How to Meet the Strategic Challenge Posed by China
August 2020
Aloha!
Gosh, it has been several months since my last message, so as always, this will be a lengthy newsletter.
First of all, CONGRATULATIONS TO LAURA NAKANELUA our new National Committeewoman and an HFRW member! She will bring intelligence, beauty, and grace to D.C., and will represent the Hawaii Republican Party well. I am so excited for her!
As for me, the last few months have been a whirlwind of activities, attending webinars, listening to podcasts, participating in online Zoom meetings for the NFRW and our HRP Platform Committee meetings, and most importantly, getting our home ready for my daughter and granddaughters since they moved in with us in June on a full-time basis. Having two teenaged girls, 17 and 14, in my home has made my life fuller but a lot more hectic.
I am happy to note that two resolutions I introduced at our Platform Committee meetings on behalf of the HFRW passed our Party’s convention on July 25 by an overwhelming majority: Opposing Socialism (328 to 16) and Opposing Child Exploitation (338 to 8). My next newsletters will be on the 3 aspects noted in the Opposing Child Exploitation Resolution.
I am including two new videos to the HFRW website: the first about Davos, Switzerland, and the second on what Comprehensive Sexuality Education is about. The newest edition of Imprimis has been posted.
Socialism is today’s theme: Most people have some understanding of what it is; some understand its inherent evils, but many are ignorant of its dangers, especially our millennials. Seventy percent of all millennials embrace Socialism. Given that there are an estimated 83.1 million millennials in the U.S., that 70 percent translates to 58.17 million voters!
In her August 5, 2020, webinar, Kay C. James, President of the Heritage Foundation, said if President Trump loses this election, America as we know it will become Socialistic, and it will take decades for our great country to return back to any sense of normalcy. Decades. That is a frightening thought because in a matter of several decades, Venezuela went from being one of the richest South American countries to one of absolute Communism. Socialism always leads to Communism. History has proven that. And, as someone who lived during the Cold War, it is frightening. One hundred million people(!) were exterminated under Communistic regimes.
There are several reasons why millennials embrace Socialism: (1) they did not live during the Cold War; (2) they are being taught in our liberal colleges to embrace Socialist ideologies; and (3) they really do not comprehend the economics behind Socialism.
The Fund for American Studies sponsored a webinar featuring Economist Anne Bradley, PhD., who spoke about the economic differences between Capitalism, Socialism, and Democratic Socialism. She quoted Adam Smith, Father of Modern Economics, who said, “Individual Ambition Serves the Common Good,” and in this section of my newsletter you will see why.
In a nutshell, Dr. Bradley noted, “Democratic Socialism is an impossibility because the optimal resource allocation distribution cannot be known prior to exchange.”
Socialism, by definition, is the collective ownership of the means of production, and the government controls the means of production (all industries, etc.). In capitalism, private ownership is the means of production, so entrepreneurs are free to discover and use their creativity and intellect. In Socialism there is no entrepreneurship.
There are three economic points that makes a distinction between Capitalism and Socialism:
Some economic realities are (1) our resources are not infinite, we have scarce resources that have multiple competitive ends; (2) incentives matter to human decision-making as people have to be motivated; (3) there is a comparative advantage because gains from trade have profound consequences to all of us. Essentially, trade is also better because it allows us to mutually benefit from one another.
The only economic system that works is the market economy because it reflects life itself. We need to have an economic system that embraces people as they are not how we want them to be. Socialism requires individuals to divorce themselves from their self-interest and submit themselves to technocrats, hoping the technocrats will take care of them. All humans are self-interested. History has shown that these technocrats end up serving only themselves, their families, and their cronies while all others in this system suffer.
Previously I noted, Dr. Bradley said, “Democratic Socialism is an impossibility because we cannot possibly know the best allocation of scarce resources.” Markets allow us to discover that through volunteer entrepreneurship. If you remove the very things that make markets work, you will end up putting someone in charge make up prices arbitrarily and enforce those prices. Citizens will not follow, so you will need more force.
Mrs. Kay James also questioned everyone listening to her webinar: Why are you contributing to liberal colleges that teach your children to embrace Socialism?
I also read an excellent speech written by Johan Norberg, entitled, “Lessons Learned from Sweden” which I highly recommend. It was also published by The Fund for American Studies.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Sweden did dabble in Socialism. The government was regulating, taxing, and spending heavily. During this period, Mr. Norberg said they “stopped creating jobs in the private sector and they stopped creating businesses that produced for the world markets, and we experienced so many problems.” He also noted that Sweden’s most famous people, Ingmar Bergman, Bjorn Borg, Ikea founder, Ingvar Kamprad, and Astrid Lindgren all left their country because of the high taxes. The author of “Pippi Longstocking,” Astrid Lindgren, was a Social Democrat, but she left that group when she learned that her marginal tax rate was at 102 percent. In short, Socialism was a financial disaster for Sweden because in the 1990s the economy collapsed.
In his speech, he spoke about dogs and the difference between dogs living in a capitalistic country and dogs living in a Socialistic country. In countries that have capitalism, people have risked their lives to save their dogs, and their dogs live well. In Socialism, people kill their own dogs and other pets for food to save their own lives. That is the reason why people have risked their lives to migrate from Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea.
Mr. Norberg stressed that (1) we have to keep our markets open; and (2) we need to keep international trade working. We “have to stick with free trade because trade is like a machine in which you put the things you can create and on the other side, you get the kind of things that you are not able to produce. It’s like magic, a magical machine.”
Like many of you, I am quite concerned about the upcoming Presidential election, because I just watched (and shared) a video by Michael Matt of The Remnant TV. Mr. Matt is very well known in the Roman Catholic world, is a highly intelligent man, an excellent Christian in every sense of the word. I am posting the video on the HFRW website because he, too, is saying if Trump does not win, Socialism will take hold in our country. Everything we are seeing, the Pandemic, the closures of churches and businesses, delaying the opening of schools, the riots and destruction of our cities, is to bring the American economy to its knees so that President Trump will lose his Presidency.
More importantly, it is a fact that Socialism turns society into one of dependence on the government. Is this where our government is currently heading? I hope not. On a very personal note, one of my main reasons I am opposed to any form of Marxism is because Socialists mock God.
As a Republican, I know that here in Hawaii I am just one person trying to make a difference, and while we are very few in numbers, I am always reminded by a sentence from a quote by Cardinal Newman, who is going through the beatification process in the Roman Catholic Church. That one sentence, a favorite of mine, continues to strengthen my resolve, and I hope it will continue to strengthen yours:
“Fear not, little flock, for He is mighty who is in the midst of you, and He will do for you great things.”
God bless you and your families,
Donna P. Van Osdol
(Mrs.) Donna P. Van Osdol
President, Hawaii Federation of Republican Women
Leader, Task Force on Human Trafficking, National Federation of Republican Women
Secretary, Oahu County Rules Committee
HD36-2, Delegate, HRP Rules Committee
HD36-2, Alternate, Platform and Issues Committee
