Political Pistachio

Pending Birthright Citizenship Supreme Court Case and the Constitution

By Douglas V. Gibbs

There are five cases (Birthright Citizenship, National Emergency Tariffs, Firing Independent Agency Heads, Bans on Transgender Athletes in Women’s Sports, and Banning Conversion Therapy) that will be heard by the Supreme Court of the United States in coming weeks that has America on edge, and while I don’t know how they will rule as a body, I do know how they should if they were following the Constitution of the United States. I plan to write a new article regarding each.

Birthright Citizenship is the topic I’ve been talking about the longest, of the five, even addressing it in my book, “25 Myths of the United States Constitution” back in 2014. In the current context, the issue is a part of President Trump’s Executive Order defining Birthright Citizenship as not applying to the children born on American soil to illegal migrants, or to those whose visit to the United States is temporary.

Executive Orders are instruments the President may constitutionally use to provide proclamations, and to transmit instructions to his executive branch regarding the execution of existing law. So, if we are to determine if the Executive Order is constitutional, the first step in the process is to make sure it is supported by existing law. In this case, the Executive Order is supported by the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which explicitly states: “All persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States.” So, the question is, are the children born on American soil to illegal migrants subject to any foreign power? They are too young to decide where their allegiance lies when they are born on American soil, so to decide if they are subject to a foreign power, we must move to their parental guardians. If the parents broke the law to enter the country, and have taken no actions to legally make permanent their stay in America, and the child is born before such actions to legalize their permanency are taken, then the parents remain subject to a foreign power. As a result, their children are also subject to the same foreign power that their parents are. Therefore, as per the language of the law, President Trump’s Executive Order is consistent with the law.

Then we must ask if the law itself is constitutional. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was passed into law two years before the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment became the law of the land upon the ratification of the amendment. So, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 technically was not required to fall under the provisions of the Citizenship Clause at the time of its passing because the Fourteenth Amendment did not exist, yet. The Citizenship Clause, however, since it is a constitutional amendment, supersedes the law passed two years before it, and the only way the Civil Rights Act is still valid law is if it is consistent with the Citizenship Clause. So, we need to determine if the Citizenship Clause is consistent with the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and what the language of the clause in the Fourteenth Amendment truly means. This, unfortunately, is typically determined by a plain reading of the text. But the textualist interpretation is not consistent with true constitutional law. If we want to determine the original intent of the clause, we need to dig into original documents and notes regarding the clause. To do this, we must examine the congressional testimony of Senators Howard and Trumbull, the primary writers of the Citizenship Clause.

During congressional testimony on May 23, 1866, Senator Jacob Howard said, “This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers…” On May 30, 1866, Senator Lyman Trumbull said, “What do we mean by ‘subject to the jurisdiction of the United States’? Not owing allegiance to anybody else. That is what it means.” Trumbull then clarified that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment were aligned: “The provision is simply declaratory of what I regard as the law of the land already, that every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States…Subject to the jurisdiction means complete jurisdiction; not a partial or temporary one.”

Finally, the court will look to other legal cases that may be related to this issue. Wong Kim Ark (1898) is the case typically dragged into the discussion regarding Birthright Citizenship, and to date it is the only case that addresses the matter. The supporters of the modern interpretation of Birthright Citizenship use this case as supporting evidence for their conclusion. However, if one digs into the actual language of the ruling, it does not support their modern interpretation, after all. Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco to immigrant parents from China. When it was determined that they should be deported, and that he must go with them, he refused, stating he was an American Citizen because he was born in the United States. Once the case was heard by the United States Supreme Court, they recognized that there were two criteria that must be met according to the Citizenship Clause. First, that the person was, “born or naturalized in the United States.” Having been born in San Francisco, Wong Kim Ark satisfied the first hurdle. The next word in the Citizenship Clause is the word “and,” which makes the second part mandatory. The second part reads, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” While those who support the modern definition of Birthright Citizenship argue that means within the borders and subject to the laws, we must be reminded that Senator Trumbull was clear that it meant, “complete jurisdiction; not a partial or temporary one.” So the question for Wong Kim Ark’s argument was simply, when he was born was there legally identifiable conditions that revealed his parents had taken actions to make their stay in the United States a permanent one? The ruling recognized that since his parents had applied for and achieved “permanent resident status,” that though that status had been revoked since then and his parents were being deported, they possessed that status at the time of his birth giving his arrival on this Earth a legal condition of permanency in the United States. As a result, Wong Kim Ark won his case, and was considered a citizen of the United States.

One other supporting reality, though perhaps indirectly related, is the process of becoming a naturalized citizen. My wife naturalized in 2007, and she was required to renounce her citizenship and loyalties to Mexico before she could become an American Citizen; a requirement that is specifically a part of the naturalization process to satisfy “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” portion of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Regarding Birthright Citizenship, we have one law supporting President Trump’s Executive Order, we have a single provision in the Constitution supporting his Executive Order, we have one court case which made it all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States supporting the President’s Executive Order, and we even have a provision in our naturalization laws that supports the President’s Executive Order. If this Supreme Court is to follow the constitutional path to their decision, they will rule in favor of President Trump.

— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Mamdani’s Communist Plans for Private Property in NYC

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Socialism, Communism, or just basic collectivism all embrace the same belief when it comes to private property. Personal possessions are not to be tolerated, and confiscated for use by the state for the “greater good” and “fair distribution.” The language changes with the decade, but the doctrine never does. In Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural speech, and with the hiring of Cea Weaver, Mamdani’s Tenant Director, it is clear that the Mamdani administration in New York City agrees, and plans to treat property as a collective good.

Like every collectivist movement in history, Mamdani’s promise is simple: rather than embrace rugged individualism, he plans to move New York toward “the warmth of collectivism.” We’ve heard these kinds of promises before. “We’re not taking your property — we’re just making sure everyone gets their fair share.” Despite the soft-spoken rhetoric, and “the government will step in…if your landlord does not responsibly steward your home” promises that claims government takeover is a good thing, the truth is unmistakable. When the state becomes the arbiter of fairness, and the controller of possessions, the citizen becomes a subject of force and owns nothing.

But, as the WEF told us recently, “You’ll own nothing, and be happy.”

Mamdani, like every socialist, is anti-property-ownership. He once posted on X, “People often ask what socialists mean when we say we want to ‘decommodify’ housing. Basically, we want to move away from a situation where most people access housing by purchasing it on the market and towards a situation where the state guarantees high-quality housing to all.”

John Locke listed the most important natural rights as being Life, Liberty, and Property. When Thomas Jefferson wrote “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, he stated he changed it because he didn’t want people to think they entitled to property from the government. It is something to pursue, like all of our other rights. Natural Rights are not something to be guaranteed, or given by government, but to be something that government may not make any laws regarding. That’s why the First Amendment begins, “Congress shall make no law,” the Second Amendment ends with “shall not be infringed,” the Third Amendment begins “No soldier shall,” and the Fourth Amendment at its core reads, “shall not be violated.” That’s not language giving government any authority regarding our natural rights; it’s language telling the government “hands off” our rights.

While socialists like Mamdani sees private property as an economic concept, it is much more than that. It is the foundation of personal liberty. The Founders understood this so deeply that they wove it into the very DNA of the American experiment. Property is the physical expression of one’s labor, one’s choices, and one’s independence. Which is precisely why collectivist ideologies despise property ownership and personal possessions. Their attitude is that you must own nothing; that way, you are dependent upon the state. If you depend on the state, you obey the state. And if you obey the state, the state no longer serves you… you serve it. This is the quiet truth behind every utopian slogan. The rhetoric on the surface is painted and patted down and sprinkled with compassion and fairness, but the results are always coercive.

Modern collectivists like Mamdani rarely use the words “confiscation” or “state control.” They prefer the vocabulary of moral superiority, the kind that makes resistance sound selfish. They use words like “redistribute,” or “democratize,” or “reimagine,” or “ensure equitable outcomes.” These are not harmless buzzwords. They are the linguistic crowbars used to pry open the door to government authority.

Satan always appears as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). In the same way, the Left never sells collectivism as collectivism. They sell it as compassion. They operate as political magicians using verbal of “sleight‑of‑hand.” In truth, their collectivism and attacks on personal ownership are a direct assault on the principles of this country and the principles of the U.S. Constitution.

The idea of God-given Natural Rights and the Blessings of Liberty are Constitutional concepts that includes property ownership, and our rights are not negotiable privileges. Government is there for certain services and to ensure we have an orderly society, but our natural rights predate government. Therefore, our rights are not to be defined, controlled, determined or taken away by government just because it decides it must happen for socialist reasons. The Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause is only there for certain occasions, and even then if the compensation is not viewed as “just” by the owner of the property in question, constitutionally the government has no authority to confiscate it.

Collectivism flips the American model upside down. Instead of government existing to secure your rights and make no laws regarding your rights, your rights exist only as long as government approves of them.

History shows us the failures of socialism and the successes of the American free market system and the principles of liberty. Every collectivist experiment, from the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela, began with the same moralistic language about fairness and equality. And every one of them ended with shortages, corruption, political repression, and a ruling class exempt from the rules they impose. The pattern is so consistent it might as well be a law of political physics.

Today, Mamdani is planting the same ideological seeds in American soil. Like his other socialist comrades in the Democratic Party, he wraps them in deceptive packaging, calling them justice, equity initiatives, wealth taxes, “public good” mandates, and the warm embrace of collectivism. But, the root of it all is unchanged. The message is simple: You didn’t build that. You don’t own that. The state knows better than you how to use it. Home ownership is “racist,” and a “failed public policy” while calling for the impoverishment of the middle class. Cea Weaver, Mamdani’s Tenant Director, calls home ownership, “white supremacy.” Simply a variation on an old theme, class warfare.

This is not progress. This is not compassion. This is the oldest political con in the book.

Americans who are falling for the tasty worm on the hook in places like New York City will learn the hard way that socialism is not about “treating people fairly,” as the media spins it. In the end these policies always result in economic collapse, misery, and death. If we wish to preserve the republic the Founders entrusted to us, we must recognize collectivism for what it is and stop the cancer before it metastasizes. It goes way beyond policy debate, because what we are up against is an unforgiving and merciless philosophical assault on the very idea of individual liberty and our natural rights.

Understand, once the state claims authority over what you own, it will soon claim authority over what you say, what you believe, and how you live. It begins small, carrying a smile of compassion, but it never takes long for it to go way beyond private ownership of property into the very existence of freedom itself.

— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Renee Good and the Cultural Revolution

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The fatal shooting of 37-year-old left-wing activist Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota is exactly what the hard-left violent protesters were hoping for. They want their own version of Kent State. They want chaos and lawlessness. They have been waiting for a catalyzing event that would ignite mass mobilization, and serve as their George-Floyd moment to erupt into greater violence and ultimately their revolution against any government leadership that disagrees with their narrative.

Around the country the leftwing collective was already gathering and preparing for mass protest and riot momentum, so when news of the shooting reached them, they were already ready to roll. Even more protest events have been planned since it happened. Meanwhile, the Democratic politicians and dishonest mainstream media launched into their own narrative and spin about the shooting, claiming that there was no evidence the shooting was justified, and promising to punish those involved. New Yorkers were screaming they wanted to hang Secretary Noem, and Philadelphia’s mayor called for the arrest of ICE agents. Minnesota Mayor Jacob Frey, in between his F-Bomb tirades, said that the ICE agent hit by Renee Good not only was not injured, he “walked away with a hop in his step.” New video, specifically POV (point of view) footage, reveals that the agent was struck and that Renee Good seemed to intend to strike the federal officer. Even a CNN analyst has admitted that the response by the ICE agent was “legally justified.” One can recognize a part of the influence of the response of the ICE agent when you consider he was hospitalized last year when rammed and dragged by a vehicle weaponized by a hysterical anti-ICE protester.

I’ve watched a number of arm-chair political hacks on MSNow and CNN argue that she was turning her vechicle away to flee, that he had no business in front of the vehicle, and that he simply wanted to shoot her and was not in danger. If someone is in danger, or believes they are in danger, like this ICE agent was, whether or not the tires are turned one way or another and if he has the inches necessary to escape is not what is rolling through your mind. You don’t have time to reason like that. As they say, hindsight is 20/20. We don’t even know if for sure in the mind of Renee Good that she wanted to harm him, kill him, or simply flee. What we do know is that the vehicle went into motion, the agent believed he was in danger, the vehicle struck him, and he fired. He believed his life was in danger, and he had experienced a similar situation before and was aware that these protesters have no problem using their vehicles as weapons, and when the vehicle struck him it confirmed in his mind that he was correct about his life being in danger, so he fired.

As for Renee Good, don’t fall for the progressive leftwing media’s claims about her being some innocent peaceful protestor or that she was just some poor mom trying to get her kids to school. She was not a gentle soul shot by ICE. She was a radical activist willing to resort to violence who deliberately put herself in the path of federal agents and tried to harm or kill one of those agents with her vehicle. According to Revolver News, “She was a trained, committed anti-ICE activist who belonged to a group dedicated to tracking, disrupting, and interfering with ICE operations. She hated ICE. She followed them. And on that day, she used her car as a weapon.”

I am sad that someone died, but the deceptive twisting of the facts to fit a political narrative disgusts me. I’ve seen the videos. I’ve analyzed them in my own mind. Each one of them reveals the same truth: Renee Good used her car as a weapon against a federal ICE agent during a moment of protest that violated the First Amendment principle of “peaceable assembly.” The only thing that saved the ICE agent’s life was the ice on the road, which made sure the vehicle didn’t lurch forward more quickly so that she could run him over.

Despite media claims about Renee Good somehow being an innocent victim who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, her history reveals that she placed herself in the area specifically so that she could be a part of confrontations against ICE. Good moved to the area only a year before, and immediately connected to the local anti-ICE activist groups. Her neighborhood of choice is a heavy-leftist area with homes decked out in LGBTQ+ and BLM signage. She enrolled her child who she was raising with her politically radical lesbian partner in the Southside Family Charter School, a K-5 academy known for its dedication to leftist causes and “social justice education.” Through her school community she became involved in “ICE Watch,” a loose coalition of activists dedicated to disrupting ICE operations.

Knowing her background, and the fact that she was a proud anti-ICE “warrior,” recruited and gladly a participant of progressive anti-American activist networks known for their violent manner of protesting; is it a surprise that she was using her vehicle as a weapon in what has become a domestic warzone with what looked like the intent to harm or kill a federal employee trying to carry out his duties?

Counterterrorism expert Ryan Mauro of the Mauro Institute on “The Glenn Beck Program,” commented about the group that Renee Good was a member of, “You go to their social media page, and it doesn’t take much work, actually, to find instructions on how to assault police in order to free people, open up cop car doors, and pull people out…They do not recognize the United States as a legitimate country…” He described the group’s rhetoric as focused on “eliminating America” and “setting cop cars on fire.” He pointed to a social media post that included “a depiction of a cop car on fire… That’s how you build an insurgency,” Mauro said, citing what he described as the “violent intention” behind the imagery. Then, regarding Renee Good, Mauro said, “She was not just somebody who is there to observe. Again, you don’t park your car across the road to block it if you’re just an observer. That’s insanity, and we all know it. Will anyone actually admit to that in the press?”

The reality is, the members and leadership of the Minneapolis power structure are accomplices to the violence. If Renee Good’s blood is on anyone’s hands, it’s theirs. As Mayor Jacob Frey danced behind a microphone screaming expletives and along with Governor Tim Walz declared war on ICE and the Trump administration, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara abandoned large swaths of the city to progressive Marxist rioters following the death of Renee Good. They let the city burn and collapse much like Walz did years before. Minneapolis police officers pulled back from the scene of the shooting when the mobs got bigger and more dangerous, driving away with their tails between their legs as rioters pelted the fleeing police vehicles with ice chunks and other projectiles. By nightfall, downtown had been overtaken by protesters who chanted, “no-one is illegal on stolen land.” While Minnesota Governor Tim Walz stated there would be a law enforcement response, none materialized. Left unimpeded, rioters searched local hotels for ICE agents, storming one hotel in downtown Minneapolis they believed was housing federal immigration agents. Agitators in all black were smashing windows and the invaders into the hotel smashed up the lobby. Eventually, some arrests were made inside Minneapolis, but not until federal personnel arrived with fencing to protect federal buildings.

Meanwhile, in Portland, Oregon, after federal ICE agents shot two people during a targeted traffic stop, the Portland Police Chief cried on camera while reporting that the two people were connected to Venezuela’s violent gang, Tren de Aragua. The Border Patrol agents fired off defensive rounds when the Venezuelan gang members “weaponized” their car during the stop, attempting to mow down the federal agents. The driver has been identified as an alleged member of the notorious Tren de Aragua criminal organization, while the passenger is an illegal migrant allegedly affiliated with the gang’s prostitution ring and shootings in Portland. The couple suffered gunshot wounds and are currently in a hospital receiving treatment. Their condition hasn’t been confirmed. But, the Portland Police Chief proclaimed he felt bad for the Hispanic community, that a pair of their own had been harmed, as he wiped away his tears.

Renee Good’s lesbian wife, thanks to a leftist fundraising effort on GoFundMe, will be a millionaire as a result of the whole situation, with the raised funds reaching $1,503,483 from 38,000 donations. The wife of Renee Good at one point said she blamed herself for convincing Good to come to the protest. I suppose the new windfall is her punishment.

Governor Tim Walz says he’s calling up the National Guard to support law enforcement… or is it to stand off against the federal government? Is he trying to start a civil war?

President Trump’s use of federal officers inside U.S. cities to execute federal law, as constitutionally supported in Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution, is not some new situation, or only a Republican way of doing things. Precedent reveals Presidents of the United States from both sides of the aisle using federal agents in cities. In 1943, Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt deployed 6,000 federal troops to Detroit to restore peace as a two-day race riot erupted amid housing and job tensions. President Roosevelt invoked the Insurrection Act, as President Trump is considering doing as tensions continue to rise with the scenes we are seeing in the streets of America’s cities. In 1957, President Eisenhower used National Guardsmen and 1,000 Army soldiers during the Little Rock Integration Crisis. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy, Democrat, eventually sent over 30,000 federal agents and Army troops, invoking the Insurrection Act, to quell a violent segregationist uprising where white mobs attacked federal marshals on the University of Mississippi campus. In 1963, Kennedy used federal personnel again under the Insurrection Act, this time in Alabama when Alabama’s Governor George Wallace worked against federal law which required the University of Alabama to enroll two Black students. In 1965, Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson activated the National Guard and Army soldiers to protect a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery from violence after state police violence was launched against the group on “Bloody Sunday.” The federal troops escorted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of marchers along the 50-mile route, forming protective cordons and ensuring the marchers were not attacked as they had been before. Johnson, in this case, like many of his predecessors, invoked the Insurrection Act, stating the attacks were an insurrection against federal authority. In 1967, Johnson again deployed National Guard personnel, this time to one of the most destructive urban riots in U.S. History in Detroit, Michigan. In 1968, nationwide King Assassination riots erupted in over 100 cities around the country, so President Johnson activated the Insurrection Act again, dispatching thousands of federal troops in Washington D.C. alone. He also sent troops to Baltimore, Chicago, and other locations. The deployments were the broadest use of federal troops in modern American History. A May Day celebration became violent protests in 1971, prompting President Richard Nixon to deploy federal personnel, including National Guardsmen, U.S. Marines, and Army paratroopers to Washington D.C. in an attempt to regain control of the city. The Atlanta Prison Riot in 1987 led President Ronald Reagan to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy federal troops to assist in ending the stand-offs. George W. Bush sent the National Guard to Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots. In 2020, President Trump deployed National Guard and federal law enforcement personnel to Washington D.C. and eleven states during the George Floyd protests and riots.

These anti-ICE protests, however, are a few notches up from the other situations. This is purposeful defiance against the federal government executing constitutionally authorized federal law across the entire country. This is violence that has been planned, coordinated, and launched by groups who have been planning the demise of America for most of the previous century. This is Cultural Marxism coupled with a political ideology that has taken command of the Democratic Party specifically seeking to upend and usurp U.S. Law. A large portion of the American population has become out-of-their-mind radical with deep operatives pushing them along with a protective cover-fire of propaganda and hive-mind operations. The truth has been pushed aside. Reason no longer matters. The law no longer matters. The lust for power and collapse by those seeking a Marxist revolution in America is what fuels this, and they have gotten to the point that they will attack anyone who dares to oppose them.

We are experiencing the next stage of Cultural Marxism – the time when revolutions bubble to the surface, Marxist disruptions flow through the streets and the halls of government, and a direct attack against America’s founding heritage and system of liberty and a free market. These are the purveyors of chaos who purposely want to create confusion and lawlessness so that when the system finally collapses under their pressure, they then offer shelter from the madness with their totalitarian authoritarianism disguised as a promise of structured order.

Communists have been seeking subversion since the dawn of the previous century. They’ve been injecting their socialism a little bit at a time, like the slow boil of a frog in a pot. They ultimately seek economic instability, because when people can’t feed themselves or their family, afford their housing, or afford other basic products and services they begin seeking change. That’s why the Democrats are screaming about an affordability crisis when the numbers are actually saying something to the contrary. They don’t want prices going lower. They don’t want inflation to get better, and they don’t want energy prices dropping which in turn would lower other prices. They need economic instability. They need suffering. They need people crying because they are hungry and cold and without shelter. That’s how revolutions topple governments.

But if the people are going to topple the government, the chaos has to ensue. The people need to become comfortable with violence. They need to be desensitized to physical conflict and the roar of revolution. From the Cultural Marxist’s point of view, they need to be willing to put their lives on the line for the new utopia they have been promised. They need to be more than willing to use their vehicles as weapons and die behind the wheel while trying to kill anyone who serves as an image or agent of the current power structure.

In short, Renee Good’s death was a part of the program. A part of the plan. A sign of the civil war or socialist revolution they need to explode on American soil. Her death is exactly what the schemers have been pushing for during the last hundred years. The younger generation has been programmed to hate America, and take action against anyone who disagrees with their revolutionary voice. It is their duty, in their minds, to fight against “the man.” President Trump is the face of evil, they’ve been told, and all of his minions and supporters are determined to kill them and destroy their dreams of a utopia where they can have an easier life of socialist sameness, so they need to do something about it. And they’ve been taught that the socialist utopia is even worth dying for. Hate Trump. Hate his supporters. Hate his federal officers. Attack when possible, and die if necessary.

Yes, the Democrats, progressive left, communists, democratic socialists, and all of those other anti-American forces are not only determined to convince you that we are under tyranny, and that the tyranny must be fought at all levels, but those who stand against it must be willing to die to make it happen.

The civil war and Marxist revolution is indeed upon us. Renee Good was just a fallen comrade to the purveyors of anti-Americanism.

— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

The Deceptive Lure of Socialism

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The socialist dystopia George Orwell warned us about has come home to roost. As predicted by Soviet communists, our dangerous tango with socialism did not come upon us wearing jackboots and goose-stepping in the street, but with a smiley face, a Green New Deal, and a promise of free everything for everybody. “Little wonder the Kremlin maintains it will not raise the Red flag [of communism] over America. The Americans will raise it themselves.” It is insidious what has been going on, but the plan went into motion more than a hundred years ago, and it is a perfect realization of Animal Farm and 1984.

Adolf Hitler famously said to the older generation in Nazi Germany, “Your child belongs to us already… What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.” The progressives in America have used Cultural Marxism to indoctrinate the young in America. And their schemes have proven to be very successful for them. Look at the kids today. They are coming out of our universities that have long ceased being institutions of higher learning and they have taught our children that America is the source of all evil in the world. This is the 1984 Two Minutes Hate come to life. They have been programmed to despise the free market principles that made this country so prosperous, despise the Founding Fathers who established our system of liberty and limited government, and despise our history.

They flock to Bernie Sanders and The Squad because they have no frame of reference. They don’t know history. They don’t know that socialism has failed every single time it’s been tried. They don’t know about the Soviet Union. They don’t know the history of Venezuela’s demise. To them, socialism isn’t a dystopian nightmare; it’s fairness. It’s equality. It’s a bunch of free stuff. It’s getting their student loans wiped out by the government. The Left has successfully rewritten the past, just like the Ministry of Truth in Orwell’s 1984, so that these kids think capitalism is slavery and socialism is liberation.

In Animal Farm, Orwell wrote a warning about how socialism takes over. But, to the Democrats and their leftist allies in America, Orwell’s writings don’t serve as warnings. For them, it’s a playbook for their takeover of America. Remember how the pigs started out? All animals are equal. That sounds great, right? That’s Bernie Sanders. That’s AOC. We’re just here for the little guy! We’re here to stick it to the evil corporations and the rich! Then, by the end of the book, the pigs start walking on two legs. They start sleeping in the farmer’s house. They start drinking whiskey. And the chilling line changes from All animals are equal to All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

That is the Democratic Party of today. They tell you they want equality of outcome, but who ends up running things? The elite ruling class. The bureaucrats. The intellectuals. The self-appointed experts. The people like Bernie Sanders who owns three houses while preaching about the evils of wealth. They are the pigs. They want the power to distribute your wealth, but they never touch their own. They promise the sheep and the chickens a utopia, but they deliver a dictatorship where the elites live like kings while the rest of us stand in line for toilet paper.

Why is the younger generation buying this? It’s simple human nature, and the Left knows it. It’s the lure of the sugar-teat. When you offer a twenty-something who is drowning in debt because of a useless degree the prospect of free healthcare, free college, and a guaranteed job, they aren’t going to ask how it gets paid for, and who will innovate once the free market dies. They aren’t going to ask about the inevitable collapse of production, the currency, and liberty. They are going to vote for the guy promising them the loot.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure that has failed every time it has ever been tried. It preys on the ignorant, and preaches the gospel of envy. Its only inherent collective promise that comes true is equity – the equal sharing of misery. But it is sold as compassion. The purveyors of collectivism use the language of morality, peace, love, and unity. If you oppose their socialist schemes, you aren’t just wrong on policy; you are a bad person. You are a racist, a sexist, a bigot, and a homophobe. This is Orwell’s Newspeak. They shut down debate by controlling the language. If you can’t say it, you eventually can’t think it.

They call themselves Democratic Socialists to soften the blow. They tell us that they just want us to be like more like Sweden. The lie is that first of all, Sweden is a mess, but the truth is not reaching public ears. The truth has been suppressed, and only glowing reports come out of Scandinavia. What we will get, though, if we follow the pied piper’s flute over the cliff, is Venezuela. The aim of the Democrats is to someday control every aspect of your life. What you drive. If you drive. What you eat. What you say. What you think. That is Orwell’s 1984. The telescreen in your living room isn’t just a TV anymore; it’s your smart phone. It’s the cancel culture that patrols your thoughts and punishes you if you step out of line.

The lure of socialism is the lure of ease over effort. It is the temptation to let the state take care of you so you don’t have to take care of yourself. But as Orwell showed us, and as history has proven time and time again, the price of that security is your freedom… and ultimately, the slaughter of millions of lives.

The younger generation is being seduced by a siren song that leads to the rocks. They think they are fighting for justice, but they are actually volunteering to build their own cages. And the AOCs and Bernies of the world? They are more than happy to hold the keys.

To know the truth, we only need to look upon history. The world has experienced nearly two centuries of ruin brought to those societies that have adopted the socialist/collectivist governing system. Yet, the appeal remains. The free countries of the twentieth century each have a thriving socialist party occupying portions of their governments in the twenty-first century, including the United States with the Democratic Socialists of America.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.” He knew what tyranny looks like because he studied it. He paid close attention and realized that the promises of socialists are closely analogous to the serpent’s promises in the Garden of Eden. And while it is reasonable to push back against socialist talking points by teaching people about the endless failures of socialism, the basic laws of economics, and the immorality and destructiveness of confiscating property and denying citizens their constitutionally enumerated natural rights – I am reminded of the old saying: You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink… or in this case, you can’t make it think.

The Founding Fathers understood human nature, which is why our Constitution provided so many checks and balances in our system which included oversight by the States with the state legislatures appointing the U.S. Senators, the states providing electors for an electoral college in presidential elections, and the states being tasked with ratifying any amendments with three-quarters approval. They understood the toxicity of utopianism, as they called socialism during their era. Many of those guards have been stripped away, and the promises of socialists made in today’s media landscape are all that the younger generation is hearing. And, as I said a moment ago, they are as sly as the serpent in the garden… eat this fruit, vote and campaign for this socialist and you will have everything you want.

We underestimate socialism. It is a tumor that we see as benign as long as it doesn’t grow too much. We’ve been taught all of our lives that the injection of a little bit of socialism into the system a little bit at a time is harmless. They’ve been doing exactly that for the last hundred years.

If you keep pushing the envelope, eventually it falls off the side of the table.

Today’s progressive socialists consciously reject political reasoning, morality, and complex abstractions. They operate in a binary world marching to Orwellian orders: “If someone disagrees with you, they hate you. If someone does not celebrate your deviations, they hate you. If someone stands against the socialist order, they are Hitler, fascists, and enemies of democracy and they must be dealt with.”

And the Democrats act surprised (or feign ignorance) when their followers rise up and assassinate a member of their opposition, attack federal ICE agents with a moving vehicle, or shout down members of MAGA or the federal government with expletive-laced angry rhetoric.

The result? Mindless automatons willing to do as they’ve been programmed to do. No reason to think about it. The enemy of democracy has been identified.

Common sense, the truth about history, economic facts and even successful results by politicians like that of President Trump during his current term falls on deaf ears. The socialists are convinced that their religion is the only one that matters, and anything that reveals the contrary might be true is propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech. They, instead, believe the catchy slogan, the hippy chants and songs being blasted through megaphones, photogenic demagogues, a vibe that makes them feel intelligent and a part of something, and anything that has nothing to do with true American History or conservative talking-points.

It’s the worldview they’ve been programmed to follow and fight for, or bust.

Some of them won’t see the truth until it collapses in front of them. They will never understand anything more than what they’ve been indoctrinated to believe until New York City collapses under Mamdani’s leadership, the Minnesota corruption finally slams the Democrat Party across the legal face, and states like California finally collapse in a truly Venezuelan manner.

Then again, they will probably blame the failures of their socialist ideology on capitalism, corporations, and Jewish Bankers.

When you are lied to long enough, even the truth begins to look like a lie.

— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary