Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Socialist Threat

The cloud of Socialism hangs over the United States of America. Make no mistake about it my friends! Of course, I’ve always been a fan of clouds. Sometimes you can just stare at them up in the sky and matrix them into all kinds of fun shapes, a puppy, a crocodile, Jessica Alba.

The Republican Party, which has been in complete disarray since losing the election last November, has now proposed that the Democrat Party rename themselves the Democrat Socialist Party. I for one, think it’s a beautiful thing! Of course, I don’t think the Democrats will do it, or that the idiotic tactics being employed by the Republicans are going to do them any good, but I’m overjoyed that the threat of Socialism is running rampant throughout the U.S.!!!

Now don’t tell anyone, but I’m not really supporting Socialism in the U.S. Although personal heroes like Kurt Vonnegut and Jesus Christ were outspoken Socialists, I don’t really think socialism is the answer to our countries problems. But the threat of socialism is a beautiful thing, don’t you think?

Our country is made up of a tiny percentage of rich people, who have more money than they could ever use and they sit on it. Then there are the rest of us who bust our humps, get paid salaries that allow us to get by and little more and it gets you to thinking, how did all of this happen?

Back in the day, we had actual industry here in the United States. Industry, for those of you too young to have ever witnessed it, can be simplified to “making stuff.” Yes. We used to make stuff here. We used to ship it to other places just like China and Japan and Indonesia ship stuff that they’ve made here now.

When we used to make stuff, the same type of thing was happening. The people who ran the companies made all the money and they allowed their employees to live paycheck to paycheck, barely surviving. They did this because they were greedy little bastards, but if we’re honest with ourselves, deep down, we all are and would have done the same thing.

To continue the history lesson though, the workers eventually got a little pissed off and just like that, the Unions were born. The Unions fought to get fair wages, reasonable workday lengths, over time pay and all kinds of things that made the workers happier. The rich still got rich, but not quite as rich as they were before. Then the Unions started to get run by nefarious types and before long, they were as corrupt and greedy as the captains of industry.

The workers were greedy too though. They didn’t want their kids to grow up to be coal miners and farmers and machine operators and laborers of any kind. They wanted their kids to have jobs in offices, with desks and phones and collared shirts, so they sacrificed and saved and sent their kids off to college.
About this same time, captains of industry were upset about the way things had turned out with the weakening of their profit margins. Paying workers an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work really wasn’t a popular idea, but the Unions, being run by nefarious sorts, were unbreakable, so other plans had to be made.

It turns out the plan was to stop making stuff here in the U.S. You won’t believe this, but you can pay a 12 year old Chinese girl less than a dollar a day to do a job that a Union worker in the U.S. would make $20.00 an hour to do! Of course this probably seems a little unfair to the U.S. worker doesn’t it? Surely our elected representatives would have something to say about that, right?

Unfortunately, no—they did not. You see, it takes money to get elected to political office and it’s much easier to work for a lot of money from a captain of industry, than it is to work hard for a bunch of people who can only give you a little bit each. Thus, the captains of industry purchased the United States of America and set the puppets they put into office about to do their bidding, instead of the bidding of the constituency they were supposed to be “representing.”

Sadly, we the people, didn’t much notice. We didn’t want to work in factories and fields and mines anyway. We wanted to work in offices, with water coolers and staplers and photocopy machines. As the Unions really didn’t protect the office dwellers, since the office dwellers were the ones who they were protecting laborers from, the office dwellers became an exploitable commodity. Of course it wasn’t like the old days—the office dwellers still got a few vacation days here and there and insurance and such, but most of them were put on something called a salary, which essentially meant they were paid for 40 hours worth of work a week, and given 60-80 hours of work to do each week.

And predictably, there weren’t enough real office jobs for all of the people who were too good to work in fields and factories and mines so enterprising new captains of industry created fake jobs for them. A fake job is any job that isn’t essential. If you don’t make it, mine it, transport it, etc, you have a fake job. Some companies, who can’t afford to hire people from our country to make their products, can afford to pay millions of dollars for 30 seconds of advertising time for a commercial during events like the Super Bowl—how’s that for fake?

That brings us to the present time. The economy is in bad shape. Many of us are finding out just how expendable we really are; we’re finding out that our jobs are fake, or that they can be pared down and done by fewer people. The captains of industry don’t much care, because they still have so much money that they won’t ever possibly spend it in their lifetime, and neither will their children’s children. Unions are dead. There is no industry here anymore to support them. The office dwellers can’t spend money because they aren’t making money and so those who have sit tight and wait, while those who do not, begin to suffer. And that is precisely why the threat of socialism is such a beautiful thing right now! We should all embrace it! Say it with me now: Workers of the world, unite!

The current political intent is to scare you with Socialism. The former Soviet Union was a socialist country you know! Communists in fact! They want you to be afraid of it, they want you to mistrust it. They want you to be worried about it happening to you, they equate it with a loss of freedom, but that’s not really the case. Socialism isn’t a bad thing necessarily, not if it’s Democratic Socialism. You see, there is a big difference between Communism and a Democratic Socialist government.

Socialism, at its core, is the belief that Capitalism unfairly conglomerates power and money, to those who have the capital and money. In other words, it believes that the rich getting richer is an unfair way of doing business. Socialism is more of an equal opportunity kind of government. It stands in opposition to the imbalance of Capitalism. And, of course, it’s a horrible idea for the United States. We were founded on the principles of Capitalism and have thrived under them. It would be foolish to just do away with them.

But the powerful and rich have gotten too powerful and too rich and they control too much of the money and too much of us. In November, for the first time in a very long time, we the people decided that we had just about enough of the puppets of the those captains of industry running things, so we elected a guy they hadn’t gotten their hooks into yet. And he has messes to fix.

Some of the methods and ideologies of the fixes he’s putting into place smack of socialist ideals. Universal health care means everyone gets it! Not just those who can afford it! And those who make more, have to pay more so that those of us who make less, don’t go broke paying for it. So, unless you’re rich, that should sound like a great plan!

The thing is that the economy works best when there is a lot of money flowing through it. It doesn’t do that when it’s all bunched up at the top. It doesn’t trickle down as they’d have you believe. Greed is too powerful an instinct to us. We gather to us all we can and more. Me first. So, our President is putting money into the bottom and letting it flow up. Not all of it, mind you, just enough of it to make those who have it pretty nervous.

Which brings us all the way back to the pretty cloud of socialism that’s hanging over our country. Embrace it my friends! Don’t embrace the idea of socialism—it works brilliantly in some places, but it would never work here. Embrace the threat of it! It’s been a long time since those at the top of the food chain have feared those of us at the bottom. And fear is a powerful motivator. They don’t like that we’ve elected a President without consulting them. The Republican Party is in disarray because we did. We became so disgruntled with their representation that we turned our backs on them and now they are all busy running around and howling at the moon. The more liberal Democrat Party is in power now, trying to fix the economic problems with liberal theories and ideas—some of them that even smack of socialism. And they fear it.

It would be an end to all they know. It would be an end to their power. It would be an end to looking down with disdain at the rest of us. It would be a mistake. As much as we don’t want to admit it, we need them. But they don’t know that we still know that. They are afraid of the step we’ve taken away from them, and they live in fear of further steps, like the step to socialism.

People of power will not go down without a fight. The fear will make them change their ideas and thoughts and they will look to appease us—because there are so many more of us than there are of them. And when used, there is power in numbers—when we vote, like we did this past November. In order to avoid the calamity that would be actual socialism in the U.S., they will make efforts to make wealth and power more accessible to us. They will share, so as not to lose. We shouldn’t want equal pay for everyone, but we should want what is fair. We should want to be able to keep our jobs in favor of executives getting multi-million dollar bonuses. That’s ridiculous. That’s the kind of compromise we can force.

Such is the power of the threat of Socialism. It is a weapon. It is fear. It is motivation. What our President is doing now isn’t socialism, but it’s close. That closeness, combined with the lack of any real message or direction from the Republican party has caused them to try to make us—we the people—afraid of socialism. Be not afraid my friends. They have unwittingly provided us with the weapon we can use to close the gaps that exist in our country today. Let’s make them think that we’re actually crazy enough to use it!

21 comments:

Ejkrigbaum said...

This article was obviously written by a person with absolutely no principles to live by. That's practically the definition of a communist/socialist. The only real principle they have is "the end justifies the means". Capitalism is freedom. It is individual freedom. the freedom to do and be whatever you want and are capable of being. It is equality of opportunity, not of outcome. Life is tough, but a lot tougher under a socialist dictatorship. If you'd like to explore this more, read my new book RELENTLESS: The Socialist Attack on American Freedom. You can order it at most bookstores or go to the pusblisher's website & order it:www.strategicbookpublishing.com/relentless-thesocialistattackonamericanfreedom.html.

Albert Riehle said...

Thank you for writing your book Ejkrigbaum! That's awesome! Thank you for helping to spread the fear of socialism!!!!

Woo hoo!!!!

Beverly said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Beverly said...

Wow. You got spammed by someone who said you have no principles... LOL!!!

Ahem. Anyhow, I think you know I'm with you on this one. Preach it!

Anonymous said...

Nice! I like what you wrote. At first I thought this would be a sarcastic rant about socialism. Instead what you have to say is what I think the Prez is going for. He doesn't want socialism anymore than the repubs do but he does want everyone to get a fair share of the pie. It may not be the biggest slice but at least it's a taste of the American Dream.
Too bad that very few people will understand this. I hear people now who voted for him freaking out that he's too liberal and going to turn us into socialists. And yet, most of what he's doing is what he TOLD us he would do.
People need to pay attention more.

Ejkrigbaum said...

I will say only one other thing: But first I want to say to all of you, be honest-with yourself. Here goes: where do you get your news and information? I'll tell you, because I've done surveys of so-called liberals and here's what they've told me: They watch CNN, MSNBC CNBC, ABC,NBC,CBS, PBS. They read their local papers, The New York Times, The Washington Post. They lsiten to Air America, and NPR. They don't watch Fox News, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck,. They don't read The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times. They don't listen to Rush, Sean,Rusty Humphries, Michael Savage. EVER! Why? Because when you've been brainwashed and propagandized, inserting other viewpoints into your thinking creates dissonance. In the beginning it is somewhat painfull to experience. I challenge you to listen to alla these news outlets for one month. all, including your beloved leftist people. If you are the so-called liberals you claim to be (which should mean you have an open mind) you'll begin to see the truth. You'll see obvious lies up against the truth. In no time it will jump out at you. Again, be honest with yourself. Don't worry about what I think or what anyone else thinks. You want to know and understand the truth, don't you? For most of you, I know this will simply be too difficult. If it is, then I don't want that kind of person on my side anyway. I want courageous people. Come on, take the challenge. Whatever you do, do write me back and change the subject. I've played this game with socialists too long to fall for that. Either take the challenge, or shut up. Oh, by the way, I already do this, and have for many years. So I already know the outcome. You see, I was where you are now.
Bye, Bye

Albert Riehle said...

hello again Ejkrigbaum! Are you kidding me? I LOVE FOX NEWS! I LOVE RUSH! I LOVE O'REILLY! They are the ones working so very hard to spread the threat of Socialism! It is only with their help, and the help of good people like you that we can truly instill the fear of Socialism into the people of our nation!

This is the greatest use of the Karl Rove Principle to date! Make the masses afraid of it and simultaneously blame the other guys for it! I LOVE IT!

Shout it from the rooftops! OBAMA IS A SOCIALIST! THE DEMOCRATES ARE EVIL PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO TRICK US INTO BECOMING A SOCIALIST NATION!

It's beautiful! Rush, Bill, Ann, Fox News---spread the word! Tell the puppet masters that unless they appease the middle class, we will let King Obama take all they have away from them!

BE AFRAID! BE VERY AFRAID!

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE!!!!!

Ejkrigbaum said...

So, you don't think socialism will work here, but you think that the threat of socialism will scare capitalists into sharing more of their wealth. Instead of the socialist gov't forcing the rich to share, you're think that the mere threat of socialism will scare them into sharing. But you're not for socialism, you're just in favor of socialist ideas, like nationalized, healthcare, and nationaized banks and nationized auto industry, but not socialism. This is exactly what Obama says. He's not a socialist, he just has socialist ideas. I know you are not probably dumb enough to fall for this, but obviously some of your readers are. What you are saying is that we can have socialism and not have socialism at the same time. I'm going to tell you what's wrong with socialists. Starting with Karl Marx, they are either too lazy , too stupid, or don't have a personality that allows themn to go out on their own and create a life for themselves, and they prey on people who are just like them. That was Karl Marx. He was an intellectual, who never held a legitimate job in his life. He was a perennial student. He had his own personal nanny state in the form of Friedrich Engles. Engles, whose father took care of him, took his father's money and took care of Marx - and Marx's family of something like 7 children. What a guy that Marx was.

Albert Riehle said...

First of all Ejkrigbaum, I have a very small, but very intelligent readership and I'd appreciate it if you didn't make unfounded remarks about their lack of intelligence.

Second, it was George Bush (for whom, coincidentally, I voted twice) who put our country into the Auto and Banking industries, it's a policy that Obama has continued, but let's be very clear about where it started.

Finally, we have a socialized educational system, police and fire departments, welfare system, unemployment, social security, disability, armed forces. Socialist principles have always been a part of our country. Democracy, by its very nature, incorporates many different ideologies and it is the effective mining of the successes of each of these philosophies that allows us to be such a great country.

If we ever lean too far left or too far right, we're doomed. It's the balance that makes us special and we are sadly out of balance right now. We need to come back to the middle and that's what's occuring now.

But the elite have taken the rest of us for granted. They take multi-million dollar bonuses at the expense of hundreds and thousands of workers losing jobs. So yes, we do need to make them afraid of us. We do need to make them afraid. We do need Rush, Ann, Bill and the kids at Fox News to scream and howl about socialism because the only people who listen to Rush, Ann, Bill and the Fox kids are the far right wingers. They are the ones we want to be afraid because they are the ones who have to walk back a ways to the middle in order to regain power and support.

The Rove Principle doesn't work anymore because all of that crying wolf has made America distrustful of what the Right yells now. We have tuned them out. They Twitter and wear golf shirts and parade a moron like Bobby Jindal in front of us because he's young and brown but we don't pay attention to them anymore. Our ears are deaf to them.

So I LOVE that they are screaming about socialism because only the right hears it. Only they fear it. Which is so amazingly stupid because actual socialism will not, cannot ever happen here without civil war. Plain and simple.

But yes, more socialist ideas can be infused into our democracy. We the People voted for just that to happen. Obama has been upfront about his plans for health care. It isn't news to anyone what he plans to do with it. And when it happens, yes...we'll lean back toward the middle moving left again. But we're so far right now that it will be a good thing.

The idea of actual Socialism in the U.S. is so amazingly absurd! Its not going to happen. This is an attempt to make the sheep afraid. But the sheep aren't listening anymore. The sheep follow a new shepherd and until he steers us wrong, will continue to do so.

Meanwhile, the Republicans don't know what the hell to do! Be younger. Be more brown. Be more hip. Make them afraid--that used to work so well!

None of it works. And the Republicans look like fools. They just don't get it. Lay low. Shut up. Look inward. Listen to young republicans like Meghan McCain--she has amazing ideas on how to be true to Republican ideas while not being such freaking villians.

But after 8 years of power, they don't know what to do. America feels betrayed and used by them---time heals all wounds, but they just won't let it go. Like a pathetic ex they keep coming back and rehashing old arguments. Shut up. Sit back. Be patient. You can't win an election for another 3 years. You aren't gonig to win it with what you say today.

Ejkrigbaum said...

Hi, you gave me so much fodder. The problem is that you don't have the basics. !. Our founders did not set up a democracy. They set up a representative republic. 2. Democracy and individual freedom are not the same thing. In fact our original brand of individual freedom and democracy are incompatible. In fact they are opposites. In a democracy everyone (the mob) votes on what they want. So what you theoretically get is the dictatorship of the proletariet which is what Marx called it. Note the word dictatorship. In reality what you get is a dictatorship of the majority of those who actually vote. A majority that can be manipulated quite easily. The majority votes "off with his head". His head is taken off. There are no written rules to follow, at least like today, even though we have written rules, we don't follow them. (or the leaders don't) Or, they change them when they don't like an outcome. And, they change them retroactively.
You know, I'm giving away too much of my book. You need to buy it and then learn.

Ejkrigbaum said...

Oh, I forgot to tell you, I never once voted for Bush, so we're always on opposite sides. I predicted exactly what he did over 8 years ago. I voted and campaigned for Alan Keyes, one of the few true Statesmen in our lifetimes, in the mold of George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and on. Compare your thinking to those men. You can't. Those men were unique in world history. I am humbled when I think about what they thought,and what they did. The American people need to go back and study our history through those men so they can appreciate what we were given, and how ignorant we are being for squandering it. I am ashamed of you and anyone who thinks like you. I wish that the founders could stand before you today and say to you "Albert, what the hell is wrong with you? We gave you individual freedom,something no one in history had ever had, and you're spitting on it. George, would you reach over and slap some sense into him?"

Albert Riehle said...

LOL! I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be a customer of yours. I'm content to sit back and laugh as you all howl at the moon.

I also resent the idea that I need to be "educated" because my opinions do not match your own. Our government was meant to be a living, breathing thing. It was meant to evolve. It was meant to grow along with the country, not to be some static thing.

Thanks for the offer of an education though. It sure is nice of you to take a foolish and unintelligent man like myself and offer him salvation through agreement with your opinions!

Educating oneself in narrowminded thought doesn't make the world a better place though. So I'll remain blissfully ignorant of your lessons.

Beverly said...

So Ejkrigbaum, how do you reply to Albert's points, many of which you've chosen to overlook? The one I'd most like to see you address is that we already have a lot of socialist aspects of our government. He gave good examples like SSI, fire departments, unemployment, etc.

Albert Riehle said...

Oh goodness! I've done it now! I've made George Washington ashamed of me! I'm a mindless sheep who doesn't value my individual freedom!

You know me so well!

Can you possibly be so narrowminded and foolish? Can you really be so stupid?

Are you having fun changing the world by arguing with a blogger who is lucky if his readership totals 25 people?

Oh sir, you are a bit of a joke I'm afraid. A caricature really. Shout down the moon. We've tuned your kind out.

Ejkrigbaum said...

Hi Beverly, SSI as I recall was not part of the bargain when the country was founded. It came in under Franklin Roosevelt and is nothing more htan a ponzi scheme. It's going broke. Medicare, going broke. Let's get up to speed. The collapse in the economy in July was casued by the same thinking: people at the bottom can get something without working for it. Housing. Jimmy Carter and his congress; Bill Clinton and his congress; Barack Obama and Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and the rest of the people who chose to hide the truth about the govt forcing banks to make loans to unqualified people, with no money down, with loans that would age out in 5 to 10 years and cause these people to walk away from those houses. That's who and what has caused this crisis.
By the way, where in all the documents left us by our founders, in all their writings, anywhere, does it say a living, breathing document. "If the Constitution is to be construed to mean what the majority at any given period in history wish the Constitution to mean, why a written Constitution?" Frank J. Hogan, President, American Bar Assn (1939)

Albert Riehle said...

So, if I'm understanding you correctly sir, we should still have slavery right? After all, slavery was perfectly legal when the constitution was written right? I wonder what your hero Alan Keyes would think of that?

Fortunately for him though, the constitution lives and breaths through its ability to be amended, so Mr. Keyes doesn't have to be a slave.

Coincidentally, I wonder what George Washington would think of that? I think you're right. He'd be ashamed of me for not owning slaves.

I'm such a bad American!!!

Ejkrigbaum said...

Sorry Beverly, I didn't answer your question completely. Our govt was set up so that Individual Freedom comes first. The govt was then given certain responsibilities. One of those is to protect our life an property from dangers, both foreign and domestic. I think the fire dept qualifies under that. Unemployment: I've never been in favor of it, never used it, been out of work, but still never used it. In the long run, it's destructive, because it takes away the incentive to get off your behind and do something to take care of yourself and your family. Besides, at one time that was the job of churches and charities. For the most part churches have either dropped the idea, or think that taking care of the indigent and downtrodden is now a job of the govt.
No, the socialism I'm fightened of is having our (your) President tell GM "fire your CEO". Did you think you would ever hear that? I've heard the rationale for it "If the govt gives them money it should be able to tell them how to spend it." Tthat's exactly why I warned against it. Technically the term for this type of control is FASCISM. I presume that's what Albert is referring to when he says "The right". But one of the points of my book is that there is no left or right. Only individual freedom and some form of authoritarianism, be it socialism, fascism, military dictatorship,civilian dictatorship or monarchy. Which do you want to live under? I choose individual freedom. Why does that seem evil to socialists?

Beverly said...

Nothing's perfect, least of all unchecked "individual freedom." Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, AIG's executives using government bailout money for huge corporate bonuses, etc., etc. I believe that absolute freedom leads to those things, and make no mistake, nobody forced lenders to lend money to non-creditworthy people. That was about greed, too. Sorry, Ejkirgbaum, I am not convinced, and given that I work with finance people who talk about economics (from close to or at your point of view) all of the time, I know I am getting more than one side of the story. I just don't buy it.

Here's a news flash: nothing's perfect. Pure capitalism isn't perfect. Pure socialism has its problems, too. Hybridizing these things makes perfect sense. Canada does a great job of it. Did you know that they have had NO bank failures during this economic downturn?

Ejkrigbaum said...

Come on, Albert, that's so stupid that I know you're just jerking my chain. George, and Thomas and many others grew up in the slavery era. But most of them rejected it, and one of the big issues during that time was how to get rid of it. They even had a tentative time table for doing so. So when you bring that up it tells me one of two things, you just don't know your history, or you are jerking my chain. Believe me I heard that stupid argument many times, It gets dumber evertime I hear it. What's more at issue here is what would Alan Keyes think. He thinks exactly like I do. If you'll go to my publisher's website, you see me pictured with Alan. Here's the 64 dollar question: are you telling me you want to go back to slavery and be one yourself? Because asking for socialism is exactly that. Only this time you'll be a slave to the govt.

Ejkrigbaum said...

Beverly, who said anything about unchecked individual freedom? That would be anarchy or Communism. Communism is what marx thought Socialism would evolve into. A wonderful Utopia, where everyone would love each other, would have everything they needed, so there would be no need for govt. You just said it: that won't work. I say let's live by the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the Principles embodied in the Constitution as it was originally intended, which , by the way included an amendment process enabling us to tweak it, if the need arose. And the Ten Commandments.If we govern OURSELVES by these principles, we'll be fine. Anything else will lead to the destruction of this wonderful system we were left. But when we let the Supreme court and other courts pass laws from the bench, which is against the law in the first place, and we let the executive branch pass executive orders which become laws, which was never intended, then we have abandoned our own rules for a living, breathing, totalitarian monster.

Albert Riehle said...

Tsk. Tsk. I think I've made it clear that I'm not in favor of socialism. I wonder how many more times I'll need to repeat that?

And no, I'm not jerking your chain. You seem hell-bent on returning everything to the way it was when our government was first formed. And I know my history well. I know it well enough to be able to call you on your b.s. The "timetable for doing away with slavery" you talk about was nothing more than an gesture of appeasement to the extremely small minority of our founding fathers who didn't want slavery. Shame on you for twisting history to make it sound like the original intent was to do away with it. That simply wasn't the case.

And slavery is just one example of a huge flaw in the thinking of our founding fathers.

Much of our government, our constitution, our bill of rights is reactionary instead of visionary. Our government wasn't created with the idea of it being in any way perfect, it was created with the idea of fixing all of the injustices that had been perpatrated on the colonists by the crown.

Even the founding fathers recognized this and recognized that as the country grew, as it's people grew, as it evolved, so too must the government that presided over it.

Your ideas are foolish. The fact that you don't even recognize right and left wing politics cements it. You live in a world that doesn't exist and didn't even exist in the time you've decided was utopian government.

I'm sure there is a narrowminded, ignorant, easily manipulated part of the population that will love your book, but please go peddle it to them. Leave the intelligent thought to those of us here in the 21st century.

Also, congrats on your picture with Alan Keyes. I have a similar picture. It was taken with Jessica Alba. I win again.