President Donald Trump put a grumpy face on the self-described Socialist Democrats during last week's State of the Union Address when he reminded them that America was "founded on liberty and independence."

"We are alarmed by the new calls to adopt socialism in our country," Trump said. "America was founded on liberty and independence, and not government coercion, domination and control. We are born free and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country."

Media reports noted a few Democrats stood and applauded. But more than a few put on a scowl. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said the scowl was over Trump's demagoguery.

"There's no issue about socialism, that we want to leave the free market capitalist system. I don't think that's an issue in the Congress," the Maryland Democrat added, dismissing the remarks as Trump trying to rile his base, "Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter et al."

I have news for Messrs. Trump and Hoyer and for those who applauded Trump's anti-socialism pronouncement; the train of America being free of government coercion, domination and control and having a free market capitalist system left the station long ago. Trump's vow that "America will never be a socialist country" is about 150 years too late.

Anyone seeking human liberty, privacy and private property under the mental deception of our modern "democracy" is under the greatest illusion. Let us purge our minds of this seductive appeal.

This spiritual despotism has stolen our conscience, our soul and our honor. It is our legacy to future generations to whom we are passing on our slavery. Shame could have no greater victory.

The concept of freedom of the individual, or individual liberty, has been shoved down the memory hole and replaced by a popular mentality of diminishing the individual and independent thinker to a collectivist mind (mentality) which can be esoterically swayed, directed and channeled against his own best interest. The virtue and sanctity of the individual person and ego is no more, and anathema to the state.

If the people imagine that they are free, all sorts of crimes by the political system can be imposed, without protest, upon the people. It functions as an invisible armed guard.

Republican politicians and voters embrace socialism, with many of them doing so thinking they're embracing the liberty of our Founders. But there is nothing conservative about the welfare state, the warfare state or the police state. All are signs and symptoms of big government and are used to steal our liberties — particularly the liberties of free association, free assembly, free speech, free markets, religious liberty and control over one's own health and body.

"The goal of socialism is communism," said Vladimir Lenin. And any time that you point out socialism's failures the socialism proponent will tell you that it failed because there wasn't enough of it. Well, more socialism is communism.

On Feb. 21, 1848, "The Communist Manifesto" was published in London by a group of revolutionary socialists known as the Communist League.

Written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the pamphlet summarized the doctrines of the League, which was a group of German workers living in London. While in Brussels in January 1848, Marx wrote the pamphlet; it was essentially a rewrite and expansion of a model tract Engels wrote for the League in 1847.

The Manifesto opens with the words:

A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies.

Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries?

Two things result from this fact:

1. Communism is already acknowledged by all European powers to be itself a power.

2. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of Communism with a manifesto of the party itself.

Despite the best efforts by the "holy alliance" to exorcise the spectre, by 1950 about half the world was living under some form of Marxism or communism. According to some estimates, communist regimes accounted for 85 million to 100 million deaths in the 20th century. One of, if not the biggest, tragedies of World War II is that millions of Allied soldiers died in a European war to defeat Nazism only to see half of the continent condemned to 50 years of communism.

I've often wondered if "the greatest generation" would have so willingly bled and died in the European war had they known Franklin Delano Roosevelt had already ceded half of Europe to Stalin.

Following are the 10 planks of communism. They show that America's government is republican in name only. The 10 planks of communism have already been achieved.

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. (Private property rights are almost nonexistent today. You don't own your property if it can be confiscated for non-payment of tribute to the king, if zoning laws control how your property is used or if a government agency like the Environmental Protection Agency can arbitrarily tell you what you can and can't do with it.)
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. (Accomplished via the American tax system. Enforced via the Gestapo-like Internal Revenue Service.)
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance. (Accomplished via the estate tax.)
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. (Accomplished via rendition and drug laws allowing law enforcement to confiscate property — asset forfeiture — if it is suspected of being used in the trade or manufacture of drugs, with no evidence required.)
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. (Accomplished via the Federal Reserve, which is not Federal and doesn't hold "reserves.")
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state. (Accomplished via the Federal Communications Commission, crony Big Tech corporations controlling the internet and the regulated airline industry, Amtrak, public transportation and the regulated auto industry. Further attempts being made to further control internet speech and access.)
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of wastelands and the improvement of the soil, generally in accordance with a common plan. (Accomplished through price controls, minimum wage laws, utility monopolies government-supported Big Tech monopolies and subsidies and favorable regulations for favored industries.)
8. Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. (Industrial armies accomplished through regulations favoring/subsidizing unions, illegal workers.)
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country. (In progress via Agenda 21, "sustainable development" communities, social engineering schemes, zoning laws, etc.)
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production. (Accomplished via the public indoctrination system called public education under the control of the Federal government.)

These planks are supported by both major political parties. They have been accomplished gradually over the years without most Americans even being aware of it.

Yours for the truth,

Bob Livingston
Editor, The Bob Livingston Letter™

P.S. The Green New Deal released by New York's Communist Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revealed the ultimate goal of the new Democrats is the same as the goal of the old ones: control of means of production and massive wealth redistribution. Unfortunately, many of the Republicans are on board. They're just silent about it. We know you not only want to preserve what you've earned, you want to profit in today's economy. So if you want to get in on the rise of the "minimum wage" millionaires, take advantage of our free report, available here.