For over a hundred years, the Progressive Left in this country has been waging war against American free market capitalism and the prosperity that it has brought to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Animated by a love of Marx and a blind hatred for wealthy and successful entrepreneurs, Progressives have made quite an impact on our society. From government to the private sector, public schools to unions, and Hollywood to the mainstream news media, the anti-capitalist Left seems to have a foothold in practically every major node of American political and cultural life.
But this is no reason for despair, says Andrew Puzder, a former Trump labor secretary nominee and the former CEO of CKE Restaurants, which runs the famous Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast food chains. In fact, according to his upcoming book “The Capitalist Comeback: The Trump Boom and the Left’s Plot to Stop It,” which is due for release later this month, President Donald Trump is at the vanguard of a new pro-business and pro-capitalism movement that can defeat the Progressive Left for good if it plays its hand right.
Coming from a background both as a successful international businessman and someone who grew up working minimum-wage, entry-level jobs, Puzder’s life experience gives him a unique insight into the core intellectual deformities of those who have made the annihilation of capitalism their life goal. In the introduction to his book, Puzder says that one of his primary goals in writing it was to create a “‘Most Wanted’ list of the institutions standing in the way of freedom and prosperity” in America so that those who value capitalism and free enterprise can better understand the forces that are fighting to obstruct Trump’s economic agenda.
And in that respect, “The Capitalist Comeback succeeds pretty brilliantly. From his dissection of the socialist activism and even support for murderous violence endemic in labor and teachers’ unions like the AFL-CIO or the AFT to his breakdown of the Progressive news media and its penchant for producing propaganda (from Upton Sinclair and his fake news opus “The Jungle” to the daily stream of lies and misdirection about Trump and other Republicans), Puzder makes an excellent case not just for how the various elements of pro-socialist leftism have been able to corrupt our most important institutions, but why they lost steam during the Obama years.
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As Puzder makes the case, it was Obama’s wholesale shift leftwards in favor of relentless centralization and expansion of the Federal government — both by legislation and executive fiat — and the resultant anemic growth of the American economy that played a key role in dislodging many of the current Progressive crop of politicians from office.
But some of them still hold considerable power, especially in the news media. Puzder experienced this firsthand when his nomination to be Trump’s first labor secretary was derailed by widely reported allegations that he had physically abused his first wife (charges that she publicly refuted, to little apparent effect) and had wanted to replace all of his CKE restaurant staff with robots. The cumulative political pressure brought on him and his family by these accusations, including an ominous letter filled with white powder that appeared on his doorstep, and several key Republican defections at his Senate confirmation hearing (Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski being among them) ultimately forced him to step down from consideration.
However, Puzder has not just quietly retreated to count his bruises and move on. “The Capitalist Comeback” is certainly a fitting way to get payback at the Progressive Left and expose their agenda to the American people. Once you see inside their funhouse of apologia for communist dictators, disdain for the lives and rights of normal middle and working-class people, and their stubborn contempt for embracing proven free market economic policies and solutions, it’s difficult to view Progressives in the same way again.
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