Hey, At Least They’re Honest!

I found this little gem on reason.tv. On April 16, 2008 a group called Ad Hoc National Network to Stop Evictions and Foreclosures held a protest in Washington D.C.

What were they protesting? As the name of the organization suggests, Ad Hoc was advocating a freeze on all evictions in the U.S. Many of the Ad Hoc supporters wanted to go well beyond this, however. Some called for cancelling of all student loan debt, others called for “free” electricity, “free” healthcare, and “free” education. Still others ranted and raved about every real and imagined sin of the U.S. government (I half expected to see Rev. Wright in the video somewhere).

But don’t bother labeling these people as Marxists or Socialists; at least a few of the protesters who were interviewed readily embraced these philosophies and described themselves as such.

Why is this important? Isn’t this just a small group of extremists?

I wish that were the case. While most people we run into in our daily lives don’t call themselves Marxists or Socialists (they are probably clueless about these philosophies), many of them are calling for some of these very things. Supporters of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ralph Nader (who’s policy proposals are unsafe at any speed), and Mike Gravel (the faux libertarian) each support the Ad Hoc agenda, at least to some extent because their candidates support this agenda to some extent.

John McCain isn’t exactly someone who comes to my mind as a staunch defender of Capitalism either. McCain embraces this so-called “national greatness” philosophy where the individual should be willing to sacrifice himself for the “common good” of the country. McCain also criticized the Bush tax cuts as a tax cut for the rich* and pointed out that Mitt Romney’s background in business “chasing profits” was not as honorable as his lifetime service to his country.

One thing I can say about the Ad Hoc people, as insanely naïve as they are; at least they are honest about who they are. The same cannot be said about the top three candidates running for president.

*Since that time, McCain got religion and now says he will continue the tax cut. Part of his objection to the Bush tax cut was that Bush and congress continued to spend more and more money rather than cut spending. On this point he was right; there was no reason for him to resort to the class warfare arguments of the Left.