No, We Are Not All Socialists Now
The endless fallacy of state economic planning is that greed can somehow be eliminated from human nature. The virtue of capitalism is that it takes greed into account, and puts it to good use. Free markets give people incentives to satisfy their greed by providing things that other people really want, and which they choose to buy in a process of voluntary exchange. In that system, government is supposed to exercise restraint, rather than treating taxpayers as providers of an all-you-can-eat Washington buffet.
What we have right now is a shift in which individual greed is being condemned, but government greed is hailed as an achievement — because it comes with a promise that government will provide things that people want. Welcome to the cookie cutter world, in which you will be told what you are supposed to want, and you will be told how much you must pay for it, when you will get it, and where to wait until it is doled out. This will be done not by way of voluntary exchange, but by the state, which, unlike the private sector, enjoys the power of coercion.
Newsweek describes this as becoming more “French.” I suspect that to many Americans, all those old French jokes notwithstanding, ”French” is a word that still connotes romance, Parisian street cafes, summers in Provence, and maybe a gentle caresse from the welfare state.
That’s not what lies ahead if all knowledge and experience of the virtues of genuine free markets is tossed aside as worn-out baggage. If, for fear of being “fractious and unedifying” we all lie back and accept the numbing incantation of we-are-all-socialists-now, what lies ahead is a drab, restrictive, frustrating and far more difficult way of life. Expect rising corruption — as it becomes ever more important to petition the bureaucracy for favors and exceptions. Expect lots more bridges to no where. Expect a lot more of the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid deciding how to spend your income for you – even though state planners cannot possibly know the tradeoffs that you individually might prefer between books and butter, chocolate and cheese. Expect a lot more of that sinking feeling as President Obama makes the rounds of townhall meetings, dispensing like some feudal lord a handout of free housing here, a boost up the bureaucratic queue there. Finally, expect an America that is less safe from our enemies, because being poorer and less free is unlikely to transform us on a corresponding schedule into a less tempting target. It will simply make us an easier target.
It does not have to be like this. There are still plenty of Americans who value their freedom, and on the matter of free markets there is a rich body of thought and experience which applies just as well to human nature in the 21st century as it did in the 20th. To a horrifying extent, it has gone missing from the mainstream debate. Certainly it was missing from last year’s presidential campaign. As we pay a rapidly rising price for that omission, this is precisely the time to bring back arguments for the free market and individual liberty. I’d venture that politicians who give it a real try right now would find a suprisingly strong response.
It’s no surprise that Obama has a distaste for open public debate; it’s the inevitable outgrowth of the wannabe dictator. It’s also the one thing that – as you suggest – can blow the lid off the can of toxic sludge about to be consumed by the American citizenry.
Reason and fact will show the superiority of liberty and free markets every time. Statism can not last in the face of that. If the majority of the American public ever become sufficiently aware of how cheaply they have sold away their rights to liberty, property, and voluntary trade there will be a revolution many times larger than the first one.
That makes it critical for the Obama’s of the world to suppress dissent – first in Swedish, politically correct fashion, followed not long after by more vigorous methods a la Venezuela.
Once again Claudia, you hit the nail “dead square” on the head…unfortunately too few of our fellow Americans know who Uncle Miltie is, never mind Hayek. Stay focused, and keep your powder dry – its going to be a long 4 years….
I feel so alone.
If the ‘stimulus’ fails we have a financial catastrophe.
If it ‘works’ we have socialism. We lose both ways.
How ironic, after we establish a Democracy in Iraq, & Middle East, then succumb to socialism in America.
CR,
We are all well aware of the virtues of genuine free markets – it is their vices that are more worrying.
Peace.
DS
“Newsweek describes this as becoming more “French.” I suspect that to many Americans, all those old French jokes notwithstanding, “French” is a word that still connotes romance, Parisian street cafes, summers in Provence, and maybe a gentle caresse from the welfare state.”
yeah, one only knows that parisian streets and Provence are but France
funny, a few years ago French meens freedom fries and surrender monkeys !!!
I tell ya, the French would never had elected a half-African for their president, we only choose among the elite !!!
We have survived previous economic downturns despite, not because of, government intervention. When the government meddles, it distorts the information that the markets otherwise transmit by way of prices, successes and failures. With $787 Billion in distortion, it will be that much harder for that portion of the market that remains free to recover. No matter how many liberal pundits, politicians and even so-called economists deny it, we can’t spend ourselves our of a recession. The only way out is through increased production – but any increases, if not stifled entirely, are likely to be soaked up by taxes to pay for increased government spending. The Obama alchemy will not turn lead (spending) into gold (economic revival) no matter how many profess their confidence in The One.
“….the sooner we can think more clearly about how to use government in today’s world.”
This is just another way of saying that “elites” should be running things. These individuals are benevolent and attended the best schools—and therefore presumably are qualified to tell the unwashed masses what to do. I strongly encourage everyone to read Robert Caro’s magistral work on Robert Moses, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. Moses was an ego tripping whack job who explicitly argued that the graduates of Harvard, Yale and Columbia should manage society.
The arrogant elites fail to comprehend that it intrinsically impossible to manage the affairs of the common citizenry even if one has an I.Q. of 500 and possesses 100 Ph.D.s behind their name.
Amazing that we seem to be following Plato’s ‘The Republic’ almost to the letter. Presently moving from Democracy to Tyranny.
“…These freedoms divide the people into three socioeconomic classes: the dominating class (read political..my insert), the capitalists and the commoners. Tensions between the dominating class and the capitalists causes the commoners to seek out protection of their democratic liberties. They invest all their power in their democratic demagogue (Barack Obama…my insert), who, in turn, becomes corrupted by the power and becomes a tyrant with a small entourage of his supporters for protection and absolute control of his people. “
Newsweek only exists in the mind of Newsweek and the Obamanoids at CNN. Has anyone picked up a copy in recent years? It is more like a pamphlet than a magazine and the audience is so shrunken that it is almost invisible. It has just had another editorial makeover to deal with it midget size; the next makeover it makes will be to close entirely.
Don’t worry about Newsweek.
No, we are not socialists. But there certainly are those who would like to see us criminalized for our preference for Locke, Montesquieu, and Smith and our aversion to the negativity of Rousseau, Nietzsche, and Marx.
The game on now is to discredit America’s founding principles without appearing to be hostile to the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. They are trying to turn up into sheep. Just one of the herd. One of the collective. One unit. A conforming social widget.
The dehumanization of Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ is upon our doorstep.
Re #7 David S: The vices of the free market are apparent in the housing mess that was fueled by greed. However, that greed was encouraged by the Democrats through the subversion of Freddie and Fannie mandates. Had the “safety net” not been present, the crisis would have been mitigated, since risk would have been too high.
Regarding virutes and vices, only one thing counts in government and in virtually every venue in this world: The ability to self-correct. Nobody knows where we are going, but we all know for sure where we don’t want to go. Humans are geared to avoid threat, not to predict the future. Therefore, any system, like big government, that cannot right itself quickly with relative ease and minimal cost, is a stupid dumb construct. One of the virtues of capitalism is in its ability to quickly shift capital about from less to more useful projects. To give up on what does not work. Government projects go on forever. The vicious vice of Obama is that he has sold “CHANGE” down the river by touting big government, which cannot and will not change any ongoing program.
America’s problem now is that they have a leader who who knew before he began that he could not deliver what he promised. (Even 30% Biden knows that failure is a real possibility.) So Obama will go on for the sake of self-agrandizement and the full expression of power that is so heady. In four years we will hopefully self-correct.
Snooze-week. ‘Nuff said.
However, since no horse is so dead it can’t be beaten one more time, I will also say this:
The premise of the article is buried early on. If you read paragraphs 2 and 3 carefully, you see that the premise is, “The Right chanted Socialism, but guess what? Our government already spends money, so we’re already Socialist. You should feel comforted, Right. You’ve been duped, but we’ll still pretend to be capitalists at times. Just accept it.”
Three words for you, Jon and Evan: Suck my ____
Just a thought. You’re sort of describing Canada and Canada is not exactly hell. That said however, I have to wonder just how important having the world’s most vibrant capitalist society next door is, in allowing us our socialism or how important having the world’s most benign superpower pretty much guaranteeing our security, is to maintaining our self satisfied system. I don’t think I want to find out.
From Merriam-Webster
Greed
Date: 1609
: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed
There is much talk these days regarding greed, greedy bankers, etc. As I read the word greed I often wonder who is making the decision that someone is greedy. What are the presumptions inherent to this determination? Morally, Gordon Gecko’s, “Greed is good,” statement offends one’s self view. Perhaps it is because of our moral standards. We have consistantly been accused of greed when acquiring for ourselves and loved ones while less fortunate deal with less. The value of our work and industry has been disregarded. Why, I wonder, should someone other than myself decide what it is that I need?
The left has been saying that collectivism is inevitable for well over one hundred years. This is one of their oldest and most effective tactics. “You are alone”, “No one agrees with you”, “Don’t cause trouble for everyone else”. “Solid Action” , you are NOT alone! It is going to take three things: solidarity, perseverance, and courage, and we will overturn this socialist coup.
Some encouraging reads; the story of Lech Walesa , and The Last Crusade,( about the Spanish Civil War written by a non-socialist). Also, read some American History written before 1968. Find out something about Matthew Lyon of Vermont, the person the Alien and Sedition Acts were meant to silence.
I think it can be done here peacefully through the legislature and the courts , without having to suffer bloodshed. But we must hang together and be willing to take a few blows for our cause.
Look up the commentary that is attributed to Alexander Tytler
OH – and read again Hayek’s “The Fatal Conceit.”
While I didn’t read the Newsweek piece (never touch the stuff,) and while it may shock right-minded Americans, the premise is right. 52% of Americans did vote for a known socialist of the Alinsky-Mao stripe, not to speak of the appalling herd of Dimmy sleazebag moochers, statists, social planners and demogogues leaving their trail of slime in the Capitol building now. And while discerning people lIke Claudia Rossette may hope for a Rennaissance of conservative literature and knowledge, I think we naively base such hopes on past generations while ignoring anominous, depressing fact – the barbarians have taken over the schools too, producing a class of history, economics-civil illiterates which produced the edge in their votes. Simply put, Americans do not even read anymore. The article would have been better titled, “We Are All Idiots Now.”
the 9/11 truthers, the Bush-is-Hitler celebs, the gnomes who kept repeating 2000 election was stolen & America is a neocon dictatorship….and on and on. We should learn from them. Never accept a done deal, never be cowed by reality, never give up. They were faithful to evil and eventually won. Can’t we be as faithful to the good?
We are dependent, not independent. We are debt junkies in free fall, not bootstrapping up the ladder in the free market.
Our political discourse and debate is strangled and held captive in an echo chamber via manifesto, rather than liberated and set free through vibrant independent thought.
We are all cowards now. We make seditious statements about our own country in order to curry favor with her enemies. Cheap jokes about Republicans, especially Republican Presidents is the hallmark of self-loathing.
We are all hypocrites now. The rules apply to some, but not to all. Sexual harassment, tax evasion, going “green”…apply to some but not to others. Campaign cheating, turning off the credit card protections and taking foreign money don’t apply at all on one side of the aisle.
We are all intolerant now. Stereotyping any…any…point of view that doesn’t comport with the leftist “message” must be done in broad strokes with eye-bulging, spittle-flecked rage, anger and hatred. (see Pelosi the lesser and HBO) Any point of view left of Lenin is purity and exalted, anything right of Stalin is to be trash talked and presented as ignorance personified.
We are living in Animal Farm America. The dogs have been sent out and the rules keep changing on the blackboard. The leftists are in control…and frankly, watching them kill off freedom and independence is sad. Watching them do it and take on the in your face attitude (“we won, live with it”) makes me believe a war is coming.
I rather prefer the Bill Maher, Nancy Pelosi approach. The more these sniveling scum get “in your face” out into the public, the more likely there will be resistance. Watching my country succumb meekly to leftist destruction leaves me more in despair than the unsettling resistance would. Neither makes me happy. But keeping freedom alive would make me proud.
We are all
CALIFORNIA: SOCIALISTS IN OUR MIDST
State and big city government in California has been so far left for so long that the state is on it’s death bed.
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/02/california-sky-is-falling.html
Alas, H.L. Mencken penned the dreadful truth forty years ago:
” The average man doesn’t want to be free, he wants to be safe.” Easy enough to praise liberties and free markets when the money is flowing. But at the first sign of real trouble,
all too many John & Jane Citizens are happy to surrender direction of their lives to Big Brother- as their grandparents did in the ’30s.
Newsweek readers are all socialists now. The rest of us, not so much.
All the article proved is Newsweek journos do not understand what socialism is. Obama is not a socialist he’s an authoritarian, a paternalistic liberal, he believed in individual freedom so long as it is limited to people being free to do as they are told. His administration more resembles Big Brither’s regime in Orwell’s 1984 that any true socialist government.
Remember the movement created by Hitler was the National Socialist Perty. The Devl can cite the scripture to his own ends (or something like that.
If you want to read a really frightening story click my name to learn about a pill that is claimed to “erase bad memories.” But if bad memories why not independent thought, memories of reading political or religious philosophy, anything thast might encourage dissent.
Canuck said:
“Just a thought. You’re sort of describing Canada and Canada is not exactly hell.”
What I say next is not a rant against your statement but just my personal view: As a fellow Canadian I would only agree to what you say because of the qualification “not exactly”. And it would be exactly Hell if the full socialists like Trudeau were not occasionally replaced by lesser socialists (alleged Conservatives and Liberal Paul Martin) who undo some small part of the damage.
All my working life the government tells me that they deserve more of my money than I do in order to be compassionate; not like those heartless Americans who let homeless people roam the streets. Then Canadian homeless people ask me for money on the streets. I have been unemployed several times (especially during summers between college courses) and been told that I am not allowed to work for the wage I am willing to (and lots of employers would pay) because working for low pay is not as dignified as being unemployed. Vast amounts of our money get flushed down the toilette (at times I have even been paid to pull the handle) because terms like “private sector” and “investing in productivity” are considered foul language.
This nation has made some minor improvements lately but things could be so much better than they are and seeing the continuous corruption and waste in the name of socialist ideologies and being used to perpetuate the system really sucks the soul from your chest.
The market eventually punishes greed. Government enables greed through lobbying and “connections”.
Having read Jonah Goldberg’s LIBERAL FASCISN recently, and particularly enjoying its many damning quotations from “enlightened” State-shtuppers and power-junkies, it seems to me NEWSWEEK’s cover might have more accurately read “We Are All Fascists Now.”
But of course, in the Coccon, only Republicans are fascists.
TerryO: I would give today’s definition of greedy as “someone who owns more than yourself have, or makes his money in a field unrelated to yours.”
It is something to see movie stars who pull in $20 million for a few months of work denouncing greedy Republicans and Wall Streeters. Irony apparently doesn’t penetrate the fabulously coiffed heads of Beverly Hills and Malibu.
We need vigorous debate on the role of Govt in pour lives. Claudia is right on that point and the balance of her article.
Like you did on “oil for food” stay with this.
My personal depression deepens daily and is only alleviated by the continuing gaffes by bo, seemingly ignored by the MSM. I hope (and pray) that this intentional subversion of the US by bo and the left can be halted. I have read Hayek and understand the possibilities, but aside from becoming more saddened by this situation and look for something that can contribute towards stopping this meglomaniac and the other useful idiots.
The nitwits at Newsweek would do well to ponder that while greed may sometimes be a feature of capitalism (or at least of capitalists), socialism (yes, the very theory)is shot through with the vice of envy. The former sin, while not pretty, can occasion productiveness, but the latter always marches with the ugly mobs of destruction.
Newsweek has defined socialism downward. Socialism is an economic system, whether democratic or not, where the state owns and controls the means of production. I initially thought Michael Ledeen over the top today when he wrote “We Are All Fascists Now.” On reflection, he was right; if we continue to embrace a government-controlled corporate state, he will have been proved correct and lightweights like Meacham and company will have been proved historically and economically challenged. It is impossible to disentangle the attempts to censor talk radio, for example, from our most recent flirtation with Franco. The obvious hurry to stifle information is the 2010 mid-term elections. I shudder to think what measures will be proposed and perhaps enacted to ensure Obama clings to power when he either gets booted in 2012 or has to relinquish power in 2016.
“I have to wonder just how important having the world’s most vibrant capitalist society next door is, in allowing us our socialism or how important having the world’s most benign superpower pretty much guaranteeing our security, is to maintaining our self satisfied system. I don’t think I want to find out.”
No, you don’t. The big football jock’s little brother never gets picked on. He grows up in the comforting safety of big brother’s protective shadow. And thus never has to develop coping mechanisms of any kind. Prepare for a very rude awakening up there.
The media are socialists perhaps, but they still face many who tell them their corrupted & hyper partisan bull, is unacceptable. Look at the readership numbers & the viewership numbers, etc. Newsweek, The New York Times. MSNBC, etc. are losing their audiences.
Now you know why the Democrats are pushing for the “Fairness Doctrine” which is not fair. Its designed to create roadblocks & legal impediments so little opposition views are expressed.
The fight we now face, is the “real” fight. We must be prepared to march on Washington if necessary, because once the left has silenced any opposition views on TV, in the magazine industry, newspapers (OK, OK< what few there are!), or talk radio, they can sit back & propagandize to their hearts content & no one will be able to effectively expose their plots to take over!
So. Get on your high horse & prepare to make loud noise if anyone tries to implement even the most open minded version of anything close to that doctrine. Its anti-American, its anti-freedom, its anti-free speech!
That is now the real battle we must fight because once voices are silenced, there will be no opposition as many just relent & accept w/o a whimper.
Only those voices made sure we knew what was in the “stimulus” plan. And those voices are what even the president are attacking when they call opposition, unpatriotic.
It was OK for them, but its not OK for those who truly believe in freedom!
Fact: using generally accepted accounting practices, the real 2008 federal budget deficit was $5.1 trillion, not the $455 billion previously reported by the Congressional Budget Office, according to the “2008 Financial Report of the United States Government” as released by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
Calculations from the “2008 Financial Report of the United States Government” also show that the GAAP negative net worth of the federal government has increased to $59.3 trillion while the total federal obligations under GAAP accounting now total $65.5 trillion.
The Treasury has been largely dependent upon foreign buyers (of our debt), principally China and Japan and other major holders of U.S. dollar foreign exchange reserves, including OPEC buyers purchasing U.S. debt through London.
(This above from By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2009 WorldNetDaily)
Fact: On Thursday Sept 15, 2008 at roughly 11 AM The Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw down of money market accounts in the USA to the tune of $550 Billion dollars in a matter of an hour or two. Money was being removed electronically.
Had they not closed down the accounts they estimated that by 2 PM that afternoon $5.5 Trillion would have been withdrawn and the entire economy of the United States would have collapsed, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed.
(This from Gateway Pundit)
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/02/rep-kanjorski-drops-bomb-us-financial.html
My thought is that allowing this amount of debt to build up, to be controlled by foreign entities who can call in this debt electronically in a few hours now (actually for quite along time now) poses a huge national security risk.
Believe these numbers, or don’t. But at any rate, the situation is exceedingly dangerous and poses a massive national security risk.
Because our representation in Congress and the presidency can’t spend within their means, the U.S. economy (and shortly after, the world economy) is subject to collapse with practically no warning time.
Is this a scary thought to anyone else except myself ?
chip seiple got me thinking >
I wish more American’s and others around the world understood something very important. The United States of America is not and never was a democracy! In fact, Iraq is being shaped into a democracy (we have been doing that by force) and we never have been approaching one until recently – we’re now on the same path in many ways. When W. or B.O get up and talk about our democracy it makes me sick! Idiots the whole lot.
Sad really. In a democracy we have no voice as individuals only a majority and a collective means will do as GOV dictates policy from a myopic viewpoint held up by special interest groups. Recent events attest to this form of reasoning. We were formed as a republic and it should stay that way. We have been educated out of that mindset though and have an extremely confused populace -
We need to get back to the sound principles of the Republic for which it stands and do some butt kicking folks! Hayek was correct in almost all of his assessments. U.N.less we get aggressive folks we’re going to sink into a most dreadful state – much the same as Germany did not so long ago. Cringe…..
We are following almost in lockstep what Japan went through when their real estate/equity bubbles burst in the 90′s. the one bright spot i hold is that the LDP mishandling of the recession has resulted in a slow deterioration of their stranglehold on power.
I do believe that this overreach on the part of the Democrats will damage them for decades to come. The stimulus will fail miserably and prolong the recession for years – the Dem’s will not recover from this.
My Capitalist Manifesto
by Guy Viviers (gui)
This is an open letter to every capitalist in the USA. It is expected
that every enemy of capitalism who reads this will howl with outrage
and if we’re lucky their heads will also explode.
Who are the capitalists?
The country is almost equally divided between capitalists and the enemies
of capitalism. The enemies of capitalism call themselves many fancy names
which are designed to make them feel sophisticated and important: they are
the leftists, the marxists, the socialists, the communists, the liberals,
the progressives, etc, etc, etc, ad nauseam. Their primary trait is that
they expect someone else to provide all their wants and needs. Another
trait, which I personally find detestable, is that they never participate
in the defense of the nation.
The main traits of the capitalist are self-sufficiency and hard work. The
capitalist sees the USA as the greatest place that has ever existed in the
history of the world. Nowhere has there ever existed a place where anyone
who wants to work hard can make any dream come true.
It is well known that one half of the country pays for everything and the
other half gets a free ride. Care to guess which half the capitalists are
members of?
Someone came up with an apt analogy that says it all. In it, the country
is described as a wagon on a journey and some of the nation’s people are
riding in the wagon and some of the people are pulling the wagon. Care to
guess who’s pulling the wagon?
There was a war and we lost
The average capitalist has been working too hard to notice that capitalism
has been under a relentless and systematic attack for generations by the
enemies of capitalism and that every reign of power in this country is now
held by them.
For all intents and purposes the war is over, capitalism has been defeated.
Log onto any of the enemies web sites, or listen to the new president, and
you will see them crowing with delight at their victory. One of their
favorite phrases is “We won. Get over it.”
Face it. The Presidency, the House of Representatives, the Senate and half
of the Supreme Court are now under the control of the enemies of capitalism.
Make no mistake about it. They intend to hold onto these reigns forever. We
have become like the old USSR where one party holds all the power and makes
all the rules.
Our enemies will consolidate their hold on power by exercising the same
simple tactic that has gotten them to where they are now. That tactic is
to increase the number of people who are dependent on the government. They
intend to increase the number of people on the dole to such an extent that
it will be impossible for any capitalist to ever win any election ever
again. There is no legal way to prevent them from doing this.
What do we do now?
Having lost the ideological war, the capitalists now have a choice to
make. Do we, the ones who create wealth and pay for everything, continue
to do so while higher and higher percentages of our wealth are confiscated
by our enemies for the sole purpose of buying the very votes that keep
them in power? Do we, the ones who “toil in the traces”, continue to pull
the ever expanding and overwhelmingly heavy wagon that is our nation, while
at the same time we are incessantly taunted, and jeered at, and whipped by
the ones who ride?
We can continue to toil, maybe in the hope that someday some of the riders
will change their minds and become proud self-sufficient men and join us,
or maybe we will just continue to pull, even though we are being whipped,
because pulling is all we know.
We can also choose to lay our burden down my fellow capitalists. We can
choose to stop pulling their damn wagon. We can force the able bodied wagon
riders to have to start fending for themselves. We can bring our political
enemies to their knees. We can use the same tactic that is used by our
enemies whenever they want to extort our wealth. We can go on strike until
our demands our met.
What are our demands?
Our demands are simple. We must destroy the ability of our enemies to
confiscate our wealth for the purpose of buying votes. We do this by forcing
them to enact two simple pieces of legislation. One, if you choose to ride
in the wagon instead of pulling your fair share of the load, you forfeit
your right to vote. Two, everyone who works pays income tax and everyone
pays the same exact percentage.
Why even bother to fight?
I must admit that I have worked very hard my entire life and I have
prospered beyond my wildest dreams and I have lived way beyond the age
that I ever thought I would see and I have accumulated enough wealth
that, even though our enemies will ruin what we have created, I will
still survive. So, even though the war is lost, why would I bother to
try to fight them? Why waste my precious time?
I choose to fight them in honor of the millions of men who have died
so that we might live in the greatest society that mankind has ever
created. If it were not for them we would have been enslaved long ago.
It breaks my heart to think of them and their sacrifices while at the
same time seeing in my mind all the jeering thumb-sucking wagon riders
who think the wagon pullers owe them a good living simply because they
draw a breath.
Dear God, Let not their deaths be in vain.
Amen.
I’m becoming more and more convinced that the right has absolutely no idea what socialism is. To them it’s merely a scary word they through about aimlessly at their enemy. It’s the hip version of “commie” or “pinko”. The stimulus plan is not, I repeat NOT, socialism.
To anyone who actually looks at his record Obama is not “the most liberal sitting politician” but in fact one of the most centrist democrats out there. I wish people would actually live in a make decisions decision based on facts and stop treating our country like a big high school football game between the Dems and Reps.
Newsweek is engaging in the type of liberal wishful-thinking passing for political analysis,that has led their magazine toward imminent extinction!
Not just Canada, but much of the developed world is in for a rude awakening if the US isn’t able to, or won’t, maintain its superpower status. The world is in for a rude awakening if the profit motive is restrained, or removed, from tech development, especially in its drug and medical segments. There many rude awakenings to be had if America doesn’t struggle on with its grand experiment. Of what value will we be to the rest of the world when we’re just like them.
What a wonderful column! If I wasn’t so old I’d propose to Claudia. There’s no doubt about Democrats. They’re America’s real Communist or Nazi Party, and they’ve finally found a personable leader. A radical “Saul Alinsky” socialist. Once I became politically senscient, I’ve always thought that there are two kinds of Democrats: the ones who know they are socialists and the ones who don’t. Many of them actually believe they are Americans.
under bush he waged a war on iraq and cut taxes spent billions. Just how dumb do you gotta be to wage a war and cut taxes for the rich.. and not one word from a republicans and spent his way into oblivion and all ditto heads can come up with is name calling…socialism ..do you actually know what socialism is? or just repeating rush drug addicted limbaugh and don’t have a clue. you will all be retiring and getting a check from where ..do you know? so you can give up your retirement knowing that its sociolistic…. i doubt it. a little history for repubs who said this …either your with us or your against us? and he also did not want the public to see the bodies soldiers who fought and died because it brought down moral….this was said in 1939 by Adoloph Hitler….sound fimiliar ditto heads
This fascist takeover of our country did not occur in a vacuum, and Republicans must take responsibility. We voted in that dimwitted, “compassionate” conservative chimp, who encouraged the Fed to suppress interest rates to fuel a phony bubble, and all the while spent money like a drunken sailor. Why are multi-billion dollar bailouts tantamount to socialism with Obama proposes them, but not when Bush did? I am so sad that our country is sinking into a socialist pit, but more so I am angry at how we got here.