DSA our Founding Fathers successfully quashed 200 years before this threat manifested.

One: The Senate. The Founders were fully aware of the Senate's fundamental flaw. Giving Rhode Island and Delaware the same number of Senate votes as New York and Virginia is not fair. They foresaw that future utopians would seek to end the Senate. Article V of the Constitution addresses how to amend the Constitution. It is cumbersome, it requires super majorities, and it gives small states the same power as larger, more populous states. Notwithstanding, they added one sentence at the end of Article V that made one part of the Constitution untouchable. One thing, and one thing only, could not be changed unless each and every State agreed. “… and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.”

Founding Fathers 1, DSA zero.

Two: The Wealth Tax. The Progressive Crazies in California have put a billionaire wealth tax on the November ballot. Even Governor Newsom realizes how self-destructive it is for a single state to do this and is pushing the DSA’s idea of a national wealth tax.

Well, among the things the Founders were afraid of was a federal government that could impose direct taxes on people. From their state-centric point of view, poorer states could gang up on the rich states and impose taxes that would soak up more money from the rich states. To prevent this, they included this peculiar language: “…direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers …”

In other words, if New York has twice the population of Massachusetts, the federal government cannot extract from New York citizens more than twice what they extract from Massachusetts citizens. Well, that mandate is completely impractical and hopelessly too difficult to implement. The result was no direct federal taxes.

Decades later, a federal income tax was enacted, and the courts struck it down because it was not properly apportioned. The only possible solution was to amend the Constitution, which they did with the 16th Amendment that explicitly allows for a federal income tax without the need for it to be apportioned.

A wealth tax is a direct tax. The mega-rich are not evenly distributed among the fifty states. Trying to “apportion“ a wealth tax is impossible. The 16th Amendment is unquestionably specific. It only covers income taxes. Bottom line: A national wealth tax requires an amendment to the Constitution.

Founding Fathers 2, DSA zilch.

Three. The impulse to nationalize something. The hallmark of a socialist government is its habit of nationalizing things. The government decides the manufacture of Widgets is too important to be left to private enterprise. Therefore, the government nationalizes the widget industry. In this context, nationalization is a euphemism for take, or steal. Socialists never pay for anything they nationalize. When a socialist says they intend to eliminate billionaires, they mean to nationalize all the businesses owned by billionaires.

When our Constitution was written, many Americans thought it was incomplete. It nicely created a national government of limited powers, but it neglected something important. It failed to include a list of things the national government may not do. Again, our Founders trusted no one. Just because the current government had no intention of doing such things was not a good enough reason to not create a thou shall not list for the new government.

So, the very first Congress created a thou shall not list. It is called The Bill of Rights — Amendments 1 through 10 to the Constitution. The Fifth became famous because witnesses would cite it when they wanted to refuse to answer a question. But the Fifth Amendment was more than just the right against self-incrimination. After covering many subjects, it ends with this: “…nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

In other words, the Fifth Amendment says thou shall not nationalize anything unless you pay for it. Remember, socialists never pay for anything they take. You can’t eliminate a billionaire if you pay the billionaire for the company you’re stealing. The socialist's basic go-to move was prohibited by our Founders in the Fifth Amendment.

Founders 3, DSA nil.

G-Pub

PS: Socialism in America is impossible unless you first run the Constitution through the shredder. If any Democrat not named Fetterman has mentioned this, I missed it.