By Phil Orenstein
Private property is a human right in a free democratic society. To the authors of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, property is as sacred as Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. In fact, “property” was written in place of “pursuit of Happiness” in the first draft of the Declaration of Independence.
Our religious traditions hold private property rights sacrosanct. “Thou shall not steal” is one of the Ten Commandments which are the moral imperatives of our civilization. It’s widely understood that it’s not ok to take other people’s property. “Thou shall not covet” your neighbor’s property is commanded as well.
Why was property given such significance in our religious and constitutional traditions? In a free society where the individual is king, property is under the control of the individual, not the state. It’s the domain where the state cannot enter without a just cause or a search warrant.
The most important assets are one’s home or business to the vast majority of Americans. But to the progressives, there is no private property. It belongs to the state or the community and can be taken away at any time.
In Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, the former Soviet Union, China, and other totalitarian states, all property is owned by the state, and the individual has no protections against the state seizing their property. After the Russian Revolution, the first act of the Communist Party was to end private property. Landlords, homeowners, industrialists, and merchants were branded enemies of the state. In the same way, Castro in Cuba, Mao’s Chinese Communist Party, and Pol Pot all seized privately owned land and property. Property rights are the first to go, then they end free speech, the right to bear arms, trial by jury, and finally comes the end of freedom and the individual himself.
In the eyes of St. Louis Prosecutor Kim Gardner, homeowners, Mark and Patricia McCloskey have no right to defend their home from Black Lives Matter protesters who broke through their gate and entered their property. This progressive prosecutor, who let everyone out of jail who was arrested for looting and arson following the death of George Floyd, charged Mark McCloskey with a felony for the “crime” of defending his property.
Progressive Democrat District Attorney of Philadelphia, Larry Krasner is not prosecuting crimes of theft and destruction of property. He said, “no prosecutor’s office in America should be complicit in efforts to silence or punish people who are angry with government or elected leaders and are expressing themselves peacefully,” and he slammed the media for showing scenes of rioting, looting, and burning, because it doesn’t fit his “peaceful protesting” narrative. In this skewed leftist system, the poor and oppressed have been left out of the system, so they are justified in destroying property, and the people protecting their own property are the criminals.
BLM rioters hounded diners at a restaurant in Pittsburgh and stole a drink off the table. Anarchists in Rochester barged into restaurants, flipped tables and chairs, and screamed at terrified diners. Terrorizing diners, looting stores, and smashing windows, all happened in Manhattan and in cities across America. These were property crimes and those arrested were let out because progressive DAs and mayors of Democrat-run cities do not prosecute people for property crimes, which are not criminal acts to them. Bail reform laws in New York and other blue states are turning criminals loose on our streets. Progressive DAs, mayors, city councilmen, and elected officials of New York City, St. Louis, Seattle, Portland, Philadelphia, and other Democrat run cities and states across America are working in solidarity with BLM and the lawless mob.
Each and every person’s property in America is at risk. This is a revolt against private property and our police who protect our property. Once the police are gone, nothing can stop the mob and progressive politicians from seizing our property, whether in cities, suburbs, or rural areas. This is their plan and their key to taking power. To BLM and progressives, property belongs to the state, the community or to them. Seizing your property makes you dependent on the state, so they have absolute power over you.
Kamala Harris wants the chaos to continue until they get their way as she said referring to the protests across America: “They’re not going to stop. This is a movement….. and everyone beware …. they’re not going to let up, and they should not, and we should not.” In an America under Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, AOC and the Squad, and the minions of the progressive left, you will see the erosion of our private property rights and all of our constitutional safeguards.
They believe everything in America was stolen from the native Americans and was taken off the backs of hard-working slaves. This justifies the movement threatening our property, our homes, our restaurants, our businesses, which were the ill-gotten spoils of systemic racism of America since 1619, which can be justifiably seized by the state. They twisted the truth of America’s history to say we are guilty of stealing from the poor, the oppressed, the slaves, and native Americans, and it has to be rectified by taking back our ill-gotten gains. So now looting is “reparations” and calling someone a criminal is “racist” according to BLM and the progressive left. It’s time to wake up and see what’s happening in America.
This is the most important election of our lifetimes. Vote Republican because we believe in private property rights. We believe in the rule of law. We believe in our police, the thin blue line between civilization and chaos. Most rational people believe this. Democrats must leave the Party of Kamala Harris and her call to continue rioting, the Party of AOC, the Party of Bernie Sanders, de Blasio and the mayors of Portland, Seattle, and Chicago, the Party to end private property rights and capitalism.
Vote Republican. Vote for civilization. Vote as if our life, liberty, and property depended on it, because it does.
Phil Orenstein is the president of the Queens Village Republican Club. Established in 1875, it is America’s oldest Republican Club. www.QVGOP.org Historian, Jerry Matacotta, founder of History Seminar Series at Queensborough Community College was the advisor for this article.
