OPINION:
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said in recent televised remarks that progressivism is an existential threat to America’s liberties as it seeks to “replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence.” And just a few months ago, newly minted mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, derided the “fragility of rugged individualism” and vowed to replace it with the “warmth of collectivism.”
These voices represent the warring forces of America.
And this is the split that’s dividing America. It’s not Republican versus Democrat. It’s not conservative versus liberal. It’s not MAGA versus Not MAGA. It’s those who believe that rights and liberties come from God and are granted to every individual at birth — versus those who think that government is the controlling entity for the disbursement of rights and liberties.
It’s God-given versus government-granted.
As Thomas said, “[Progressivism] holds that our rights and our dignities come not from God, but from government. It requires of the people a subservience and weakness incompatible with a Constitution premised on the transcendent origin of our rights.”
100% right. 1,000% correct.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident” — as the Declaration of Independence began.
“That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” — as the Declaration of Independence continues.
“That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” — as the Declaration of Independence goes on.
Next up: the part where Thomas Jefferson, leading author of the Declaration, talks about what’s to occur to governments that fail to recognize the proper role of politician-to-people, i.e., public servant to employer.
“That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it” — the Declaration of Independence makes clear.
That means Mamdani should go.
Socialists should not be holding any positions of public service in America where their primary roles are to uphold the basic principles of government. Socialists are incompatible with American government. Their views are not just contrary to founding principles — they’re hostile. They’re destructive. They’re poisonous and vile.
“Mamdani pushed combined $23B worth of new NYC taxes in just his first 100 days,” the New York Post wrote.
More than that, he did so with a smarmy, arrogant attitude that showed utter disdain for those who produce and build; for those who create; for those who actually contribute the most to society.
“When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today,” he said, on a video posted on his mayoral X feed on April 15, “we’re taking the rich.”
The video was an official announcement for his new pied-a-terre tax — a first of its kind for the city that will impose an annual fee on properties valued above $5 million whose owners don’t live full-time in them. Mamdani figures the fee will generate about $500 million per year for the city.
Work hard, become rich?
That’s a classic American dream made possible by a free market and a limited government — and one that’s about to be destroyed in the Big Apple.
Mamdani, like all socialists, like all communists, like all collectivists, detests capitalism and creative ingenuity and individual accomplishment because it threatens his power and curtails his ability to bend humans to his will, and especially bend to his will those humans who have the audacity, in his small mind, to achieve entirely independent of government handouts.
Socialism is soul-sucking.
It steals the God-given talents each and every individual brings into this world and demands their use for some greater good that’s defined and enforced by a government entity. Then it leaves the owner of that talent — of that creative endeavor — of that developed bit of ingenuity, whether product or service or artistic expression — in a position of having to beg government for a piece of the profits generated by that talent. And all the while, the theft by government is narrated as a good for society.
Mamdani truly represents an abhorrence of humanity.
And America shouldn’t just flee such abhorrence. America should stamp it out, set it afire and scatter the ashes to the wind so that it never can root again on American soil.
God-given rights; God-given liberties; individual rights and liberties from the Creator: this is the only war in America that matters. An America that doesn’t recognize this and win this is an America that won’t long survive as free.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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