You don’t have to be a Trump supporter to fear socialism

The resurgence of socialism in American political discourse demands serious scrutiny rather than casual acceptance, and opposing it requires neither partisan loyalty nor blanket endorsement of corporate power.

According to Ori Solow writing in Washington Examiner, rejecting socialism does not require supporting President Donald Trump, defending every corporation, or believing market outcomes are always just. It simply requires taking socialists at their word about their actual goals.

The Democratic Socialists of America has reached a record 120,000 members as of July, marking significant growth for an organization that openly states its vision extends beyond traditional social democracy. DSA explicitly calls for collective ownership of key economic sectors, a position that goes far beyond the Scandinavian-style capitalism often cited by socialism’s defenders.

The distinction between social programs and socialism itself matters critically. Compassion is not socialism. Safety nets, public schools, and affordable healthcare are not inherently socialist concepts. Socialism fundamentally concerns power structures: who owns productive resources, who makes economic decisions, and who exercises control over the economy.

Recent polling data reveals the ideology’s growing acceptance. Gallup found last year that 66% of Democrats viewed socialism positively, while only 42% held positive views of capitalism, representing a dramatic shift in public sentiment.

Socialists identify concentrated private economic power as dangerous, then propose concentrating even greater economic power within political institutions. This creates a troubling paradox: why should politicians be trusted with economic authority that would be considered dangerous in corporate hands?

Unlike private corporations, government possesses powers to tax, imprison, and write laws governing its competitors. When economic power transfers to the state, it does not become benign but rather merges with political power, creating an entity that should concern liberals and conservatives alike.

A fundamental weakness in socialist thinking involves the creation versus distribution of wealth. Socialist theory dedicates extensive attention to redistributing resources while offering insufficient explanation for how wealth gets created initially. Before government can redistribute a dollar, someone must create something worth a dollar. Hospitals, schools, pensions, and housing subsidies require businesses, inventions, capital investment, employment, and wealth generation to finance them.

Capitalism recognizes what socialism consistently underestimates: incentives drive human behavior. Profit motivates risk-taking on potentially unsuccessful ideas. Competition compels improvement. Prices signal scarcity. Losses punish poor decisions. Consumers determine which innovations survive.

Markets function imperfectly because humans are imperfect. Their advantage lies in not requiring any single person to possess comprehensive knowledge of what an entire economy should do. No president, congressional body, economics professor, or democratic socialist committee possesses such omniscience.

Capitalism’s strength emerges from millions of individuals making decisions based on their own needs, ambitions, and circumstances. The resulting system proves messy, unequal, and sometimes unjust, yet generates extraordinary innovation and prosperity.

This defense of capitalism does not exempt it from criticism or reform. Protecting competition, punishing fraud, easing housing construction, reforming healthcare, and maintaining robust safety nets all remain legitimate priorities. Capitalism deserves preservation and improvement, not abandonment out of embarrassment.

Socialism promises greater economic fairness through collective control, but this comfortable phrase masks an uncomfortable reality: specific individuals still exercise that control. Trusting millions of imperfect people to make their own economic decisions proves preferable to trusting a smaller group of equally imperfect people to make those decisions for everyone else.

This principle transcends Republican ideology. It represents a fundamentally liberal position and provides sufficient reason for rejecting socialism.

Ori Solow is an Israeli-American and founder of SZM, a social media movement focused on Jewish safety in New York and empowering emerging Jewish voices.

With information from Washington Examiner