Socialist left should look to history

France and Greece recently held elections in which candidates urging austerity to salvage their stumbling economies were defeated by socialists urging more spending. The American left claims these elections “prove” that more government spending is the only way to solve the European debt crisis. With twisted logic, the left believes that more spending in America will require more borrowing and debt, but that’s OK because more debt will solve our growing debt crisis. In other words, drink the Obama Kool-Aid.

Carve this in granite and put it where you can see it every day: He who promises to rob Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul. For decades political leaders in France and Greece bought their offices by bribing voters with all manner of wonderful “free” programs. (Sound familiar?) In a singular triumph for socialism, Pauls now outnumber Peters in France and Greece. That is the only thing these elections proved. Profligate spending got France and Greece into their present mess. Now the French and Greek chickens have come home to roost and the left can think of no solution other than to do what they’ve always done: bribe the populace with vows to keep spending on those wonderful “free” programs. Good grief.

President Franklin Roosevelt, after eight years of grandiose spending schemes, proved government spending could not end the Great Depression. It remained for World War II to do that. Spend, tax and borrow to end the debt crisis here and in Europe? It’s a sick joke. As George Santayana wrote, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The socialist-leaning left, if it ever knew history, has forgotten it.

Don Frost

Rolling Meadows