OPINION:
Joe Biden’s just-announced Cabinet picks for Labor and Commerce — Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, respectively — share the common denominator of being tight and cozy with the unions.
And that makes perfect sense when you consider the corporate-run communism that’s coming to America once Democrats take over Capitol Hill.
Here’s the playbook, here’s what to expect in 2021.
The coronavirus has handed the far left crowd a golden ticket for government takeover — for government imposed crackdowns of individual freedoms and for government imposed restrictions against free market activities. Businesses have been shut; business owners have been left reeling; workers at these businesses have been forced to stay home and wait for stimulus dollars to save them from, yes, in some cases, starvation. Stimulus is another way of saying income redistribution; it’s taking taxpayer dollars and giving to those in need.
That’s not to say these businesses haven’t deserved the money. That’s not to say these hard-working business owners and employees haven’t needed the money.
But either way you slice it, stimulus is still a taking from Peter to pay Paul.
Anyhow — back to the bigger theme: the corporate communism that’s coming to America.
Within the context of dealing with the coronavirus, there have been a couple of interesting phrases that have been bandied about the media; namely, the “great reset” and “build back better.”
They’re not meaningless.
They’re not simple marketing catchalls, devoid of any deeper significance. No. They’re political road maps. Just as “America First” and “Make America Great Again” were the phrases that lighted the policy paths of President Donald Trump’s administration, so, too, the “build back better” and “great reset” phrases.
Biden, on his own campaign website, makes that clear.
“Joe Biden’s Plan to ’Build Back Better’ for American Workers,” one JoeBiden.com web page stated.
“Build Back Better: Joe Biden’s Jobs and Economic Recovery Plan for Working Families,” another JoeBiden.com web page stated.
So what does that mean?
Build back better is a World Economic Forum plan to “reinvent capitalism” so that companies are more focused on the greater good, not profits, according to the WEF’s own statements. How to accomplish that? By the “great reset.” Again, that’s according to the WEF’s own words.
“Now is the time for a ’great reset’ of capitalism,” the WEF wrote in June.
“A true recovery from COVID-19 will not be about putting things back together the way they were: we need to ’build back better,’ to ’reset,’ if we are to address the deep systemic vulnerabilities the pandemic has exposed,” the WEF wrote in July.
“To improve the state of the world, the World Economic Forum is starting The Great Reset Initiative,” the WEF wrote in September.
Now for the communist part.
This is where the actionable changes occur.
This is where the talk turns to walk.
In December, the WEF launched a new initiative called the “Davos Manifesto.” It posed the question, “What kind of capitalism do we want?” And it answered by laying out three possibilities — “shareholder capitalism,” “state capitalism,” and “stakeholder capitalism.” In short, shareholder is true capitalism; it’s the kind where companies are in it to make money, where corporations are driven by profit and loss statements. It’s the kind that’s chugged America’s economy to the top of the world, for decades running.
State-run capitalism is not really capitalism at all because it places the government in charge of directing the economy. It’s the kind of “capitalism” that’s “risen to prominence in many emerging markets, not least China,” WEF wrote.
Stakeholder capitalism is the emerging beast.
“[It] positions private corporations as trustees of society, and is clearly the best response to today’s social and environmental challenges,” WEF wrote.
It’s the kind of capitalism that says corporations shouldn’t be concerned simply with making a buck, but also serving as a “social organism” to society. Companies, in other words, should be motivated more by do-goodism than money.
It’s really the way the left gets its hands on Wall Street to drive forth policies, politics and agendas that don’t pass the smell test of Congress and the people. The Senate won’t ratify a U.N. climate change treaty? No worries; politicians will just pressure private businesses to “voluntarily” adopt clean energy standards and sustainable development practices instead. The end game is essentially the same. Congress won’t pass so-called common sense gun controls? No worries; new “great reset” standards will ensure private companies restrict firearms’ sales, and banks restrict funds to companies selling firearms, and businesses boot all gun-carriers from their businesses. Second Amendment, whoosh. Gone. The possibilities for control are endless.
“We should seize this moment to ensure that stakeholder capitalism remains the new dominant model,” WEF wrote. “[Our] new ’Davos Manifesto’ … states that companies should pay their fair share of taxes, show zero tolerance for corruption, uphold human rights throughout their global supply chains and advocate for a competitive level playing field. … Companies will need new metrics. For starters, a new measure of ’shared value creation’ should include ’environmental, social and governance’ (ESG) goals a complement to standard financial metrics.”
Banking and business bigwigs have already swing into gear to fine-tune these new “shared value” metrics. The U.S. Business Roundtable just announced it was embracing this “great reset” form of capitalism.
Where it leads is here: Corporations will become the world’s policy guides. Corporate elites will take over where governments now serve.
“Clearly, companies should still seek to … maintain an entrepreneurial mindset,” WEF wrote. “But they should also work with other stakeholders to improve the state of the world … In fact, this latter proviso should be their ultimate purpose.”
Those with the most money will rule.
America’s free market will fall to the dictates of the world’s wealthiest.
If you want an example of how this new model is playing right now, look no further than Twitter. CEO Jack Dorsey, out of his own imaginations of what serves as proper speech versus improper speech, has permanently banned Trump’s key attorney, Lin Wood. Why? He’s incited violence, Twitter’s talking heads say. First Amendment, whoosh. Gone.
That’s a small, very small, glimpse into how corporations driven by social consciences serve: they become the arbiters of proper and acceptable human behaviors. They become the dictators of governance.
Mask mandates, anyone?
If government can’t get it done the constitutional route, government can exert pressures on the private market to get the same done by a different route. No mask, no entry has become the normal shop store sign these days. Soon, no vaccine, no entry. Soon, no papers — no buying or selling.
With the coming oligarchy — the coming top-down global “build back better” and “great reset” campaigns — citizens won’t be able to travel, to work, to go to school, to shop or to sell without first meeting the standards set by corporate heads and their WEF partners.
It’s a takeover of free markets and an imposition of behavioral, political and economic standards on entire countries, by unelected, unaccountable, often even unseen and unknown billionaire elites.
And it’s coming to America.
It’s communism dressed as social justice capitalism.
Biden’s announced nominations of union-friendly Cabinet members plays right into this “great reset” moment in time. Who else better equipped to cripple America’s free market from within than union members?
If seeing the battle is step one to winning the battle, then it’s crucial to acknowledge: Build back better means something. The great reset is real. And Americans must fight the communism these soft-sounding phrases are actually selling.
The WEF, remember, is comprised of private companies, and therefore largely sheltered from accountability. Or ballot box replacement.
If WEF’s “Great Reset Initiative” reaches fruition, even elections — and with them, all those arguments over problematic election integrity — won’t matter. America, like all the countries of the world, will be run and governed and regulated by a crowd of corporate elitists and their billionaire friends. The Constitution will be just a piece of paper. Freedom will be only what they grant.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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