NIKKI HALEY: The Left Isn’t Looking Out For The Little Guy

One of the biggest falsehoods in the country is this: The left is fighting for the little guy.

You hear it all the time. From professors and teachers in the classroom. From the media. And of course, from liberal leaders. The Democratic Party has branded itself as the party of the people. But the party of Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t fighting for the little guy. It’s propping up the big boys – the rich, the powerful, and the politically connected.

This is the untold story of socialism, which is fast becoming the default position of the Democratic Party. The socialist worldview demands total control over the American economy. It depends on destroying the private economy – from Main Street to Wall Street – until D.C. chooses the cars we drive, the food we eat, the news we watch, and how we live our daily lives.

The left has a two-step plan to achieve this goal. At both steps, the many lose, and the few win.

The first step — which America is currently experiencing — is the road to socialism.

Right now, the Left is demanding a massive expansion of government power and spending, with The White House and Congress attempting to pass a slew of policies that will empower bureaucrats to shape the economy however they want. While liberal leaders talk up these policies as a matter of principle, in practice, they are nothing more than a series of bailouts, handouts, and carve-outs for liberal interest groups and allies.

Look at the $1.9 trillion spending bill Joe Biden just signed. It’s jam-packed with special-interest giveaways. Labor unions get nearly $100 billion, even though union bosses have spent decades wasting their members’ money. It gives teachers unions another $130 billion, even though they’ve neglected students and families during the pandemic. What’s the outcome of the Left’s big government spending spree? Blue states that have destroyed their economies get tens of billions more, rewarding their bad behavior.

This isn’t fighting for the little guy. It’s bailing out the people who back Democrats.

The same is true of Joe Biden’s “infrastructure” plan. With a total cost of as much as $4 trillion, the plan takes its inspiration from the so-called “Green New Deal.” Yet it’s nothing more than a massive mash-up of subsidies to industries liberals adore, from wind farms to electric car makers. If the far Left gets its way, its friends and favored firms would continue to rake in billions of taxpayer dollars. The rest of America would see higher costs for utility bills and everyday goods – at least $2,000 more a year. The few get richer, the many get poorer.

This isn’t speculation. We’ve seen this same sad process play out before during the Obama years.

In the wake of the Great Recession, Democrats demanded financial reforms to rein in big banks. The result was the Dodd-Frank law. But all that law did was strangle the community banks that neighborhoods need, while big banks saw record profits. Banks now lobby to keep the law, while others point out that it protects them from competition. Once again, the big boys win, while the little guys lose.

And then there’s ObamaCare. The health care law was supposed to stick it to health insurance companies while helping Americans get the care we need at a price we can afford. The joke’s on us: Health insurance companies have made money hand over fist under ObamaCare, while consolidating the industry and creating less competition. As for the American people, ObamaCare has led to skyrocketing costs and plummeting choice.

The list of examples keeps going. Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer are trying to pass countless bad policies that give government more control while shoveling taxpayer money to their friends and allies.

Yet as bad as that is, the left’s ultimate goal is even worse. That’s the second step: The triumph of socialism.

Socialists like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are honest about what they want: the death of capitalism. The endgame of socialism involves no private companies, no private jobs, no private investment or innovation, and so on. The government would run everything and employ everyone. They claim this would be far more just and fair, but it’s just not true.

When the government has total control, the people in charge play favorites like you wouldn’t believe. They give favors to their friends, pick and choose who wins and loses, and enrich themselves at the people’s expense. It’s happening in China right now. It happened in the Soviet Union for over 70 years. The rulers lived like kings – and acted like kings. With one hand, they fed themselves, and with the other, they starved, stole from, and stomped on the people.

Everywhere socialism has ever been tried, the people have suffered. The little guy got smashed into the ground – and the big boys did the smashing.

Would America be any different if the left gets its way? Of course not. Socialism hurts the people it claims to help because it completely misunderstands human nature. It says a distant few in D.C. are smart and selfless enough to run our lives. They aren’t. The proof comes the moment they get power. We should fight to make sure that moment never arrives.

American history shows a better way. For nearly 250 years, we’ve empowered everyday people to pursue their passions and realize their dreams. That’s called capitalism, and capitalism has made our country the envy of the world and lifted up billions of people the world over. We should embrace it once again. That means breaking economic barriers the government is building, ripping up corporate welfare and special interest favors root and branch, and giving power to the people instead of the government.

Fighting for the little guy means empowering the little guy. The left won’t do that, because socialism won’t allow it. It’s time we recognize that truth – and reject the lie that socialism works for anyone but the well-connected few.

Ms. Haley served as governor of South Carolina (2011-17) and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2017-19).

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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