When I was a child the cold war was a part of American life. Every time I kissed my parents good-night I wondered whether I would wake up the next morning. I wondered if we would be alive. I wondered if someone would push “the button” and change the face of planetary power (or just the planet) overnight. There were people in the world with the kind of power to wage war on a global scale and bring to reality the threat of our mutually-assured-destruction, colloquially known as “M.A.D.”

As a child, I actually lost sleep over these thoughts, but resigned myself, as a child, as powerless to influence the decisions of people who were beyond my “six degrees of separation” or my “sphere of influence.” In an instant, our history, and our future, could look as different as the badlands of New Mexico does to the lush jungles of South America. That was life. But, thanks to many factors, which included the passion of the American spirit, the united front against communism, and the determined efforts of the American President Ronald Regan against all odds, our children today no longer fear a “Day After”. The collapse of the greatest Communist empire fell with a whimper under its own weight, like a breaking wave that, try as it may, will never make it to shore.

Today, as an adult I no longer dwell on childish things. I no longer go to bed thinking that in the blink of an eye in the middle of the night the landscape of my reality will disappear in a conflagration. As an adult, my fears are now fed during my waking hours rather than at bedtime when I see the news, read the paper, …listen to the radio. As I write this, we are a week away from the possible dawn of another threat to our nation, and the world.

In a week America will go to the polls and vote for their next Commander In Chief; for the next American President; the next leader of the free world. Looking on the surface, if you look at the Democratic public-relations machine known as the mainstream media, it appears that America no longer wants to be known as “Land of the free and home of the brave” but “land of the ‘fair’ and home of the handout.”

The problem with the problem is that our problem is like a cancer and not a bullet. Think of things that can kill you but in the short term help you feel good… If a person is in pain, be it physical or emotional, and they had the choice of a shot of heroin, a bottle of Jack Daniels, or a bullet to the head, though all three of those options will get a person out of their pain, which do people typically choose?

If drugs, like the bullet, killed the user immediately, no one would use drugs or alcohol. They would be forced to face their pain, overcome it, and move on, hopefully growing all the more stronger for it. We are now faced with a similar problem in the political arena: America is in pain. Thanks to government intervention starting in the Clinton administration and a Democratic Congress, (Read: Do Facts Matter?) we are facing a credit crisis, a banking crisis, and financial losses on an order of magnitude unprecedented in human history.

So… America is in pain. Will its citizens dig deep, assume the resolve, take on the responsibility to move forward in and through the crisis like we have for the last 232 years, or will we look for someone to sell us that hit; deliver us that bottle; to numb our pain at the price of freedom?

There is a Cold War going on right now, but instead of being separated by the vastness of an ocean it is the vastness that spans between two radically different ideologies that rage within our own country. Like the cold war of old, this Cold War is fought with thought, and the difference between those two philosophies is as vast a gulf as that Atlantic ocean.

On one side of the gulf, you have the historic American Spirit where you are allowed to enjoy the freedom to do anything you want to; to achieve anything you wish to achieve, provided it does not infringe on the freedoms of others. So you could work hard, enjoy the fruit of your labor, grow your territory or wealth, and shower blessings on your fellow man by providing jobs for others to do the same for themselves and their own. What you could not do, though, was infringe on the territory, money, or basic rights of others while achieving your own goals.

The other side of the gulf, lying in a chasm, persists the infection of a failed ideology known as Socialism that refuses to die despite numerous historical examples that prove long-term failure on a local and national scale. Socialism’s philosophy relies on government to distribute wealth by taking from the “producers” and giving to the “non-producers”… that it, it gives people something they didn’t work for… it gives the populace handouts at the expense of the working class. Socialism’s ideals are fueled by the politics of envy that some people shouldn’t be penalized for not having the wherewithal to work harder or produce more than others. It is fueled by the philosophy of “fairness” when ‘fair’ means the ‘excess’ wealth of the ‘rich’ should be taken by force and given to the ‘poor’ because it’s not ‘fair’ that some have more than others, even when those some worked twice as hard for it. Under socialism, the worker is not rewarded for their labor.

In an economy where the worker is not rewarded for the fruit of their labor, what incentive is there to work? Socialism is indeed an economic equalizer, but does not increase the general level of wealth of its population: it brings everyone down to the same level of poverty. In a free-market society, when you have one person get rich through the fruits of his company, he is not the only one making money because, as it is said, “a rising tide raises all boats.” When that one company owner prospers, he can employ more people, create new jobs, profit neighboring distribution companies and retail establishments which create more jobs, and with all those jobs comes families making more money, allowing them to consume more goods, allowing everyone to share in the blessings of wealth.

When, however, the government takes the profits, or wealth, from a productive company, you remove their ability and incentive to hire, to distribute, to create more wealth. So jobs are lost, productivity is down, products and services become scarce. Economies and nations fall. For example, Barack Obama (as well as others) say they will tax the oil companies (privately held American companies, mind you) on their ‘excessive’ profits. How, may we American voters ask of Barack, will this lower the energy costs of Americans? How will this lower the cost of gas at the pump? How will taxing the oil companies put money back into the taxpayer’s pockets? It won’t and it never has!

This is the philosophy, as insane as it is, of liberalism in America, and over the last 30-some years, this ideology has hijacked what used to be known as the Democratic Party. As is observed by its incumbents, the Democratic party is anything but, democratic… They party that is democratic in name has a decidedly socialist agenda.

Socialism is the hard-core ideology of the Democratic party and the 2008 Democratic candidate for President of the United States of America, Barack Obama. Their idea is that the American President’s job description includes that of wealth redistribution: take from the wealthy, the job makers, the citizens who produce goods, services, and employment opportunities, and take from them until is is no longer profitable to make a profit. And what do companies that can’t make a profit producing something do? They stop producing. And when they stop producing we encounter shortages. Not because of scarce resources, but because people (and companies) will not do something for nothing. And Barack leads the Democratic Party’s charge in wealth redistribution:

10/23/2008, Boston Herald: Barack brushed aside Republican charges that his tax plan amounts to socialism, but acknowledged it involves “spreading around opportunity” so that wealthier Americans pay a little more to help lower-rung workers. So, Barack, by making “wealthier” Americans pay more (read: government will take more) to then distribute to “less” wealthy Americans, how is that not socialism?

9/18/2008, CNN: Barack said he will be “providing an income tax cut of up to $500 per person — or $1,000 for each working family — to offset the payroll tax that they’re already paying, <which> would effectively eliminate all income taxes for 10 million working Americans.” So, Barack, (may I call you Barack?) if ten million Americans will no longer be paying into their Social Security retirement package, that means someone else is going to pay for their retirement, right? Did I get that right? Can you check my math for me? How it that not Socialism?

On the eve of the Philadelphia primary debate in April 2008, Barack said “I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness. <…> Those who are able to work the stock market and amass huge fortunes on capital gains are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries. That’s not fair.” So, Barack, You are saying that it’s not ‘fair’ that someone who went to school for years, who is given oversight of billions of dollars in equity, charged with making the right decisions to make additional billions for shareholders (read: Americans), cannot enjoy the fruit of his or her labor? You’re saying they should be penalized for doing a good job? On top of that, the interviewer pointed out that “…history shows that when you drop the capital gains tax, the revenues go up.” and Barack seemed not to be concerned with this economic factoid.

A litany of redistribution doctrine like this has been flooding the internet, the radio, but not the mainstream media. The media has been a co-conspirator in an effective blackout on the socialist agenda being planned against the American People (Read: Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?) and the American citizen deserves better… they deserve truth in journalism, but therein lies the rub: What you see on the television news is not journalism. Not the way it used to be. That is why all our newspapers are failing, and why corporate television news has been supplanted by independent news sources on the internet.

If you are a Democrat, and you have read this far, I thank you, and I hope you realize that I am not an anti-Obama person or that I am a Pro-McCain supporter because I am far from it… I am an American, and Americans today deserve the ability to realize their dreams just as those of The Greatest Generation have through hard work and opportunity, and not handouts. Our dreams are not to be stolen by people who rip the fruit from our vines… Go plant your own fruit, this is mine! And If there is someone in need, I will determine to whom I will give the fruit of my labor.

On a closing note, a light look at this heavy subject:

May God continue to Bless the United States of America…

“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened.” - Norman Thomas, American socialist

…and Please vote next week.

-Anthony

Popularity: 27% [?]