Libertarian Christmas vs Socialist Christmas

Back in 2014, I looked at the vitally important battle over whether Santa Claus is a liberal or conservative.

Let’s now broaden that debate and contemplate the difference between libertarian Christmas and socialist Christmas.

We’ll start with this much-deserved jab at socialists, the people who continue to believe in coerced equality even though such systems always produce misery for ordinary people (though insiders often manage to get rich).

Sort of reminds me of this Chuck Asay cartoon.

And just in case anyone thinks libertarians don’t get into the Christmas spirit, here’s a new video from Reason TV showing the various gifts you can get for libertarians.

And if you like libertarian-themed Christmas videos, here’s another Reason production showing Santa Claus getting harassed by the TSA.

So what about the socialists?

Well, they definitely believe that government should be Santa Claus. Indeed, I’ve shared Christmas-themed cartoons making this point on many occasions (see here and here, for example).

But here’s something from the pro-socialist perspective. The goal is obviously to equate goodness with statism.

I like the Charlie Brown humor. That’s a nice touch. But there’s a too-big-to-ignore problem with the central message of this poster.

None of the examples involve government-coerced redistribution, which is the defining characteristic of the American left. Instead, we have five examples of voluntary goodness, a characteristic that is more commonly found where capitalism flourishes.

Indeed, it’s worth noting that supposedly selfish capitalists in America give far more to charity than supposedly compassionate Europeans. And you won’t be surprised to learn that people is red states are far more generous than people in blue states.

In other words, leftists are Scrooges with their own money who then try to mitigate their guilt by using coercive government to redistribute other people’s money.