Julien Davis: Rep. Hough should do more reading before making blind assertions

To The Daily Sun,

Belknap County Representative Greg Hough recently published an opinion piece in The Granite Grok making the claim that the United States has slipped into leftism within the last 40 years. Over the course of the article, Representative Hough fails to establish an argument as to which traits of America’s economy, industry, or government have shifted to socialism, communism, or other such left-wing means of organizing society. For the sake of clarification, here are some prerequisite aspects of leftist ideologies and explanations as to why the United States does not meet these requirements.

Leftism hinges upon the abolition of private property. However, the term “private property” as it is utilized by most leftist political thinkers, does not refer to personal property such as houses, cars, or consumer goods. Rather, private property is real estate (land, buildings, machinery, etc.) owned by wealthy individuals who, through the means of their owned property, produce goods or provide services. This is called private ownership, and it’s presence distinguishes a liberal/capitalist economy from a socialist/communist economy.

The vast majority of goods and services in the United States are produced by private companies. These companies are owned by private citizens either directly or through the stock market in the form of market shares. Generally, these businesses are run for profit, meaning most of the wealth generated by the business flows to those who own it. Sound familiar? If you thought of Amazon, Facebook, or Wal-mart while reading this paragraph, you would have successfully connected the dots. In a leftist system, it would be impossible for such businesses to exist in the way they currently do.

In addition to this unsupported assertion that the United States is currently in a state of leftism, Hough includes a diagram which indicates that fascism is an ideology that falls left-of-center on the political spectrum. First, to place modern political ideologies on a simple left-to-right spectrum is far too reductive, especially when the axis on which the ranking of these ideologies isn’t even labeled (meaning there isn’t actually a characteristic or value that is being measured: the placement of these ideologies is arbitrary). Second, fascism is distinctly right-wing in nature. Fascim is characterized by a rigid hierarchical order in society achieved through the imposition of conservative policy, such as laws that seek to bar certain demographics within the population from voting or accessing education, healthcare, and other such basic services. Generally, fascists also seek to weaken institutions like critical news media and strengthen the military and police force in order to maintain a strict hold over their population. Not only are these concepts conservative in nature: they epitomize the platform and behavior of the modern day Republican Party.

It seems as though Rep. Hough has a flawed understanding of political ideologies. This is perhaps an area he should do some more reading on before making blind assertions about America’s place on the spectrum, particularly given his status as a state official.

Julien Davis

Gilford