LETTER: GOP needs to mount a moral defense of capitalism

Conservatives of all stripes are now attacking the Green New Deal by pointing out (correctly) that such widespread government control of the economy will not work, will raise taxes, will cost too much, etc. But you will not hear them denounce this latest collectivist scheme for being immoral. Therefore, they will continue to lose the battle of ideas.

Influential people including Karl Marx and Pope Francis — and countless others in between — have held that capitalism is an immoral system. Unfortunately, the conservative so-called defenders of capitalism agree. They concede the moral high ground to the leftists, but then attempt to justify capitalism as a necessary evil because it “works” and because men will never be selfless enough to voluntarily make the sacrifices that collectivism demands.

The leftists will continue to gain ground, no matter how much misery their programs produce, until capitalists begin to defend capitalism as a system that is both moral and practical. They must make the case that it is collectivism that is immoral because it obliterates individual rights and turns us all into helpless servants of the state.