America must recognize the important distinction between free enterprise capitalism and vulgar capitalism. Free enterprise is grounded in private property, competition among private businesses, profit, and the forces of supply and demand rather than government control. Vulgar capitalism, by contrast, enables corporations to exploit working-class labor and gouge the middle class through inflated prices. This distinction also helps explain the fierce resistance to President Lincoln’s proposal of forty acres and a mule as reparations for formerly enslaved Black Americans. Economic freedom for Black Americans through land ownership and access to productive resources was rejected, and Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, and “Whites Only” signs soon followed.
Rather than calling on White Americans to labor independently “by the sweat of their brow” (Genesis 3:19), the nation embraced a system built on the exploitation of Black labor. In the end, self- sacrifice remains essential to a successful life. It is shameful that some White Americans wrongly believe Black Americans want something for nothing, when institutional racism itself reflects the desire to gain something without justly earning it. Human history is full of tragedies rootedin humanity’s fallen nature, and slavery and institutional racism in America rank among the worst examples. The Trump Administration is not conservative but racist. In fact, most Blacks are overwhelming conservative.
Nothing is sacred or safe under Trumpism, which is why Trumpism seeks to rewrite the racist tragedy of the American story. Under the Trump GOP Administration, racism drives public policy, aided by a “Not So” Supreme Court that has granted President Trump broad immunity from prosecution for official actions. Without question, America is facing a crisis of competent governance and a deadly virus called malnutrition of the brain. Seeking to alter American history as a means of remaining in power is bad politics and poor political strategizing.
Since his reelection on November 3, 2024, President Trump has practiced vulgar corporate capitalism to enrich his family. Someone should remind GOP politicians in both the House of Representatives and the Senate that moral character matters more than party loyalty. Sadly, Donald J. Trump is selling the U.S. presidency to the highest bidder, foreign or domestic. Vulgar, ungodly capitalism defines the Trump Administration, and race-based corporate capitalism— not free enterprise capitalism—drives its agenda. After all, a rising tide should lift all boats.
The Grand Old Party is not grand when it fails to support equal rights, equal opportunity, and multicultural inclusion.
Likewise, the Democratic Party can sometimes move too far from the center in its public policy initiatives. We know that God is found at the center of life, not in extremes, and God is not fooled: individuals reap what they sow. Those who sow corruption will reap corruption, which is why greed is such a dangerous mindset. Those who sow to the wind will reap the whirlwind. That is what goes around; comes around. America’s socioeconomic system is not purely capitalist because it includes social safety nets, such as welfare subsidies, for disadvantaged citizens. No society on earth is purely socialist or purely capitalist; every society has a mixed socioeconomic system. Anyone seeking a pure or perfect system should make heaven their destination, because no pure or perfect socioeconomic system exists on earth.
