Fowler: Democrats need to remove the blinders

“If a man is not a socialist at 20 he has no heart, but if he remains one at 30 he has no head.” — Attributed to King Oscar II of Sweden (1829-1907)

My widowed mother married my stepfather when I was 8. We moved from the Panhandle plains to a farm 12 miles east of Fort Worth, now lost in the smorgasbord of the Metroplex. My stepfather was a barber but also a truck farmer who planted watermelons, black-eyed peas, and cantaloupes. This was 1939, two years before December 7,1941, still in the grip of the Great Depression.

My stepfather’s farm machinery consisted of two mules and a walk-behind, single-bladed plow to break up the ground. The plow was pulled by the mules which were used to pull various other mule-drawn equipment. The mules wore “blinders,” pieces of leather covering the sides of the eyes so that the mules’ attention could not be distracted from their job. An analogy to the mules and their blinders is the modern Democrat Party whose members seem to be wearing blinders, blind to the fact that their party is leading the country toward a Marxist government.

In the face of borders out of control, the debacle, death, and embarrassment of Afghanistan, the obvious intent to destroy the Constitution and to write a new constitution to install a Marxist regime, and the senseless fiscal policies of the Biden administration — all of which the Democrats lie about — the “rank and file” remain entrenched in their delusion that the Party is the same Party it was in the days of Harry Truman. The Democrat Party today is not the Truman party. It is the Communist party. For those who refuse to wear the blinders of delusion, the evidence is everywhere.

Hillary Clinton and others in the Democrat Party appear on national TV claiming that their party is “saving democracy” from the evil Republicans and Conservatives and harangue Joe Manchin for “betraying democracy” by refusing to vote “yes” on the Build Back Better Bunkum. On the contrary, if Mr. Machin can stay the course, a statue should be built in his honor for saving democracy.

The title “Democrat” is obviously derived from the term “democracy,” a system of government ruled by the people. Rule by the people is not a motto of the Democrat Party and has never been. The core tenet of the Democrat Party is rule by the government, not rule by the people. (Albeit, not a Marxist government.)

William F. Buckley, noted conservative, along with others, modified King Oscar’s observation by changing the second line to “…if he is still a liberal at 30, he has no brain.” The modern Democrat Party, especially those who rule in Washington D.C. seem brain dead regarding the Far Left’s plan to destroy the country. The constant barrage of lies by AOC and the “squad,” by Bernie Sanders, and by the Schumer’s and Pelosi’s in Congress — all supported by Joe Biden — are really the greatest threat to democracy since World War II (contrary to Hillary’s propaganda). The main difference is that instead of an army to fight, the fight is against an ideology that has killed millions of people and impoverished millions more. The evidence lies in the history of Marxists governments.

King Oscar, obviously, was no champion of socialism. In spite of that, Sweden, along with the other Scandinavian countries, adopted a form of socialism which relies on capitalism to fund their social programs. The ups and downs of Swedish socialism have been adequately documented elsewhere. The point here is that Swedish socialism is a far cry from Marxist socialism. From their actions, it is quite apparent that the Washington Marxists have little interest in free-market socialism, even though their propaganda machines, in the form of national media and their party, trumpets “freedom,” the party stands for just the opposite.

Sweden has made no attempt to control its free-market system of government. On the other hand, as evidenced from the Obama administration, the Democrats want to control businesses in the United States by stifling them with regulations. When Donald Trump withdrew most of the regulations imposed by Barack Obama, the economy boomed. So far as other freedoms are concerned, the Washington Democrats are determined to destroy free speech, religion, ownership of guns — in fact the entire Bill of Rights?

The delicious irony of the mule analogy is that the symbol of the Democrat Party is the donkey, one parent of the mule. The “rank and file” Democrats should follow their symbol and kick the Marxists out of their party. They then can return their party to what it once was — if they so desire.

Carl Fowler is a retired professor of English at Amarillo College and lives in Amarillo.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Carl Fowler Democratic Party needs to remove the blinders