[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.
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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.
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