OpEdNews » Facing Socialism in America

November 11, 2008 at 06:49:21

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Promoted to Headline (H3) on 11/11/08:
Facing Socialism in America

by Gene Messick

www.opednews.com

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[Revised 11/14]

With GwB and Hank Paulson socializing private banking in America, perhaps it's time to revisit the definition. During the Presidential Campaign and especially after Obama was elected, the words "socialist!" and even "communist!" have been flying into computer Inboxes all across our Nation, often preceded by a string of expletives.

Some that are most astounding are from folks who work for local governmental agencies. Clearly, they have a warped notion about what Socialism is. Somehow, they've developed a screwball disconnect with reality.

Public highways are one of the finest examples of Socialism in America. So are public schools, public parks and public libraries. Not to mention Social Security and Medicare. And police departments and town garbage collections and public health care and so on and so on. Even benefits provided for Congress Members are a form of Socialism.

If money is taken from private enterprise, and used for the public good, that fits my definition of Socialism. Obviously, it also fits the definition of Ronnie Reagan, Imperial NeoCONs, and most all Republicans since Reagan. Why would Reagan argue for privatizing all Government functions (except the Military) if they were not clear and present definitions of Socialism?

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The first thing GwB announced upon stealing the White House again in 2004, was that the primary aim of his next 4 years was to de-socialize Social Security by privatizing it. GwB planned to reward those who purchased his Office for him by turning Social Security over to Wall $treet Bankers to run for profit.

Imagine, just for a moment, what America would look like today if GwB HAD privatized Social Security. Picture the national disaster we'd be in now if Social Security had been moved to Wall $treet. With the subsequent Meltdown of Wall $treet, Social Security would have all but vanished from America, swaddled in derivatives, buried under a pile of rubble that would rival the World Trade Center collapse on 9/11. There are reasons why Socialism keeps America running.

Government does not tax ANY of it socialized services. Government taxes only private enterprise. And that is why Capitalists spend unbelievable amounts of money trying to subvert our Government. They want to kill Socialism in America, except for the Military, by privatizing everything else.

Former Interior Secretary James Watt had a Plan drawn up showing which of our National Parks he would sell off first. The Ultimate Plan was to eventually turn all of that wasted public land over to private management, if not outright ownership, so that private enterprise could butcher it up and build profitable condos, all with amazing views to enhance their profits. This is no joke. It really, really was on the Imperial NeoCON Drawing Board. Still is.

Moving too slowly to suit them, taking too many decades to accomplish, the collapse of Wall $treet and the World Economy due to their unregulated Greed, provided a perfect opportunity to bankrupt our Government with endless Bailouts of private Financial Institutions. "Too big to fail," is their slogan, meaning they must be saved, no matter how incompetent they are, no matter what the co$t to American taxpayers. Like all NeoCON slogans, it's sole purpose is to divert attention away from what they are really up to.

Like all Confidence Scams, what they tell you is absolutely NOT what they're doing.

You think it bothers them that Obama won? Get real! Passing their engineered financial collapse on to him is a pure bonus. If Obama must spend trillions upon trillions to cover for their mistakes, all the better. It will speed them faster and closer to that glorious day when EVERYTHING in America generates a profit.

______________________________

But Socialism is an integral part of the fabric which sustains America and Americans. Many of millions of Americans earn their taxable income directly from Socialism.

The reason the New Deal's social experiments were tried, and succeeded, is the same reason they must come back again. The GREED of unfettered Capitalism once nearly destroyed America, and may yet succeed. All the assurances -- that we have safeguards in place to prevent another Depression -- is a lot of wishful thinking. Obviously, they have not worked flawlessly and automatically thus far.

Part of the reason was the intentional dismantling of safety nets brought on by Ronnie Reagan's deregulation pipe dreams. His trickle-down notion -- that enough crumbs will fall off rich people's plates to sustain our Nation -- was a lot of hooey. But it was packaged to sound good, if any Americans pulled their heads out of their TVs long enough to glance at it.

Ronnie's ideological descendant, GwB, has been pumping money as fast as he can out of American taxpayers and into the already bulging pockets of his rich cronies. Rich people don't make the idle rich richer. It's the tax-paying working Middle Class, and struggling Small Business Owners, who make rich people rich.

GwB, Chaney & Co have been creating a constant need for Military Spending on a gargantuan scale (pretending it has anything at all to do with establishing democracy anywhere in the World) to force all of us to keep our noses to the grindstone. Costs spiral ever upward, and no one has time to breathe, much less to think.

The instant that Soviet Communism collapsed, and some starry eyed "lib-ruls" began talking about beating swords into plowshares, NeoCONs began looking around frantically for the next War. Who wants to sell plowshares when the real money is in tanks, rockets, planes, ships, and bullets, especially if the Pentagon is paying.

Which brings us back to Socialism in America. The US Military is the greatest implementation of Socialism the World has ever seen. Concealed from public oversight by "national security" claims, the Military provides socialized medicine, socialized housing, socialized uniforms, socialized transportation, socialized retirement entitlements, and even socialized burial, far beyond the cost of armaments. Everyone enrolled in the Military is a Socialist, as they always have been.

So the next time you receive anything like this over your computer: "Don't you dare ever send me this Socialist propaganda again you bloody communist!" -- which came from a County Employee in VA living entirely off the largess of Socialism -- then send back a copy of this to him. Surely he won't understand it, but you may feel better for having done so.

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A useful clarification: Socialism taxes private enterprise, and redistributes that wealth all across America. Only agencies supported directly by government tax funds fit the definition of Socialism. For instance, municipal Fire Departments probably are. Most rural volunteer Fire Departments are not. They're private corporations, with their own controlling Boards of Directors, even IF they receive Grants from Socialist Government. Electric utilities are private corporations. So are Churches, Charities, Unions, PACs, Trash Collectors you pay, local Arts Councils. Many Hospitals were established by Socialist Government, but most have been converted to profit-making private enterprise, and that's why Health Care Co$ts have skyrocketed.

If you pay to join, or to receive services, these are likely private corporations, not examples of Socialism. And 'tax-deductible' or 'non-profit' in their names is an assurance that they are private, not Socialism. Again, Public Universities are part of our home grown Socialism. Private Universities are not. ( When I taught at Cornell, it was strangely part private, part State. And the tuition differences were astounding depending which part a student was enrolled in.)

America is a happy mix of both, so much so that most folks don't know the difference. If people are publicly elected to run organizations, like School Boards, County Commissioners, Legislatures, City Councils, they are part of American Socialism. These are some of what Imperial NeoCONs want to get rid of by bankrupting our Government.

And the point is this: when Right Wing-nuts couldn't scream 'communist' or 'liberal' at anyone who opposed them anymore, they tried to turn 'socialist' into a nasty label. But it doesn't work, because the United Socialist States of America (USSA) is hugely socialistic, from Sea to Shining Sea.

Americans have been Socialist since our 1st Revolution.

Socialism is our gift to the World.

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Go to Website below for more on the 2nd American Revolution.

http://earthhome.us

For 17 years Gene Messick studied and taught Design at NC State University and Cornell. Co-founding the Visual Design Program at NCSU, he established the Photography Program at Cornell, where he taught in the Architecture Department, most interested (more...)

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15 comments

Michael Dewey

How

Good Article. I've felt like you for a while or so now.

Unions are basically a working form of Socialism too. Maybe the combo we need most.

by Michael Dewey (5 articles, 1 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 245 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 11:53:57 AM

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Roger

Happiness

Seems our Constitution specifically mentions the 'Persuit of Happiness'. Surveys do indicate that the countries with happier citizens are the Socialist ones. I too would be a LOT happier with Single Payer Health Care, a prison system that shows respect for human beings (google Norway for example). Our government is the first place we should look to for examples of respect and compassion. Unfortunately, the Republican model works with We the People as Prey. How about we try something different for a few years?

by Roger (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 465 comments [22 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 2:23:08 PM

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Michael Dewey

Reply: How

Hey Tom Paine warned about an avidity to punish. That warning is not be heeded today. Even the Talmud of the Jews says: "If the world continues to insist on strict justice it will not endure." I would like to see US have a constructive way to help people repent, or as I would rather call repaint. For this whole mess needs tobe repainted.

I'm right with you Man.

by Michael Dewey (5 articles, 1 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 245 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 12, 2008 at 6:47:00 AM

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shirley reese

Good definition, Mister Gene

My AMerican Heritage Dictionary says this: 'A social system in which the producers [we Be] possess both political power and the means of producing and distributing goods".

Yours is much easier for the Righties to understand. Oh, you forgot Fire departments and utility depts as a social entity.

The only thing missing in this country is JOBS. Good paying upward mobility JOBS. Jobs produce revenue needed for roads, schools, fire and police depts and all those other things you mentioned. However, with Lil SHrub, we have lost the jobs, our roads are full of cracks and holes, and our schools are UNDER funded and closing by the 100's.

Denmark has "the happiest ppl in the World" according to an AOL poll I saw a while back. Hmmm, and what ya suppose is their gov't type? Yup Socialism. See, the righties call anything the Dems introduce socialism or communism when indeed, Bush ad Cheney have placed us in the hands of communists (China) both $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ wise and dependent on goods. I'd say we are communistic in this country. At the least a dictatorship and fascism rules us. The "corporate King" is the master and every single one of us, is the SLAVE to that king.

by shirley reese (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 592 comments [98 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 2:39:57 PM

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Larry A

Interesting

As King George just gave us the third faze of American Socialism (FDR, then LBJ), I wonder how those of us that work for a living are to aford it. Socialism it'self is a noble thought, but it's based on all people pulling their weight. When Joe Biden said it's patriotic to pay more taxes, I wonder if he would think it's patriotic to get off ones bottom and go find a job to pay taxes rather than receive them.

When the roads and public schools are brought up as part of socialism, the author forgot that roads have user fees built into fule taxes. As for schools, America did much better with local control rather than the moster called the Dept. of Education.

Socialism works best at a local level when it comes to social services because there is accountability. The federal government has no authority to fund any of the social programs and has done an extreamly poor job in the performance of those programs.

If an individual state only wants limited taxes paid into social programs, that is their right (according to the Constitution). If a state wishes for a great deal of socialism, that is also their right.

The Federal government has a very limited scope in what it can do. It was designed that way for a reason. The individual states were intended to be semi-independent republics. I realize that 99% on this site will disagree with me, but it is how the federal government was intended to operate.

One of the very few interventions from the feds that was legal & justifiable was the civil rights actions of the 50's, 60's & 70's because some of the states were clearly violating the treaty they ratified (the Constitution) by dening equal protection to their citizens.

Is Social Security constitutional?...No, however if individual states were to create such a program independent from other states and the federal government then it would be legal, along with welfare, medicaid, medicare, section 8 housing etc. As the social security system goes broke due to the original flaw in the design (those that were old enough when first created started collecting full bennifits immediately with never paying in) followed by political payoffs to the public by raises to the old and failing to increase the collection ages as life expectency increased. It is a broken system. As for the individual that has an IRA/401k, their investments are sucking wind now, but in 5 yrs, they may be strong again, we know social security won't get better because the politicians keep making false promises and stealing the money from it and giving it to people that have no business collecting it..

As I had a choice to vote for the socialist lite or the full flavored socialist in this last election, I wonder who it is that teaches our kids about the federal government. I have had to vote for the lesser of two evils (no, the people running for office are not evil) for almost every election I have been eligible to vote in. I'm sick of it. Both Obama & McCain are so incapable of fixing the problems left to us by not just Bush, but all presidents and congresses since FDR was elected. Our domestic policies are discombobulated, only exceeded by our empirical foriegn policy.

In the end, I would suggest that those who think "their side" is the answer should carefully read how this nation was created an the early arguements that occurred while creating the Constitution.

Finally; No government should have the right to steal my earnings in order to give it to my neighbor who chooses not to better themselves.

by Larry A (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 6:00:20 PM

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Michael Dewey

Reply: How

Yes the States should have more oversite of Corporations taking care of Its Workers, and City, Counties and Towns they make there trash.cash in. We need to get together locally for that to happen.

Social Security is not a bad thing. We need to be creative to find other ways to found it. Maybe just taking the % from all incomes would do that, instead of where's it stop 200 thousand. I'd like to see BIG OIL and the MSM pay much more into medicare and S.S.

by Michael Dewey (5 articles, 1 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 245 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 12, 2008 at 6:43:20 AM

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Stanimal

I've always had a chuckle in my voice

when I've heard a Republican bloviate the "Free Market" system, obviously unable to comprehend the hypocrisy in their phrase. These are people who have put up a "Family Values" wife and political party swappin B rated senile sap Ronald Reagan, a "Voodoo Economics" Bu$h I, supplying a Reagan "Freedom Fighter" Saddam Hussein with weapons 6 months before "Desert Storm I". And a self-appointed "War" president Dybua, who is AWOL/Deserter, inside trader, convicted drunk driver who won't disclose the last time he's done cocaine, and his 5 time Vietnam deferment multi-convicted drunk driving Buckshot Dick. Who claim to want less government and fiscal spending, while bloating its size, creating run-a-way deficit spending your great-grandchildren of "Loved Ones" will only be paying a fraction of the interest accrued on the trillions of $'s of debt. Such hypocrites!

by Stanimal (2 articles, 226 quicklinks, 38 diaries, 1254 comments [234 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 6:01:45 PM

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John Hanks

Socialisms Kill Crooks and their Rackets Dead.

Socialisms kill racketeering. That's why crooks hate socialisms so. They cut off their license to steal.

by John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1760 comments [39 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 6:38:24 PM

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Sharon Roach

Thank you

I always learn a lot of good things on Oped from great articles like this that have intelligent discussion afterwards. Can someone answer me this, I'm not asking to debate but because I just want to know. Socialism doesn't sound to bad when all citizens who are able will pull their share of the load. Do you think America will one day become a socialist nation? What would be the pros and cons?

by Sharon Roach (15 articles, 0 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 184 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 7:03:21 PM

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Michael McCoy

Reply: Sharon

Wikipedia has a fairly concise definition of socialism, part of which I post here, (links will not likely work):

Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods, and the creation of an egalitarian society. Modern socialism originated in the late nineteenth-century working class political movement. Karl Marx posited that socialism would be achieved via class struggle and a proletarian revolution which represents the transitional stage between capitalism and communism.

Socialists mainly share the belief that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and creates an unequal society. All socialists advocate the creation of an egalitarian society, in which wealth and power are distributed more evenly, although there is considerable disagreement among socialists over how, and to what extent this could be achieved.

Socialism is not a discrete philosophy of fixed doctrine and program; its branches advocate a degree of social interventionism and economic rationalization, sometimes opposing each other. Another dividing feature of the socialist movement is the split on how a socialist economy should be established between the reformists and the revolutionaries. Some socialists advocate complete nationalization of the means of production, distribution, and exchange; while others advocate state control of capital within the framework of a market economy. Social democrats propose selective nationalization of key national industries in mixed economies combined with tax-funded welfare programs; Libertarian socialism (which includes Socialist Anarchism and Libertarian Marxism) rejects state control and ownership of the economy altogether and advocates direct collective ownership of the means of production via co-operative workers' councils and workplace democracy.

End quote.

Much more and greater detail at their site. Just google "socialism".

As much disdain is associated with the concept, the American system is rife with socialist philosophy, tenets and properties, without which, America would likely be among the most classed societies on earth.

Pure, unregulated capitalism would be the greatest economic concept ever adopted by humans - to those that have. And those that don't would be considered nothing more than oxygen thieves stealing from the worthy.

The thing to remember is that the top-level political structure and the ruling class elite abhor the concept or mention of socialism as it directly threatens their exclusivity - socialist programs always emerge through the will of The People. (Europe has the history and has had the time to have learned these lessons.)

by Michael McCoy (7 articles, 1 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 487 comments [26 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 11:18:55 PM

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Michael Dewey

Reply: Michael and Sharon

There is a Mondragon Cooperative in Spain. It uses capital at the service of labor. Not the reverse of what we have here. Its a combonation of Unions, Worker Owner Cooperatives, small business and Nationizing the BIG CORPS, as I see we need on State, County, City and Town levels, how ever the local powers feel would work best.

by Michael Dewey (5 articles, 1 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 245 comments [12 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 12, 2008 at 7:00:55 AM

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Rolland Miller

Reply: Facing Socialism in America

Dear Sharon

I would hope that the USA will entertain socialism that supports it's people.

The best way is a balance between socialism and free enterprise.

Balance is something that applies to almost everything.

Americans do not understand what socialism is.

They think socialism is Communism. That does not bode well for the US education system, even at University level.

Let us hope that America moves in the direction of becomming a caring socielty, and supports socialism where warranted.

America can afford to put all students in higher education that show an interest to obtain a higher education.

by Rolland Miller (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 227 comments [78 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 12, 2008 at 1:54:54 PM

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Michael McCoy

Alice in the etymological wonderland

American mythology is a carefully maintained farce, and semantical word games facilitate countless illusions. Clever illusions that cloak critical realities. Who's ready to admit that 'pure democracy, US style' has gotten us where we're at?

by Michael McCoy (7 articles, 1 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 487 comments [26 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008 at 10:32:26 PM

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Don Bybee

Bush is not a Socialist ..

What is it called when the Democratic Congress wants to pass a bill which will seize our 401k and the government will let us know how much we can have and when we can have it? I don't remember this being talked about whe Bush was President, this happened the day after we heard our new President was Obama. I guess I'm not Patriotic because I don't blieve in share the wealth or time to be patriotic with my money... and to see the girl jumping up and down crying "No more mortgage, no more gas bills, Obama is now our President" This I need to see... Do all Americans believe this? With all the programs our new President has in store, how is he not going to raise taxes on everyone? I don't see where he will drill for oil, and once he charges more tax on big oil companies... won't the price of gas go back up...?? How does no one else see this?

by Don Bybee (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 116 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Nov 12, 2008 at 6:17:13 PM

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