The Double-Speak

All but one congressional Democrat now pledging to be pro-capitalism is co-sponsoring a freelance-busting bill the socialists and communists champion.

Watch what they do. Not what they say.

I’m borrowing that line from MS NOW host Rachel Maddow because it perfectly fits what we are witnessing with the newly dropped “Promise To America.”

Last week, after a number of loud and proud socialists won elections in New York, some self-described moderate Democrats came out with this “Promise To America” that explicitly includes promoting capitalism over socialism.

This was their announcement on social media, with a website that launched a few days later:

The very first item in this promise on the website starts with: “We are capitalist, not socialist.” It goes on to state:

“We believe in a growing, fair, and competitive economy that rewards hard work, innovation, entrepreneurship, and ownership. Full-time work should make it possible to own a home, raise a family, afford healthcare, and retire with dignity. Economic, permitting, and tax policy should expand opportunity and lower costs for workers, families, entrepreneurs, and those striving to join the middle class, not disproportionately favor those already at the top.”

So these are supposedly pro-entrepreneur, anti-socialist Democrats.

There’s just one problem.

All but one of the sitting Democrats in Congress who signed this promise are currently co-sponsoring freelance-busting legislation that threatens the livelihoods of tens of millions of independent contractors—legislation that the Democratic Socialists of America called their highest national priority and that the Communist Party USA promoted as recently as last month.

The Signatories

As I explained last week, the federal PRO Act is a bill that would inject the kind of freelance-busting regulatory language that thousands of us are fighting to stop in California and New Jersey into federal law, so that it would apply to everyone nationwide.

This weaponized regulatory language, known as the ABC Test, is a direct attack on a core principle of capitalism: that we have the freedom in this country to be our own bosses. This regulatory language restricts that freedom. It attempts to force independent contractors into the status of unionizable employees, stripping us of our current status as entrepreneurs.

The Democratic Socialists of America have explained their thinking about the PRO Act. They say that having workers all be unionized would allow the socialists to create a general strike and shut down business nationwide until they get their laundry list of political demands.

Never mind that all throughout American history, we’ve always had the freedom to be our own bosses as independent contractors.

Forget that about two-thirds of Americans say they want to be their own bosses.

And just ignore the 80% of independent contractors who prefer to be our own bosses, including the millions of these entrepreneurs now earning more than $100,000 per year.

The Marxists see us as victims of capitalism. The weaponized regulatory language in the PRO Act fits nicely with the Marxist fever dream of everyone being unionized employees so they can shut down business everywhere. It’s so extreme that the Communist Party has long publicly supported the PRO Act, at one point having organized phone banks to try and get the bill passed:

Also supporting this bill, arm-in-arm with the Democratic Socialists of America and the Communist Party USA, are the following members of Congress who signed last week’s “Promise To America” while claiming to stand on the side of capitalism and entrepreneurs:

• Adam Gray, California

• Tom Suozzi, New York

• Laura Gillen, New York

• Don Davis, North Carolina

• Kristen McDonald Rivet, Michigan

• Josh Gottheimer, New Jersey

• Maggie Goodlander, New Hampshire

• Janelle Bynum, Oregon

• Susie Lee, Nevada

There is currently just one signatory on the “Promise To America” who is a sitting member of Congress, but who is not also a co-sponsor of the anti-entrepreneur PRO Act: Vicente Gonzalez of Texas.

He did vote for it, though.

Which means that if you watch what he does and not what he says, he also stood with the socialists and against the entrepreneurs.

Governor Sherrill Fits this Description, Too

This same hypocrisy is happening at the state level, as well, with elected Democrats claiming to be moderate and distancing themselves from the socialists while pushing extreme anti-entrepreneur policies the socialists champion.

In my home state of New Jersey, our new governor, Mikie Sherrill, made a big deal of doing a media tour and saying out loud, “I’m not a Democratic Socialist.” Last week, media from the Daily Kos to USA Today held up Sherrill as an example of a non-socialist Democrat who recently won an election outside of New York.

But the reality is that Sherrill, too, is pushing hard against the entrepreneurs as a proponent of freelance busting. She just imposed a rule in New Jersey that’s based on the same kind of ABC Test regulatory language the Democratic Socialists and the Communists are trying to inject into federal law.

What’s worse is that Governor Sherrill went forward with her freelance-busting rule despite 99% opposition during a public-comment process. The people of New Jersey said loudly and clearly that we stand on the side of entrepreneurs, on the side of capitalism. Sherrill instead sided with extremists in the public comments whose source material compared being our own bosses to being a crime on the order of human trafficking.

Yes, really.

Actual moderate Democrats in New Jersey’s Legislature still have time to block this rule, which doesn’t take effect until October 1. Much as actual moderate Democrats in Congress can remove their names as co-sponsors of the PRO Act before this November’s midterm elections.

Watch what they do. Not what they say.

And then, if you believe in supporting capitalism and our freedom to be entrepreneurs, vote accordingly.