This post is authored & sponsored by James Tulp, GOP Candidate
for US House House of Representatives, Mississippi 0-3.
Socialism is coming. Whether it’s in 4 years or 8 years or 12 years, the movement behind Bernie Sanders and AOC is here to stay. 70% of Millennials say they would vote for a socialist, which is terrifying when you consider the fact that Millennials are very close to being the largest voting bloc in the country.
It’s astonishing how few Republican elected officials are willing to address the obvious question: why is socialism on the rise?
Ask your average Republican politician today, and he’d probably give you an answer along the lines of media bias, ignorance of history, or the Marxist takeover of academia.
All are valid, but it goes much deeper than that. The St. Louis Federal Reserve came out with a report last week detailing that the Millennial generation is 34% poorer than should be expected based on previous generations.
Other reports have shown that compared to Baby Boomers at the same age, Millennials earn 20% less in income and own less than half the assets Boomers did when adjusted for inflation.
401k investments for Millennials are also drastically lower than previous generations. Home ownership and business ownership rates are significantly lower as well. Millennials are also crushed with student loan debt to an unprecedented degree.
What millennials do have, however, is access to more “stuff” than ever before. iPhones, Netflix, VR, food, clothes, cars- all depreciating assets. So is it really any wonder that when Bernie Sanders comes around offering more free stuff, many Millennials jump at the chance to vote for him?
In order to stop the coming tide of socialism, which would result in a loss of freedom and economic opportunity for all Americans, we need to show the millennial generation how truly amazing capitalism is when you actually own capital.
The reason why Millennials are so much poorer than previous generations, and thus more susceptible to the false song of socialism, is threefold:
Globalization and the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs has hollowed out the middle of the country while transferring much of the capital to the financial centers on the coasts. Mississippi alone has lost nearly 100,000, or 40%, of our manufacturing jobs since NAFTA and WTO. Many of our 3rd District’s small towns and cities were especially hard hit.
Mass immigration has transferred jobs from American citizens to foreigners, many of them here illegally. Both the number of total immigrants and immigrants as a percentage of our overall labor force has skyrocketed. American workers are unfairly forced to compete with poor people from all over the world for jobs.
The Student Loan Debt Crisis. Since the federal government completely took over the student loan game in 2010, both the cost of tuition and the amount of student loan debt has soared. Many of our young people start their working lives overburdened with debt, making it nearly impossible for them to buy homes, get married, and start a family.
Here’s my 3 point plan to address these economic issues, thwart the rise of socialism, and ensure that the American middle is forgotten no more:
Bring manufacturing jobs back through fair trade deals, vocational education in high school, and infrastructure investments. We pay for this by stopping the trillion dollar wars in the Middle East.
Reform our immigration policy to make sure American jobs are not being taken away by foreigners. This includes building the Wall, ending birthright citizenship, and restricting employment visas.
Get the federal government out of the student loan game entirely. If a private bank wants to assume the risk of loaning an 18 year old $50,000 for a degree in Gender Studies, so be it. The taxpayers should no longer be subsidizing this insanity.
The bottom line is this: unless the younger generations’ incomes, wealth, and capital investments begin to approach normal historic levels, socialism is coming.
In order to get there, we need a representative who is not controlled by Washington power brokers who would rather enrich themselves than save our country. We need a representative who is not just in office to go along to get along. We need a representative who is willing to stick his neck out and fight for the forgotten middle.
That’s why I’m running for Congress. I ask for your vote in the Republican Primary on March 10th.