For years, I have told various people in politics, the media and the financial world that the most impressive investment CEO I have ever encountered is fictional. One who came from nothing; identified with the working-class over the elites; established a persona deliberately meant to be underestimated by his snobbish competitors; and truly prized morality over money.
That fictional CEO being Lawrence Garfield. The lead character played to perfection by Danny DeVito in the 1991 film "Other People’s Money." Within the body of the movie, the New York City-based Garfield character shouts out an amazingly prescient warning as if envisioning the coming capitalistic-destroying and liberty-robbing edicts of far-left, socialist- and communist-embracing politicians such as New York City Democrat Mayor Zohran Mamdani, New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Democratic Socialist Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson.
While dressing down a conference room full of lawyers he has on retainer, the fictional billionaire CEO lectures in part: "Congratulations. You're destroying the capitalist system. While everybody else in the world is embracing it, my boys and girls are f---ing it up! You know what happens when capitalism gets f---ed up? The communists come back. They come out of the bushes. Don't kid yourself. They're waiting in there…"
Thirty-five years ago, Garfield saw the danger cresting over the horizon. Today, his fictionalized warning in the defense of capitalism, a free-market system, and our very Republic has become a horrifying reality.
The "communists" are no longer waiting in the bushes. They are back. They are among us. We deny this treacherous blossoming reality at our own peril.
Fortunately – and to the outright despair of the Democratic Leadership – an increasing number of Americans across a broad political, socioeconomic and age spectrum are suddenly opening their eyes to the job-, education-, safety-, city- and nation-destroying effects of socialist and communist mandates forced upon the people by far left elites existing in bubbles of entitlement. Elites who seek to smear or cancel Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin while singing the praises of despots such as Lenin, Stalin, Marx, and Mao.
For older Americans, the increasingly strident pronouncements from the likes of Mamdani, AOC and Wilson are a stark reminder of the often brutal – and failed – regimes of East Germany, the Soviet Union and a collapsing Cuba. Older Americans who witnessed those nations crumble into anarchy as the socialist and communist controlled "Nanny States" deprived citizens of the right to think for themselves; to do what was in the best interests of them and their families; or even escape the dystopian landscapes created by totalitarian ideologies.
In another stroke of bad news for the Democratic leadership, many of these "older" Americans are now taking the time to educate the younger Americans in their lives – be they children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, or work, faith, or social colleagues – about the dangerous pitfalls of socialism and communism. Younger Americans who do not yet know that the "free is for me" mantra is a power-and-control grab masquerading as a utopian paradise.
Fortunately, along with the older Americans in their lives who witnessed the evils of socialism and communism, are millions of Americans who lived it and fled to our shores. Naturalized Americans who escaped the Soviet Union, China, East Germany, Venezuela, Cuba and even North Korea.
Wise and patriotic Americans only too happy to tell those ignorant of the dangers of socialism and communism the cold, hard, and life- and nation-saving truth. And now, thanks to Mamdani, AOC, Wilson and other far-left Democrats, they have multiple real-time Bolshevik examples to flag.
From now until the November midterms, Americans who either witnessed or escaped the menace of socialism and communism will be explaining what "collectivism" really means. Why the taking of money and property from those who earned it and built it is anti-American. And why homeownership is not only not "racist," but the epitome of the American dream.
To that "racist" point, in a piece for The Hill headlined, "Mamdani introduces New York to socialism, ‘block by block’" legal scholar Jonathan Turley quoted Mamdani aide Cea Weaver who was only too happy to spell out the "collective" pain coming our way. Via a past post, she declared in part: "Private property including and [sic] kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of White supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy."
Wow. The overriding dictate of the narratives being embraced by Mamdani, AOC, Wilson and a number of Democratic leaders being: "You will bend and break for the greater good of the collective ... or else."The "communists" are no longer waiting in the bushes. They are back. They are among us. We deny this treacherous blossoming reality at our own peril.
With growing frequency, we are seeing this "Free is for Me … Demonize the Rich" tactic take root in New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and multiple other cities controlled by the left. How fast is it spreading?
According to a recent piece in Politico titled "Socialism's next test: Swing states," the answer is … very fast. That acknowledged, the good news is that only a small number of Americans – along with seemingly the entire Democratic leadership – have bought into the false promises and outright lies of socialism and communism.
Over three decades ago, the fictional New York City-investment CEO Lawrence Garfield saw the red tide of communism rising and screamed out a warning. Back in today’s real world, an increasing number of Americans are finally starting to see the poisonous brew of socialism and communism being peddled by AOC, Mamdani, Wilson and the greater Democratic Party for what it is.
The word is spreading like wildfire and come November, during the 250th Anniversary year of our founding, the American people should soundly reject socialism and communism.
