When and How Did the Liberalism of Jefferson Become Collectivist and Marxist?
by Norman Scott Mills

When did Communism and Socialism insert itself on the left politically? How and when did being ultra liberal, or being on the far left, become being a Communist or Socialist? When did collectivism and collectivist tyranny take over for individualism and individual liberty on the political left?

Thomas Jefferson. the third President of the United States. and James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, are said to be the founders of the Democratic Party. They were both considered liberals, which meant at the time of the founding of this country a political and philosophical belief from the Age of Enlightenment in individual liberty and equality under the law for everyone as individuals, with no one being above or below the law; and for equal rights given to everyone individually, as a minority of one. It also meant being for small, unobtrusive, non-coercive government, one that does not interfere in the lives of its citizens, and choose for them like they were children.

At the beginning of the 20th century in 1902, Woodrow Wilson — a Democrat — became president of Princeton University, and was later nominated for President of the United States at the 1912 Democratic National Convention. He sided with the Left Wing — or Liberal Wing — of his party at the convention, and campaigned on a program called the New Freedom,which stressed individualism and states' rights. He was elected President of the United States with a majority of the electoral votes, and therefore the head of his political party at the same time.

Woodrow Wilson wrote, "Liberty has never come from government. It has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance."

When did Marxist collectivist equality insert itself on the left politically? When did collectivism take over and replace individualism on the Left? When did economic equality take over and become more important then the social equality of equal rights, equal laws, equal justice and equal freedom, for everyone individually regardless race, ethnicity or belief system?

Milton Friedman wrote, "A society that puts equality ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality or freedom."

When did minority group rights take over and become more important than individual and equal rights? When in the history of government and humanity has making people unequal, by giving them special rights, and giving them special protections under the law, made those people equal, with everyone else, who do not have those protections and rights? When have special rights and special laws not created resentment in the people left out of those special rights, special protections and special laws? The definition and application of a right should be to protect and/or expand liberty, not to diminish it, and should be given to everyone equally as individuals, without regard for race or social standing.

Being a liberal use to stand for liberty and a belief in individual freedom. The only way that liberty can be given equally is to everyone as individuals, and to respect other people's individual rights and freedoms, or no one can be truly free.

Lord Acton wrote, "Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end."

There is no such thing as collectivist liberty or collectivist freedom; true liberty can only be given to everyone individually, to live his or her life as he or she chooses, with the right to have their own individual beliefs, whether they're political or religious, and to have or create their own moral and/or ethical values, by which they should live their lives.

They should be able to act on those beliefs without fear of persecution by a collective group or government. They should not have to live under the coercive nature of a collectivist government; and in this society the collectivist government uses force or the threat of force, coercion, intimidation and/or incarceration against its people to do what the collective thinks is best for them and their own good and for the good of the collective, such as wearing seat belts, helmets on motorcycles, not smoking cigarettes in public, not taking illegal drugs, and not engaging in prostitution; to levy a fine, or to pay extra taxes or to throw you in prison, for the activities listed above; and then call that being a compassionate society, to enforce and/or force their compassion and morality upon us.

You can justify anything politically when you're doing it for the good of the collective. Stalin and Hitler did! Stalin did it supposedly for the good of the Soviet socialist state or collective. He killed millions in societal purges because they disagreed with him politically; Hitler killed millions, and did it supposedly for the good of the collective state of Germany, or the collective German race.

Any racist argument arguing for the good or advancement of any particular race is a collectivist argument. Hitler and Stalin both used socialist or collectivist arguments to further their cause. The word Nazi stands for the Nationalist Socialist Party of Germany. Why on the collectivist socialist leaning left is only racism evil? Why isn't what Stalin did evil also? Why is there no moral relativism as far as the racism of Hitler's Germany is concerned, and why is there moral relativism as far as the millions of Stalin's political murders are concerned? Could it be because the collectivist socialist left has been able to position Hitler on the political right, and that Stalin is an embarrassment of the collectivist socialist political left?

We have to beware of, and be vigilant against, the corrupting nature of power which leads to its abuses, whether it's by one or the majority, using the instruments of government toward oppression, and totalitarian government. To get their way, the collectivist socialist leaning left uses collective guilt and collective blame, condemnation and judgment.

The collectivist socialist-leaning left is judgmental when it blames people collectively, a collective corporation, a collective government, a collective logging industry, a collective National Rifle Association, a collective capitalism, and a collective race, culture or society, as long as it's American. They use collective condemnation, judgment, blame and guilt against people collectively. On the collectivist socialist leaning left, every culture is equal to every other culture, except for American culture, society, and/or government, which is blamed, condemned and criticized for everything, because we are not equal; we're the richest, most powerful nation on Earth.

When we no longer have the right to choose, but the collective chooses for us, or the collective tells us what we can, or cannot do with our own bodies, lives, and souls supposedly for the good of the collective, we are no longer free, but living under tyranny and slavery.

I am classically liberal, or a Jeffersonian liberal, and I'm an individualist, individual and free, because I choose to be. I believe in individual and equal rights, equal laws, equal justice, and equal freedom. I believe justice has to be blind to race and all forms of social prejudices for justice to be equal. I believe nobody is above or below the law, and everybody should be treated equally under the law, with equal rights and equal freedom for everyone individually, so they can become whatever their abilities, aspirations, hopes, and dreams can create for them.

I believe in the right of self-determination over our minds, bodies, and souls, and that every one of us are free, sovereign, autonomous individuals. I believe the state or government does not own us, and therefore has no right to make our decisions for us, or tell us what we can and cannot do with our own bodies, minds, and souls.

F. A. Hayek wrote, " A society that does not recognize that each individual has values of his own, which he is entitled to follow, can have no respect for the dignity of the individual, and cannot really know freedom."

I believe that individualism and liberty is what our country, the United States of America, should try and strive for, and try to achieve, not the collectivist corruption that it has come to represent.

Norman Scott Mills is the founder and author of the Freedom Forever web site.