Good article. I think the David Naas illustrates the issue pretty well. He says there are some passages in the BoM that could be interpreted in a socialist sense. He is right. The Bible too. “all things in common”, right? But you see that I think is the problem. Both “liberal” and “conservative’ Mormons are reading their political bias, their politics into the scriptures. Those things are not in the scriptures, but rather they are the dark glass through which we read the scriptures. That is why I thank God for modern prophets who can explain to us the proper way to see these things when acting in their prophetic office. It is so easy to see how past generations fell into apostasy because that same process is happening now, example in the “conservative” vs. “liberal” Mormon debate. Thankfully we have modern prophets to keep us on track to explain to us just HOW different communism/socialism and the law of consecration are ( and if you don’t realize there is a difference, I suggest you go back and read some GC talks during the 50s. The GA’s spend a lot of time explaining it.) because otherwise we would all go astray.
That said, I think Hartz was right. The split between the current Democratic and Republican Parties is not ideological as it is made out to be. They’re both on the left of the political spectrum. They both accept expansive, authoritarian government as the answer to all our woes. With the exception of a very few individuals (such as Ron Paul, Thomas Massie, and Judge Andrew Napolitano ), the argument is really just over what version of big government is going to dictate your life. Its an argument between the left side and right side of the left wing of political ideology.