Step Into the Ring
There are some fights you don’t go looking for. When they show up at your front door, you have a choice: sit on the sideline, or step into the ring.
Right now, America is being asked to make a fundamental choice. Do we still believe free people are capable of building their own lives? Or, instead, do we believe government planners should increasingly make those decisions for us?
For most of our lifetimes, calling yourself a socialist in American politics was something of a punchline. Today, Democratic Socialists are winning elections, growing their movement, and openly campaigning on ideas that would give government dramatically more control over our economy and our everyday lives.
Sadly, they’re not hiding the ball.
Government-set rents, government-run grocery stores, and a government-run health care system are atop their priority list. More government control over what businesses can pay, what they can charge, and how our economy operates.
These ideas aren’t just fringe ideas being debated in some college classroom anymore. Socialist candidates have recently won high-profile races in places like New York, Michigan, Minnesota, and, sadly, right here in Philadelphia. The Democratic Socialists of America has grown to its largest membership in the organization’s history.
Here’s the frustrating part: without free-market solutions driving the conversation, it’s easy to see why DSA-backed solutions might sound appealing.
Housing is expensive. Groceries cost too much. Health care costs too much. Young Americans look at the price of buying their first home and wonder whether the American Dream is slipping out of reach.
These are the problems that plague our society, but socialism takes those frustrations and offers exactly the wrong prescription.
If your rent is too high, they’ll tell you government should set the price. If your groceries cost too much, they’ll tell you government should run the store. If health care is unaffordable, they’ll tell you one government payer should control the system.
The sales pitch is always the same: give us more control, and we’ll make things fair.
There’s just one problem: government control is already helping make many of these things more expensive.
Want cheaper housing? Let builders build more homes instead of burying them under years of zoning restrictions, permitting delays, and red tape.
Want lower grocery prices? Let businesses compete for your dollar instead of pretending a government-run supermarket somehow makes food cheaper.
Want better health care? Give patients more choices and doctors more freedom to compete for their business instead of putting another bureaucracy between the patient and the exam room.
Socialism sees a struggling family and asks: what can government control for them? A free society asks: what barriers can government remove so they can succeed for themselves?
Those two visions could not be more different.
America’s promise has never been that everyone ends up in exactly the same place. Our promise is that you have the freedom to pursue your own path: to build something, start something, own something, take a risk, fail, get back up, and try again.
The American Dream doesn’t come with a government planner. Instead, it comes with agency and with dignity. It comes with the belief that you know more about your hopes, your family, and your future than someone sitting behind a desk in Harrisburg or Washington ever could.
That’s why Americans for Prosperity is stepping into this fight.
This week, Congress took up a resolution confronting the Democratic Socialists of America’s agenda. It’s an important question for every elected official: when forced to choose between government control and individual freedom, where do you stand?
This fight, sadly, isn’t going to be won with one vote in Congress.
It’s going to be won at kitchen tables, at neighborhood events, and on doorsteps. This fight will be won in conversations with friends who are frustrated about the cost of living and understandably looking for answers.
This is where we need your help.
Americans for Prosperity’s pledge to fight socialism asks people to do something simple: speak up when socialism is sold as compassion. Learn the argument well enough to make it in your own words. Hold elected officials accountable. Show up at the events, make the calls, knock the doors, and have the conversations that change minds.
The answer to socialism isn’t just saying “no”. We have to offer something better.
We must make the case for an America where homes are affordable because we’re allowed to build them. Where energy is abundant because we’re allowed to produce it. Where entrepreneurs compete for our business. Where patients control their health care. Where success isn’t something government punishes, but something every American has the opportunity to pursue.
Socialists are betting that government planners can run your life better than you can. At Americans for Prosperity, we’re making a different bet. We’re betting on you.
The bell has rung. The other side is already in the arena.
It’s time for those of us who believe in freedom, opportunity, and the American Dream to step into the ring.
Head to FightSocialism.com and join the fight against big government stripping away your choice and your prosperity.
This is Emily Brey, State Director with Americans for Prosperity-Pennsylvania.