So why is it that Democrats seem so hellbent on pushing housing issues, in particular the funding of low-income apartment complexes? After all, they complain the loudest about “warehousing the poor”, yet virtually all Democrat-led municipalities build massive housing complexes with multi-family units (apartments) as the answer to low-income housing. The infamous “Section 8” of the Housing Act of 1937 was another push that subsidizes private housing by paying private landlords to let the government use their properties as low-income housing, which was later pushed as a way to get “the poor” out into the suburbs. All this seems innocent and decent enough, but why is it that the Democrats are the ones driving all of this? The answer lies in Measure IX in Question 18 of “The Principles Of Communism”:
(ix) Construction, on public lands, of great palaces as communal dwellings for associated
groups of citizens engaged in both industry and agriculture and combining in their
way of life the advantages of urban and rural conditions while avoiding the
one-sidedness and drawbacks of each.
Now stay with me here. I can hear you saying “but this talks about communal housing for workers! These people don’t work!” And you’re mostly right; many people in public housing don’t work, preferring to draw welfare from the government. This is actually a uniquely American twist on this measure, where the recipients of government welfare are not expected to do anything in return for it. Other countries require at least some minimal contribution of labor in common areas: sweeping streets, picking up trash, landscaping, and so forth. But not, for the most part, anywhere in the US. (Hint: those other countries are farther along the Socialism road than we are, or at least they were.) The fact is that Democrats still have to work within the electoral framework laid out in the Constitution; they need votes to stay in power. How do you get someone to vote for you? Give them free stuff: housing, food, walking-around money.
Ok, with that out of the way let’s take a look at what Democrats have to say, from the 2020 Democratic Party Platform. Specifically, the section entitled “Putting Homeownership in Reach and Guaranteeing Safe Housing for Every American”:
Democrats believe the government should take aggressive steps to increase the supply of
housing, especially affordable housing, and address long-standing economic and racial inequities
in our housing markets. We support innovative approaches to eliminating the racial wealth gap in
America. Rehabilitating housing and expansion of housing owned by land trusts will increase the
amount of housing available for secure homeownership.
Notice that last sentence, about land trusts: these aren’t non-profit organizations we’re talking about. These are tracts of land owned by the government, managed by non-profits. The government holds the land “in trust”. It’s a sneaky way of fulfilling the objective of building housing “on public lands”. And here’s where they tie their “fair housing” effort into other parts of Engels’ methodology: tying labor to this funding:
We will ensure all federally supported housing projects, from new builds to retrofits, include mandatory requirements for labor standards, accessibility, and civil rights protections.
And there you have it. Construction of great palaces to be used as communal housing, by the hard-beset proletarian workers. It gets better:
Democrats commit to providing Section 8 housing support for every eligible family, and will enact protections to keep landlords from discriminating against voucher recipients.
And there go your private property rights: if somebody shows up with a Section 8 voucher and you’re the landlord, you have to rent the property to them. And don’t you DARE try to evict them for anything:
Democrats will enact a new Homeowner and Renter Bill of Rights to protect families from abusive lenders and landlords. We will empower renters by working to establish a national tenant right to organize, and support outreach and education to help tenants advocate to preserve and expand affordable housing. And Democrats will provide legal support to fight wrongful evictions.
Another Marxist goal: Lenin called it the “dictatorship of the proletariat”; essentially, you are subject to the whims of the masses, who have already been whipped into a frenzy of hatred for anyone better off than them.
So there you have it: just one small section of the 2020 Democratic Party Platform that shows, yet again, that everything the Democrats do is rooted solidly in Marxist principles.