Retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Allen West (Screenshot)

Recently, U.S. Senator and current Democratic Party [Socialist] presidential candidate Cory (Spartacus) Booker, came up with another of those brilliant leftist ideas. He believes that we need to declare war on inequality, and that we should just give money to certain children born in America. This follows right along with that absurd concept called Universal Basic Income, or free money. Now, let’s be honest. We have been there before with the progressive, socialist left. Remember when President Lyndon Baines Johnson declared a “war on poverty”? Yes, and how has this worked out?

If there is one thing we can count on from the left in America, well, the left period, is to come up with the insidious schemes and themes that are counterproductive. Somehow the left’s war on poverty has given us more poverty. And for a military fella such as myself, we call that a strategic failure. Only the folks on the left would deem it a success. Then again, perhaps the intention was to drive more people into poverty and government dependence. And where do we find the greatest amount of poverty in America? Yes, let’s be honest, in the urban centers of America. You know, those regions controlled by the progressive, socialist left.

However, think about the irrational thought behind Sen. Booker’s thought process. First, it is high time someone, I guess me, explains to the left that inequality exists in every aspect of our society. Some people are taller, others are shorter. Some people are smarter, others have more savvy. Some people are graceful, talented, and artistic, whereas others, like me, have no artistic talents whatsoever. Some people jump higher, run faster, and excel in athletics. Folks like me peaked in high school. Some people come into the military as a Private and end up retiring as a Command Sergeant Major. Others do not have the resolve to join at all. Some join the military but are not warriors.

In life, we all have a choice, regardless of where we are born or come from. We can choose to be victors, or we can settle for being victims. And what the progressive, socialist left needs are the latter, victims.

I was born in a “blacks only” hospital in 1961 called Hughes-Spaldin in Atlanta. My path, focus was on becoming a U.S. Army officer. I joined High School Junior ROTC and excelled. I went on to college at the University of Tennessee, was a member of the Army ROTC program there, and was commissioned as an Army officer on 31 July 1982. I retired from the U.S. Army on 1 August 2004. On a beautiful November Saturday in 2016 during a University of Tennessee football game, I was recognized as an inductee into the University of Tennessee Army ROTC Hall of Fame. No, there are no banners of me hanging inside Neyland Stadium like there are of Peyton Manning, my classmate Reggie White, and I hold no records like another classmate, Willie Gault. I did not go on to have a career in the National Football League like another of my classmates, Bill Bates … or later, Jason Whitten. I certainly will not be inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.

Am I a victim of inequality? No, of course not. I achieved based upon the skills, talents, abilities, will, determination, and opportunities afforded me.

I am a black man with a Bachelors and two Masters degrees. My wife is a successful financial advisor with a Bachelors, MBA, and Ph.D. Our daughters are both college graduates, and the oldest has a Masters and her Physician Assistant Masters, board certified. However, LeBron James never attended college and is a multi-millionaire. Is there an inequality there? Yep, James is making far more money than I ever will in my lifetime, but my life is not determined by a financial value. Rather, it is determined by the richness of what I have been able to accomplish and enable our daughters to accomplish.

What Sen. Booker and his ilk fail to comprehend is that in America there is an equality of opportunity. What these progressive socialists seek to institute is an equality of outcomes, which they have redefined as “social justice” … and now call economic inequality. Their warped sense of fairness, fair share, and wealth redistribution reminds me of French economist Frederic Bastiat’s 1850s essay “The Law.” Government, the law, is established to do one thing: provide safety and security of our property. As Bastiat asserted, what perverts the law is misplaced philanthropy and greed. It is a greed for power and control that these progressive socialists seek. And they are perverting the law to use for their own electoral gain to try and do the unthinkable, determine our outcomes. They refuse to accept that our inalienable rights endowed to us by our Creator are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Somehow, these folks have this incomprehensible “god complex” where they believe they have been given the right to determine the definition of “equality.” Just as with the recently passed House of Representatives Equality Act, how has it come to pass that elected officials have given themselves a supreme understanding of equality?

For the progressive, socialist left, equality is nothing more than that which is aligned with their ideological agenda. If you are a Christian, constitutional conservative who believes in traditional marriage, the sanctity of life, national sovereignty, our rule of law, and your right to keep and bear arms, heck, our individual rights, then you have no protections.

The left in America is defining equality for their own political purposes. If there is one clear and present inequality in America, it is tax inequality. And consider this: our “progressive” tax system is based upon the doctrines of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It is one of the tenets listed in their Communist Manifesto. However, you will NEVER hear any leftist address the issue of tax inequality. As a matter of fact, they attempt to guilt trip us and create terms such as “economic patriotism.” Doggone, I thought that twenty-two years in the Army, and several combat zones, was being patriotic.

Beware of leftists bearing gifts that they have taken from others. This new declared war on inequality is rooted in one thing, collective subjugation to their ideological domination.

Allen West is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army. Mr. West is a Senior Fellow at the Media Research Center to support its mission to expose and neutralize liberal media bias. Mr. West also writes daily commentary on his personal website theoldschoolpatriot.com.

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