Barack Obama’s election has given the Left a new license to talk redistributionism. Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) indulges in the celebration of government control of capital in this clip explaining how Republicans have this simplistic devotion to the silly concept of private property (via QandO):

We have been guided by a Republican administration who believes in the simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it and they have an antipathy towards redistributing wealth and they may be able to sustain it for a while but it doesn’t work in the long run.

Moran practically argues against himself in the leadup to this statement. He notes that American industry has become more efficient and more productive than ever, a necessary improvement in order to compete on a global stage.  Moran doesn’t mention that we achieved that while keeping unemployment low.  Why?  Because the wealth that this efficiency created got “distributed” by the people who owned the capital into other enterprises that created jobs and more wealth, and more jobs, and so on.  Otherwise, had people hid the money in savings accounts or mattresses, the higher efficiency would have resulted in higher unemployment, not lower unemployment.

Now Moran and Obama want to have government confiscate capital at higher rates in order to “share the wealth” through government bureaucracies.  That will kill the engine of economic growth and stall the creation of new jobs.  The only growth industry in America will be government bureaucracies and Joe Biden’s WPA II.

Before this general election, talk of redistributionism would have killed political careers.  Can Democrats openly embrace this concept and maintain their offices?  At the moment, yes they can.   When it fails miserably, that may change — but it will be a painful lesson for American voters.