If the Democratic presidential candidates can take a break from their campaigns over the long holiday weekend, they should catch up on their reading. We have for them a few suggestions that might give them a new perspective.

Declaration of Independence. If they were to actually read and internalize this founding document, the Democrats might accidentally learn that the policies they are so set on imposing on this country are hardly different from many of the cruel acts committed by the crown the Founders rebelled against.

U.S. Constitution. There’s no greater reminder that we have guaranteed freedoms, that Congress’ power is limited, that this nation was intended to have a “republican form of government,” not a democracy, which is easily transformed into mob rule, than our Constitution.

“Economics in One Lesson,” Henry Hazlitt. This Thanksgiving happens to coincide with the 125th anniversary of Hazlitt’s birth. As Pepperdine University economist Gary Galles notes nearby, Hazlitt was one “of America’s most prolific public intellectuals (who) published roughly 10 million words as a journalist, literary critic, philosopher, and economist.” “Economics in One Lesson” ought to be required reading for Democrats. In this seminal work, Hazlitt explains in clear and compelling fashion why their prescriptions will make the country worse off. He also explains why we should be thankful for our free market system.

“Breaking Point,” C.J.Box. Washington needs to understand how its policies affect everyday people across the country and Box shows them. The novel is based on the Environmental Protection Agency’s vicious harassment of the Sacketts of Idaho, who, says Box, went through “a nightmare” just trying to build a modest home that was to be their dream house.

“The Permission Society: How the Ruling Class Turns Our Freedoms into Privileges and What We Can Do About It,” Timothy Sandefur. We should not have to have our rights cleared by government before we exercise them. This might seem like a new idea to the Democrats, who not only want to the authority to grant fundamental rights to petitioners, but wish to shut them down whenever possible.

“Free to Choose,” Milton and Rose Friedman. This work offers the best explanation of how free markets and individual liberty — not government handouts, mandates, and “soak the rich” policies — are the key to widespread prosperity.

Thomas Sowell. Any of his books would help enlighten Democrats on a wide range of issues, but most importantly on matters surrounding race and class distinctions. Sowell spent a lifetime studying these issues, and his conclusions will confound those spewing hatred of America as an inherently racist country.

“Atlas Shrugged,” Ayn Rand. It’s fiction, but fiction often reveals truths that are going unseen. In this case, Rand shows how the slow incremental growth of socialism/collectivism/statism is ruinous to civilization.

The Pilgrims Were Saved By Capitalism, John Carney, Business Insider. The collective cannot even conceive of what the incentives of free markets consistently achieve.

Thanking The Pilgrims For Representative Government, Peter Lawler, First Things. The political left has abandoned the very thing that made America civilized: the Puritans’ idealism.

Of course we don’t expect any of them, with the possible exception of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, to read any of these suggestions, because the candidates don’t care what these books and articles have to say. But voters well-versed in these works can keep the grasping Democrats away from the power they so desperately crave.

— Written by the Issues & Insights Editorial Board

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