Socialism: 2009 Archives

What is Obama doing with his grandiose rescue plan for the economy? He is frightening people all over again, stirring the panic that had begun to subside.

He wants the government to dispense now -- urgently -- a trillion dollars as the "last chance" "to save the American economy." He, Obama, can and will do it.

Such government programs didn't end the Great Depression; as studies show (for example, Amity Shlaes' The Forgotten Man), they actually lengthened it and caused the economy to continue in stagnation. But, politically, it was a master stroke for FDR and his Democratic Party. It kept them in power for years. (By the way, The Forgotten Man was he who ultimately had to pay the bills for all that spending.)

OBAMA'S PLAN IS TO TRANSFORM AMERICA INTO A SOCIALIST SOCIETY DEPENDENT ON THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

Community Organizer-in-Chief Obama is following the Marxist Saul Alinsky (Rules for Radicals) playbook to destroy capitalism and replace it with totalitarian socialism, with power in and dependence on the government, which spreads wealth to those it deems deserving taken from those who have earned it.

The fiscal crisis has handed Obama the Alinsky opportunity of a lifetime. Obama can condemn what brought it about (capitalist society) that isn't working for the middle class and assert that only immense government action can save the country. The re-panicked people need to be saved. To mask what he's doing, he talks about the great history of American innovation, initiative and entrepreneurship that one day will be restored. He says individuals will get "tax cuts," but nobody's tax is being cut, it's wealth redistribution. Why, he even rolled out new Doublespeak, referring to himself as a "pragmatic conservative." Do not be misled: His intention is to create a society of dependence on government largesse (of course equally distributed), not enlarging opportunity for all.

And at the top of this totalitarian society is Obama the Benevolent dispensing favors, which suits his narcissist personality (as evidenced repeatedly throughout the campaign, e.g., Greek temple settings, healing the planet, waters receding, words coming from above to tell one and all to vote for Obama, we (that is, I) are the one(s) we have been waiting for).

It is a dangerous time for the American way of life. With Democrats in power in Congress and the White House, replacing equal opportunity with equality of outcome as dictated by the government has never been closer. And the ever enlarging dependent class will deliver dependable votes to those (Democrats) who bestow the favors. We are already dangerously close to having half the adult population paying no income tax at all; how much will they care about taxing earners and producers?

Obama has made it clear (most openly so in a Chicago radio interview) he finds the U.S. Constitution flawed because it only addressed what government couldn't do to the people, not what the government should do for the people. The idea that people should be free to make their life choices is not good enough for Obama. He wants the government to fill their outthrust hands, making sure nobody gets too much. In Obama's view, the government should run the economy, not just regulate it. Does anyone really believe the government can create utopia? How far from Reagan's view can Obama's be -- Reagan who said some of the most dangerous words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

When will his economic advisors finally figure out what he's doing and speak up? Summers and Volcker are not socialist ideologues and surely are not part of the Obama conspiracy. But his Democratc (Chicago) political advisors, who want lasting power, and supporters (such as ACORN) are. And, most importantly, so is his newly appointed Domestic Policy Advisor Chicagoan Cass Sunstein, who already has served Obama by last March explaining away his campaign remarks about "redistributive change," the kind of slip Obama also made with Joe the Plumber.

As Alinsky says, first you have to make your target constituency unhappy and resentful about their current circumstances, then rally them with "hope" and "change" to demand a better deal. Obama paints a bleak picture, calls on Congress for urgent action on massive wealth distribution to the people to cure the disease infecting America. Just listen to him about what omnipotent government can do: The people who have lost their jobs are "counting on us" as are those who have lost their homes. He will save us.

When the debt the government incurs to pay these hundreds of billions (trillions?) comes due, you can be sure that those who have earned and saved and succeeded will be the ones paying for the handouts to those who have not.

For all those successful folks who supported Obama and never paid any attention to his Marxist background (if they even bothered to learn about it), a very rude shock is coming.

The twin desires of Congressional Democrats for never-ending political power and Obama's for a totalitarian socialist state over which he rules are coming together to threaten America's future as a land of opportunity.

The socialist ideologue Obama, lacking any real world experience, plans to put his textbook utopian dreams to work. But there is no utopia.

Who will stop them before severe damage is done?

FOOTNOTE: Coincidentally, the Wall Street Journal carried a wonderfully titled piece "From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years" detailing how Ayn Rand's fictional magnum opus about capitalism's defeat at socialist hands is currently playing out in our bailout and handout hysteria. Stephen Moore summarizes:

[T]he moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

Our housing bubble was blown up to the point of explosion by Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank and his Democratic do-good colleagues promoting mortgage loans to people who could not afford them. Now that the burst bubble has triggered a global crisis of credit confidence, Barney and friends, including the incoming president Obama, are front in center with more good ideas of how government can help.

As for Rand's novel, there were critics but, asMoore recount, the messsage was there:

Ultimately, "Atlas Shrugged" is a celebration of the entrepreneur, the risk taker and the cultivator of wealth through human intellect. Critics dismissed the novel as simple-minded, and even some of Rand's political admirers complained that she lacked compassion. Yet one pertinent warning resounds throughout the book: When profits and wealth and creativity are denigrated in society, they start to disappear -- leaving everyone the poorer.

It is happening.

The new stimulus plan being proposed by the soon-to-be Obama administration is said to contain "tax cuts" for businesses and individuals. No details as yet have been issued on the business "tax cuts."

But as far as individuals are concerned, these are not tax cuts, but Obama spreading the wealth around as he inadvertently blurted out to Joe the Plumber he would do when elected.

Every person earning less than some number will get a payment whether he's a taxpayer or not and the amount of the payment will have no relation to how much the taxpayers getting payments pay in taxes.

While it is suggested that payees may "mentally" treat the payments as offsetting some of their payroll or Social Security taxes they pay, in fact those taxes will not change. Nor will the income tax. In the somewhat hysterical bailout environment we are passing through, it's borrow now to make payments and do the tax thing later. And when it's time to pay off the debt, the second part of the "spread the wealth" plan will come into play, with the so-called "rich" paying for 2009 welfare payments to the people Obama favors.

If these were truly to be tax cuts, the government need only declare an income tax holiday for some period or, better yet, permanently lower income tax rates proportionately, leaving people to make their own spending decisions about their own money, not money they get in a check from the government.

Sorry to say, even before the Obama folks are in office they are engaging in Doublespeak.