FREEDOM OR SOCIALISM?: The Millennial Dilemma

By Martin Capages Jr.

This book is intended to outline an approach for the Republican party to take to prepare for 2020 and 2024.  It presents a proposal for the Republican party to assume the mantle of the Common-Sense party, begin an adult to adult conversation with Millennials and perhaps prevent a war.  Today a generational conflict is looming, but it i

• Language: English
• Publisher: American Freedom Publications LLC
• Release date: Jun 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645702856

Martin Capages Jr.

Martin Capages, Jr. is a retired professional engineer, technical executive and an Army veteran. His technical and management experience includes aircraft design, petroleum exploration and production, computer modeling and technology applications and structural engineering. He began writing political commentary in 2009 and completed his first book, The Moral Case for American Freedom, in July 2017. His writing is from the perspective of an engineer, Christian layman, conservative and Constitutional originalist. Martin attended Missouri State University and the Missouri University of Science and Technology where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1967. After receiving his Commission as an Army Ordnance Officer but prior to reporting for active duty, he joined Boeing Aircraft in Wichita as an Associate Engineer working on the new 737. He reported for active duty in June 1967. After completing active duty, Martin joined Exxon in Houston, Texas, with assignments throughout the U.S. and Europe to include serving as acting North Sea Development Planning Manager for Exxon in London, Production Operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Engineering Manager for the Texas Midland District, the Alaska Financial and Facilities groups, and Exxon's Western Division Computing organization. He left Exxon in 1984 to join Kerr McGee in Oklahoma as Manager of Engineering Services until 1992 when he left the petroleum industry to start his own structural engineering consulting firm, ARIS Engineering Inc., in Springfield, Missouri. He continued post-graduate studies in Civil Engineering and Management receiving an earned Doctorate in Engineering Management in 2002. He retired from full time practice in 2012.

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DEDICATION

To the members and veterans of the United States Military, all agencies under the Department of Homeland Security and all local Police and First Responders who faithfully serve our Nation, placing their very lives in Harm’s way to protect each American’s fundamental right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Thank you for your service.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. --President Ronald Reagan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following individuals who contributed so much time and effort during the preparation of this book:

To My Wife, Pamela Kay Capages for her encouragement and prayers during this undertaking,

To Dr. Ronald R. Cherry for his critical input, intellectual generosity, in-depth research and willingness to provide the Foreword to this book,

To author Les Mironuck for his willingness to review the manuscript and provide sound advice,

To Christopher M. Capages for his cover design expertise, advice and graphic artistry.

OTHER WORKS BY THE AUTHOR

BOOTS TO BOGIES TO BRONZE: The Authorized World War II

                                                        Biography of 2LT Jack C. Pyatt

THE MORAL CASE FOR AMERICAN FREEDOM

OZARK COUNTY HEART: Boyhood Memories of a Dora Missouri

                                            Farm

A WAKEFUL WATCH: The Authorized Biography of Charles

                                      Lindbergh Armstrong

HEARTLAND REBELLION

THE SILENT SECOND: The Biography of Martin Capages-

                                      Captain USMC

EPIPHANY: Before Time Zero- Faith of an Engineer

Why the Green New Deal is a Bad Deal for America

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION      i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS      iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS      v

FOREWORD      vii

PREFACE      ix

INTRODUCTION      1

CHAPTER 1: PROBLEM DEFINITION      5

CHAPTER 2: POSITIVE CAPITALISM      9

SELLING CAPITALISM TO MILLENNIALS      10

ARGUING TO +100      11

WHAT IS CAPITALISM?      13

FREE ENTERPRISE CAPITALISM: THE BETTER ECONOMIC SYSTEM      24

CHAPTER 3:  DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM      33

WHY SOCIALISM FAILS      37

CHAPTER 4: AMERICAN PROGRESSIVISM      51

CHAPTER 5: CAPITALISM V. SOCIALISM AGAIN      61

CAPITALISM      61

SOCIALISM      63

CHAPTER 6:  BOOMER RIGHT V. BOOMER LEFT      69

THE BOOMER LEFT      72

THE BOOMER RIGHT      73

CHAPTER 7: MILLENNIALS      79

WHO ARE THE MILLENNIALS?      79

THE PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION EFFECT      85

CHAPTER 8: DEFUSING THE CONFLICT      103

CHAPTER 9: 2024 ELECTION PREPARATION      107

COMMON-SENSE ISSUES      116

SIX STEP STRATEGY      123

ABOUT THE AUTHOR      127

WORKS CITED      129

INDEX      133

The Facts of Life are Conservative

--- Margaret Thatcher

"Liberalism means bondage,

Conservatism means Freedom" ---Candace Owens

FOREWORD

In FREEDOM OR SOCIALISM? The Millennial Dilemma, Martin Capages Jr. PhD explains the essential difference between the two governing philosophies. The difference is not just academic, there is a moral distinction. Socialism is the enemy of rightful human liberty and is thus immoral and tyrannical. Human freedom is a derivative of equal natural human rights, and thus a function of equal human value.

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. Thomas Jefferson

Human liberty, having been endowed to all of us equally by our Creator, is a part of our human nature; our sacred right to liberty is therefore unalienable and only limited by the equal rights of others. Equal natural human rights secured by equality before law is the argument of the American Revolution, expressed by Thomas Jefferson in our Declaration of Independence. Unequal human rights are a function of unequal human value, whereas equal human rights are a function of equal human value. Unequal human value derives from measurable human value, whereas equal human value derives from infinite human value. Measurable human value follows from man evolved devoid of God’s image, whereas infinite human value follows from man created in the image of God. Thus, as Thomas Jefferson said, human liberty is the gift of God because rightful human liberty is a function of equal natural human rights derived from infinite God-given human value.

God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Thomas Jefferson

And there's the rub, because the basis of modern Socialism is Marxist, where some people, based on their economic position, skin color, sex, sexual orientation or sexual identification are considered more equal than people of other classes, i.e., under Marxist Socialism some people, the so-called Proletariat, possess superior value and therefore superior rights compared to others, the so-called Bourgeoisie, a thoroughly tyrannical, liberty-destroying, anti-American idea. Young Americans must re-discover the essential and all-American basis of human freedom or face a new dark age of tyranny.

Ronald R. Cherry, MD

Author of Restoring the American Mind

PREFACE

President Reagan said that Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. Today a generational conflict is looming, but it isn’t a physical conflict. It is a battle of ideologies, the inherent, inalienable right of Individual Freedom enshrined in the American Declaration of Independence and U. S. Constitution versus an overarching State or Collective where there is no Individual Freedom., an ideology called Democratic Socialism or Marxism.

In 2019, a Democratic Socialist manifesto was presented as a Congressional resolution called The Green New Deal. While it was deemed foolish and symbolically rejected, it has taken root as an icon of the Millennial Generation.  The reach of its tentacles will become more apparent during the 2020 Presidential election process. But 2020 will just be a battle, a prelude to the war called the 2024 Presidential campaign. 

The Republican Party has been slow to respond to the threat posed by the growing appeal of Socialism to the Millennial generation. It is afraid to stand up for its own charter because of the fear of being labeled politically incorrect. To challenge the leftist orthodoxy will result in one-sided challenges from the media arm of the Democratic Party, the faux journalists of the mainstream media represented by NBC, ABC, CBS and cable channels CNN and MSNBC. The only balanced forum for conservatives is provided by Fox News and talk radio. The Republican politicians continue to duck the challenges and miss the opportunities being presented to them every day by their unhinged political opposition. They seem to rely on conservative political pundits resident inside the DC Beltway to present the Republican viewpoint. There is no Heartland pundit with the exception of perhaps Dr. Victor Davis Hanson, but Millennials will need a dictionary to keep up with VDH. It would be great to see Dr. Hanson channeling Milton Friedman on the Great Myths That Conceal Reality (Friedman, 1977). But, then again, Friedman’s warnings were disregarded and now his predictions have come to pass.

Republicans need to sell the idea that they are the party of Common-Sense but they need to do this on all the mainstream media outlets and social media platforms, the real information source of the Millennial Generation. They will not be able to do this if they don’t unite around the core values of the American Heartland and support the policy initiatives of the Trump administration

This book is intended to outline an approach for the Republican party to take to prepare for 2020 and 2024. It presents a proposal for the Republican party to assume the mantle of the Common-Sense party, begin an adult to adult conversation with Millennials and perhaps prevent a war. Without journalistic support, this may be a Quixotic venture, but it does fit Cervantes’ narrative. On Rocinante, hurry up Sancho. We may be too late.

Martin Capages Jr. PhD

INTRODUCTION

A conflict or war is always preceded by a singular disagreement. There may be other secondary factors, but there is always a primary factor driving the disagreement. Sometimes the secondary factors are used to disguise the real disagreement. The American Civil War was fought over ending Slavery, not States Rights. The Revolutionary War was fought for National Independence and Individual Freedom, not against taxation without representation. Identifying the real reason for the disagreement is the only way a war can be prevented.

Differences in group identities can help in diagnosing the cause for the primary disagreement. Then, if the problem is based on group identities and Orwellian Group-Think, steps can be taken to resolve the issue before the point of no return is reached.

The Boomer Generation are the sons and daughters of the greatest generation since the generation of the Founding Fathers. They are the pre-electronic information technology generation. But they are also the generation that created that very technology along with the assistance of their immediate progeny. Unfortunately, the technology evolved so quickly that the Boomers and their offspring lost control of their own creation.

The Millennials are the major benefactors of the Boomers’ legacy. Digital databases, rapid queries, and mass electronic distribution replaced history books, newspapers and the land-based telephone. To compete with cable news, television broadcast news had to throw away journalistic ethics and resort to opinion pieces disguised as news. This drove the cable news channels to drift even further from truth in broadcasting. Some became the equivalent of supermarket tabloids.  There were a few exceptions.

The new information network has evolved into a social media communication network that provides instant mass communication of both fact and fiction. The anonymous nature of the network has introduced a danger unforeseen by the Boomers. The rapidity of unverified communication has provided a propagandist’s paradise. This is evidenced by a new phenomenon called a flash mob. It also provides a platform for adolescent bullying without parental constraints as well as rapid access to pornography.

The other obvious difference in Boomers and Millennials is, of course, age. They are actually closer to being two generations apart, rather than one generation. This is the relationship of grandparents to grandkids, not exactly adult to child. Unfortunately, the relationship is not one of reverence for the wisdom of the elders. It is more let the grandkids teach Grandma how to use Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. Grandpa will never get it. Or perhaps, the other way around.  This attitude in the younger generation is so prevalent that even the idea that someone older may know something important must be kept secret lest that discovery place the discoverer in harm’s