May 26, 1:06 PM · 10 comments
Wecome to the brave new world!
In 1964, Ronald Reagan warned America, "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. we did all that could be done."
The United States of America has been on a steady march toward socialism for the past eight decades. President Franklin Roosevelt began the process in earnest, when he took office in 1933, ramming no fewer than fifteen bills through a special session of the Democrat-controlled congress – following the maxim of Obama’s chief-of-staff Rham Emmanuel to “…never let a good crisis go to waste” when seeking to expand the power of government.
Today, President Obama has taken advantage of a recession to generate and perpetuate a perceived crisis, which has resulted in the greatest leap forward for socialism since President Johnson’s “Great Society” debacle of the 1960s. Meanwhile, the feckless Republican opposition is unable even to bring themselves to call the Democrats socialists. Still, as the public debate is beginning to acknowledge the assault upon the foundations of this country and the socialist nature of the programs being implemented in Washington, it is a good time to discuss exactly what socialism is. For those who wish to avoid falling into the trap of socialism – you are too late. America retains the veneer of freedom, and citizens still retain some measure of free speech (Restricted by political correctness and the impending “fairness doctrine”) and freedom of religion, but more and more of our private property, i.e. money, is being seized by the government for its own purposes. The federal government is raiding the nation’s treasury and buying controlling interests in banks, and automobile companies, and controls the rest through legislation and the regulations promulgated by its thousands of bureaucracies. Yet all hope is not lost; our institutions, though corrupt, remain. Our constitution, though ignored, still survives and provides a road map back to freedom.
What is a socialist? A socialist is a communist who believes in non-violent transition to state control, as opposed to the communist’s advocacy for violent revolution. Of course the communists and socialists assure us that all will share power equally; but how is that going to be accomplished? It is accomplished through government control of education, banking, industry, and agriculture. What they don’t tell you is that governments are run by a very few individuals, and of course, once they are in control, they will require special privileges in order to better carry on the people’s business. Like the luxurious dachas of the Soviet Central Committee members or the palatial mansions of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Al Gore, et al.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels published the Manifesto of the Communist Party. In this sinister document the authors laid out their vision of a socialist utopia where all people were ‘equal’. To achieve this idyllic goal, of course, the government – taken over by the workers or proletariat – would have to do ten things. Democrats and their accomplices in the Republican Party have been working with considerable success to accomplish these ten goals since the administration of Franklin Roosevelt kicked off the socialist revolution;
1 – Abolition of private land ownership. Today, the federal and state governments control what citizens can do with their land, requiring building permits, hunting licenses, imposing wetlands restrictions, and requiring a yearly tribute of property taxes on pain of government confiscation of privately-owned land. You do not own your property, you rent it from the government; they just let you keep your name on the deed.
2 – A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. In 1913 the 16th Amendment to the constitution was passed, allowing the federal government to tax the incomes of American citizens. In 1942, the federal government imposed the withholding process – allowing them to raise taxes and silently steal more of citizens’ wealth without forcing them to be aware of the actual cost by paying a lump sum on April 15. The tax is “progressive” which means that the more you make, the higher percentage of your income is confiscated. Wealthier people would pay more even if everyone paid the same percentage (15% of $30,000 is $4,500 – 15% of $500,000 is $75,000), what the socialists (and US government) do is tax wealthier people at higher percentages – at one time, under FDR, the top tax bracket was 94%. At that rate, someone making 1 million dollars keeps only $60,000 of their income.
3 – Abolition of all rights of inheritance. The federal government currently confiscates a large portion of the estates of the dead. Even the former “conservative” Republican presidential nominee Senator McCain supports the inheritance tax on the rich.
4 – Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. Currently, the federal government confiscates the property of certain criminals, and of citizens who run afoul of their Internal Revenue Service Codes.
5 – Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. In the same year as the income tax amendment was ratified, congress passed the Federal Reserve Act setting up a national central banking system, whose directors have an exclusive monopoly on the creation of money and who control monetary policy and interest on credit. The board of governors of the Federal Reserve Board conducts its meetings in secret and all their internal records are completely off limits to public scrutiny. Since taking office, the Obama administration has moved aggressively to place the private banking sector in thrall to the federal government, by creating new regulations, purchasing large shares of their stock, and extending loans in exchange for government control of their business practices.
6 – Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the government. In an effort to control communication and transportation, the federal government established the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Administration, Federal Transit Administration, Maritime Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Surface Transportation Board, Department of Transportation, National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Railroad Administration. Through tens of thousands of regulations, the federal government exercises a great deal of control over all radio, telephone, and television communication, as well as transportation by land, sea and air. Democrats continue to urge taxation of the Internet and implementation of a “fairness doctrine” in media programming, which would fully implement government regulation of the content of political news and talk shows – with government bureaucrats determining what’s “fair”.
7 – Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state… While the US government is not a major owner of industry, they do exercise near total control of the operation of business. Labor unions, and regulatory agencies from the Environmental Protection Agency, to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, to the FAA, FDA, FCC, ICC, an on, on, and on, control every aspect of a business operation, from pay rates, to noise levels, hiring and disciplinary practices etc. What they do not control by regulation, they manage by manipulation of the tax code. Now we have witnessed the Obama administration openly move to purchase controlling interests in companies in the banking and automobile industries. Presently, the federal government controls 60% of the so-called health care system, and President Obama is intent upon seizing control of the remainder.
8 – Equal liability of all to work… This has not been established in the United States. A welfare class has been created which is exempt from work and forms the base of Democrats’ control of government; a solid voting block of citizens dependent upon their handouts. Eventually all citizens become the equivalent of welfare recipients – dependent upon what little of their money the government chooses to give back or let them keep. At that time work requirements will be imposed by our socialist ruling class.
9 – Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between towns and cities… This step has been largely rendered moot by the advance of modern technology (thanks to capitalism). No longer are those who reside in rural areas cut off from urban society as they were in the nineteenth century. Agriculture has largely become a big business and is heavily controlled by the federal government through the employment of farm subsidies and the regulations of the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, The Minerals Management Service, etc...
10 – Free education for all children in public schools… While the states are responsible for establishing a public education system if they so desire, President Carter established the federal Department of Education in 1979. This body has slowly usurped more and more control over education from the states and the people. The recent No Child Left Behind Act willingly signed into law by President Bush, gives the feds sweeping powers over the education standards of the several states. The education system as a whole is completely dominated by socialists and their sympathizers. The National Education Association labor union exclusively supports Democrats for national office in exchange for their blocking any efforts to allow privatization, competition, or parental choice in education. Within the government-controlled education system, our nation’s young people are exposed to a steady diet of anti-American, pro-gay, anti-business, global warming, and other leftist propaganda from kindergarten through graduate school. This takeover of the educational system was a key component of Marx’s battle plan - what he called the “long march through the institutions.”
The genius of America’s promoters of socialism is in their methods; they never use the word socialism, and always cloak their schemes in terms of benevolent purposes – to help the “poor”, “elderly”, “children”, or “working families.” Most brilliantly, they have retained the basic structure of the government and property rights, while steadily removing any meaning from those structures and rights. The government does not own industries outright; it merely controls and directs most everything they do – so that when they fail, they can still blame greedy capitalists. Witness the federal government destroying the automobile industry through its alliance with the United Auto Workers Union, and its regulations concerning every aspect of automobile manufacturing; from OSHA regulations on worker safety, to the gas mileage required for their cars, etc. The federal government then blames GM’s “greedy” executives for mismanagement.
Presently, only 59% of Americans pay any federal income tax at all, and bear the burden of paying for the rest of their fellow citizens. Once the socialists get that percentage down to 49%, they will have secured perpetual control of the government, since the majority who do not pay taxes will never vote their benefactors out of office. Presently, the American taxpayer works from January to mid-April just to pay his federal income tax – to say nothing of the state income tax, sales tax, property tax, Social Security tax, Medicare tax, mortgage tax, license fees, tolls, telephone surcharges, etc. As the attacks upon private enterprise and punishment of the successful steadily increase, we are moving into what Alexis DeToqueville described in the 19th century as a “soft tyranny”, where a democracy’s citizens lose hope in their prospects for the future.
So welcome to the United Socialist States of America, a glorious future awaits us where all citizens will share equally in the resources of this great land. All of us that is, except our rulers, who will need to retain their mansions, helicopters, limousines and other luxuries so that they can focus on providing a better life for all of us; Barack and Michelle Obama and their children will never attend a public school or wait in line at a government-run clinic to apply for permission to get medication. Unfortunately for the rest of us - once the few remaining men and women of ability are reduced to slaves of the state and no longer have incentive to produce and innovate - we will all share equally in a shabby, pitiful, and fearful existence in the ruins of a once-great nation that called itself the land of the free and the home the brave.
http://www.examiner.com/x-2466-NY-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m5d26-Welcome-to-the-USSA
Posts
