“Nearly the whole of the professional, intellectual, and government class has betrayed the cause of universal human liberty in our times.” — Jeffrey Tucker.

Our government forces taxpayers to subsidize those who chose not to work, lavishes subsidies on Wall Street billionaires for counter-productive Net-Zero Green Energy projects, and subsidizes illegal aliens and the Non-Governmental Organizations that brought them here. USAID funded the CIA overthrow of the legitimate government of Ukraine 2014, setting off the current Russia/Ukraine conflict which has cost a million lives so far.

Under President Joe Biden, taxpayers were forced to subsidize Medicaid for 1.4 million illegals, and spent $4.7 trillion in untraceable payments to “unknown.” Another $14 billion of Medicaid fraud was uncovered in May. Biden (or the Autopen) tried to force taxpayers to subsidize college loans for deadbeats.

Each legal U.S. citizen now owes $110,000 toward our national debt of $36 trillion, but illegal aliens owe nothing. Welcome to the New Serfdom, imposed by the totalitarian Deep State and its allies like George Soros. You work for them.

Economist Friedrich von Hayek lived in early 20th century Europe during the socialist power struggle between the Communists and Fascists. He coined the term “Road to Serfdom” to warn the world of the coming disaster of socialism in any of its forms.

Thomas Sowell observed two conflicting visions of how we should be governed: One vision believes the government should have unconstrained power to rule the ignorant masses. This is Plato’s Republic run amok, where “nothing exists outside the State” (Mussolini’s Fascism), which is also Modern Liberalism – the basis of the New Serfdom.

The U.S. was founded on the second vision – Classic Liberalism – the opposite of Modern Liberalism. Classic Liberalism holds that the government must be constitutionally constrained so that it cannot threaten the liberty of individuals. American Conservatives are called conservatives because they are trying to conserve the Classic Liberal principles of limited government and individual liberty upon which the US was founded. Include Libertarians in that mix. Classic Liberalism empowers citizens. Conversely, Modern Liberalism empowers totalitarian government.

Modern Liberals would have us believe they would solve all the world’s problems if we just surrender to the anointed elites. Von Hayek coined the term “Fatal Conceit” to describe the belief that a group of elites could centrally organize society better than it could organize itself. We only need to look at the human tragedy wrought by socialist central planners in the USSR and Eastern Europe to validate Von Hayek’s observation.

Conversely, Classic Liberalism (American Conservatism) understands historically that no person or group has the knowledge to make better decisions than the people can make for themselves in a free market of ideas, goods, and services.

Modern Liberals have forced the Deep State on us — the unaccountable agencies of unconstrained government to control our lives, and punish those who do not conform. Examples abound: COVID, climate, energy, kiddie porn in schools, CRT, DEI, ESG, etc. If you do not conform, you will be punished, cancelled, and “lawfared”.

The attitude of Modern Liberals toward working Americans was perfectly demonstrated by Hillary Clinton, who referred to traditional Americans as “deplorables”, and by Obama who referred to his opposition as “bitter clingers.” They see working people as ignorant serfs on their plantation who “must be more compliant” (HRC). They push actual Fascism, all while accusing others of it. The brazen hypocrisy is stunning.

Our founders (Classic Liberals) formulated the Declaration and the Constitution intending to prevent the government from becoming the oppressor, and to eliminate the feudal serfdom from which most of us descended. Our founders must be rolling in their graves, seeing how the Modern Liberals have so successfully created the New Serfdom to oppose the principles upon which the constitution was written.

Ben Franklin warned that our freedom was not guaranteed when he responded: “…a Republic, Madam, if you can keep it.” Perhaps Franklin was prescient about the rise of the Deep State and its assault on the Republic. He understood the corruption of power.

In an interesting twist, however, most of Eastern Europe – which suffered through socialist disasters after World War II — is pushing back against the EU’s attempt to institute the New Serfdom. Perhaps the horrors of socialism are still fresh the minds of Eastern Europeans, giving them every reason to resist the EU’s New Serfdom.

Undeterred by history, Modern Liberals continue their assault on freedom by pushing “Stakeholder Capitalism”, which is the opposite of Free-Market Capitalism, and is merely Mussolini’s Fascism (Corporatism) rebranded on a global scale. Stakeholder Capitalism is where Big Government joins with Big Corporations to enrich themselves as Lords of the Realm, jointly commanding the New Serfdom. In free markets, consumers call the shots. The New Serfdom of the Left calls the shots from Davos. Think of George Soros, Warren Buffet, and a host of other Left billionaires.

Has anyone noticed that the Leftist Deep State – in conjunction with Wall Street — will complain that Trump’s tariffs are bad, but never say anything about the even bigger tariffs imposed on US goods by other countries? It seems obvious that Wall Street and the Leftist Deep State are enriching themselves by gutting Main Street.

The DOGE audits have made clear the depth of corruption and incompetence built into the US Government. The unhinged reaction of the Left to DOGE clearly demonstrates that their entitlement gravy train is being threatened. They can’t let go of the freebies.

The battle will continue: Will it be freedom or serfdom? Will we restore our Republic to the ideals upon which it was founded? Or will we sheepishly surrender ourselves to the New Serfdom of the Leftist Deep State that still remains, even after 2024.

The great irony is that the Left whines when the current administration uses executive power to undo the Fascist Deep State, which was actually created using Leftist executive power and the Autopen of the United States.

Michael Dee is a Silver Creek resident and Scott Axelson resides in Jamestown.