Andy Caldwell
U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal, who bills himself as a steadfast bipartisan congressman who likes to “work across the aisle,” recently indicated that more and more Republicans in Congress have “fascist tendencies”!
The Santa Barbara Democrat obviously does not understand what the word fascist means or he would find himself criticizing his own party through and through, root and branch.
Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) taught in Vienna and New York and is considered the leading theorist of the Austrian School of the 20th century. In his book “Omnipotent Government,” he writes, “We have seen (from the Nazi government’s relationship with business) …. that the Zwangswirtschaft (a combination of the German words for compulsion and economy) is a socialist system of all-round government control of business.”
Mises resolutely rejected the canard that Nazism was an expression of monopoly capitalism. To the contrary, Nazism was a form of socialism: the forms of private property were retained, but control and planning were in the hands of the state.
Sound familiar? It is not the Republicans who are complaining about capitalism and who advocate for the need for all-around government control of free enterprise. However, the Democratic Party, including unions and environmentalists, to name just a few sycophants, have been seeking control of our economy by way of government rules, regulations, taxes, mandates and subsidies with abandon. California, being a one-party state completely controlled by Dems, will help us count the ways!
With respect to water, a group of California farmers decades ago taxed themselves to build a dam and a water conveyance to ensure they could grow food. Our federal and state government, led by environmentalists, absconded with the water for purposes of fish migration and endangered species protection. The end result? Over one million acres of land in the San Joaquin Valley, the most fertile valley in the world, has gone back to desert.
With respect to energy, California is sitting on top of billions of barrels of oil, both onshore and offshore, not to mention trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. This wealth in the form of natural resources was the second (black) gold rush that made California one of the wealthiest states in the union. Yet, various prohibitions and regulations have fomented the demise of in-state production, all the while we have become the largest importer of oil (and electricity!) in the union replete with the highest gas (and electricity!) prices too.
Regarding transportation, California is leading the nation in an attempt to eliminate the sale of gasoline-powered cars and diesel-powered trucks, which in turn, will force manufacturers to cease production of the same or lose out on the largest market in the country. This, despite the fact that we don’t have enough electricity or the infrastructure to charge electric vehicles, and most people can’t afford to purchase the same.
Private ownership of land and resources is basically extinct. For one, the federal government owns most of the western United States. Secondly, California controls virtually every aspect of private use of one’s property, including limiting water rights, building rights, innumerable environmental restrictions on the use of property as it relates to and affects the natural resources thereon, not to mention zoning machinations and endless permitting regimens.
Regarding labor, Dems eliminated a million or so private contracting jobs via Assembly Bill 5, and now they are promulgating so-called “project labor agreements” that prevent some 85% of non-union construction workers from working on government construction projects. Further, they have created a scheme to bankrupt the fast food industry by way of a “commission” to regulate hours, wages and working conditions.
There you have it, Salud! Compulsive state control of water, energy, transportation, private property and labor. Who could ask for anything more? Certainly not the Republican Party.
Andy Caldwell is the COLAB executive director and host of “The Andy Caldwell Show,” airing 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays on KZSB AM 1290, the News-Press radio station.
