‘Fundamentally and necessarily opposed’: House resolution condemns socialism

The U.S. House condemned socialism last Thursday in a bipartisan majority with a resolution that “denounces socialism in all its forms, and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States of America.”

Virginia’s U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger voted in favor of the resolution to condemn socialist policies, such as those by Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro and Pol Pot, which led to famine and mass murders.

“For those who seek to escape the grip of communism and totalitarianism, the United States of America has always been a beacon of hope, opportunity, and freedom. That’s why I have been proud to serve my country, defend its values, and protect our homeland from its enemies,” Spanberger said in a statement after the vote.

She added that she hopes now House GOP leadership will bring bills to the floor focused on lowering prices, addressing inflation and keeping American communities safe.

“We should be looking to build bipartisan agreement around the pressing issues facing the American people in the here and now — not just condemning the violence and terrors of the past,” Spanberger said.

The resolution mentions the deaths of tens of millions in the Bolshevik Revolution, 10 million sent to the gulags in the USSR, and millions more starved in the Terror-Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine. Castro, according to the resolution, expropriated the land of Cuban farmers and businesses, stole their possessions and livelihoods and exiled millions.

The United States Declaration of Independence, written by President Thomas Jefferson, states: ‘‘To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.’’

U.S. President James Madison, wrote: ‘‘is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures of one class of citizens for the service of the rest.’’

The U.S. “was founded on the belief in the sanctity of the individual, to which the collectivistic system of socialism in all of its forms is fundamentally and necessarily opposed.”