Fast and Furious was responsible for putting guns into the hands of people who killed a U.S. Border Patrol agent, and, hundreds of Mexican citizens. Holder denied knowledge of the operation, and then documents emerged showing he did know, and that he had lied to Congress. When Congress asked for 1,300 pages of documents that might shed some light on the smoking gun, Obama invoked executive privilege to prevent the transfer, thus raising more questions that the president himself might be implicated.676
Is He a Socialist?
When a chorus of angry voices called President Barack Obama a socialist, they weren’t necessarily pointing to his scurrilous affiliations, his secretive history, or his influential mentors who declared themselves adherents to communism. They may not even have pointed directly at the dictionary definition of socialism, or party affiliation.
They were responding with fear to suspicions about his true motives. They had been frightened by his declared goal to “fundamentally change America.” They saw him empowered to do as he pleased by exploiting an emerging American aristocracy driven by greed and bent on micromanaging private lives beyond the control of the people. They saw him threaten the free market with uncontrollable government force beyond the bounds of the original Constitution. They saw him smother every aspect of American life beneath growing mountains of new regulations, controls, and unrecoverable debt to purchase with indulgences the temporary salvation of his supporters. They watched him turn America into Europe, and worse.
Starting with his first term, Barack Obama, with support from Nancy Pelosi in the House, Harry Reid in the Senate, and some 69 million American voters, established a new order of elitist authority in the United States that will—like all other attempts at socialism—assuredly, predictably, and eventually collapse this nation in failure.
Those hard-working Americans who produce the wealth and drive prosperity forward will not carry on their backs so many millions of stagnated welfare consumers for much longer. Higher taxes, more regulations, continued flaunting of constitutional restraints, frequent excusing of corrupted public officials, disparaging traditional American and Judeo-Christian values—all of these added together are bringing about the accelerated slide into national bankruptcy of America’s economy and America’s honored virtues. The nation’s producers are not able to long stand against such a tide reared up against them, especially when it mocks and ridicules their values from behind the iron fist of government force.
Socialism is a rainbow of gray that frowns across America in shades of guilt and envy, promising no pot of gold, but to the rulers. Obama’s raid on the treasury was like no other before him. He doled out his rewards and favors to followers whose American dreams had been dashed upon the rocks of a corrupted economy, failed work ethic, and loss of hope—all at a time when the culture of America stood in its greatest need of correction and a course turned back to its fundamental principles. Obama failed to see that necessary corrective action, and did just the opposite.
Eating the Elephant a Teaspoon at a Time
The sampling of U.S. presidents and their advancement of socialism, as summarized in the preceding 30 pages is by no means complete, nor is it intended to give equal time to the positives of each man. It serves to illustrate how quickly a nation founded on principles of property rights and individual freedoms can lose them when the virtues of self reliance and circumspection are abandoned.
Is it fair, then, to call a president who enabled the loss of so many freedoms, who used government force to control and change society, who expanded federal power and eroded private liberty, a true-blue dyed-in-the-wool through and through socialist?
Great Nations Fall First From Within
For most of America’s first 225 years, there was no external force in the world that could take this nation down. Peace and prosperity were confidently guaranteed.
In retrospect, it is also clear that many of the troubles that plague the United States today never could have materialized had the country stayed true to its founding principles. But it didn’t.
The changes that voided the warranty on liberty didn’t come all at once. The leftward list toward Ruler’s Law came by small degrees, even fractions of degrees. It came in the form of unrestrained expansions of presidential power, unrestrained taxation and spending by Congress, and unrestrained re-interpretation of the Constitution by the Supreme Court. It came by the corruption and loss of national virtue that tends to follow the growth of prosperity. And, it came by the subsequent rewriting of the Constitution—not by amending it as much as by gross neglect.
“As a Man Thinketh ...”
Therefore, even if a president’s unconstitutional imposition on the American people is not a declared act of socialism, it is proof he is certainly thinking like a socialist—ever seeking government force to control society, to create the United States in his own image. Said Obama in August 2012, “Do we go forward towards a new vision of an America in which prosperity is shared?”677 Sharing prosperity—the ages-old promise of all socialist-minded dreamers, and the verbal poison that destroys, always destroys, without fail. And yet many entitlement-minded Americans loved hearing it and gave Obama a second term to finish the job.
Is he a socialist? As the ancient poet of Proverbs678 and the more modern philosopher of truths James Allen679 both astutely observed, “They themselves are makers of themselves ... for as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
Learning to Recognize Socialism
When people hear about something they oppose, and then wag their heads and say “there ought to be a law,” which of the seven pillars of socialism are they really asking for? Is this “thinking like a socialist”? Explain.
How did Teddy Roosevelt turn the Constitution on its head in his quote regarding what a president could and couldn’t do? Did he believe the Constitution was a standard to which all must abide, or a standard that should change as the people changed?
How did William H. Taft cut the chain that restrained the federal government from taxing individual citizens? When did he propose this change? When was it ratified as the 16th Amendment?
When Taft and Woodrow Wilson imposed graduated income taxes (rich pay more, poor pay less), how did this violate the right of the States to give equal protection to their citizens?
Did Wilson support socialism? What did he say about the line between public and private affairs? Social reform? Political control? Which of the seven pillars are firmly entrenched in these attitudes? Who was left holding all the political power?
Herbert Hoover is blamed for turning a recession into the Great Depression. List three actions he took that triggered that depression. Which of these still weighs heavy on America?
List some ways that Franklin D. Roosevelt made America’s economic woes even worse than before he took office.
In FDR’s ‘new economic bill of rights,’ he said that Americans should be assured equality in “the pursuit of happiness.” Can happiness be pursued if the government forces everything to be equal? Which pillars of socialism are required to make all things equal? What did he call his plan to socialize the U.S.?
How much does Kennedy’s food stamp program cost today? How many people are “made weak” so they must participate?
Did Johnson’s ‘war on poverty’ help or hurt the poor? Why?
In 2001, Senator Barack Obama blamed the civil rights movement for failing to marshal enough power to force “redistributive change.” What was he calling for? List 5 ways this attitude ultimately defined his policies and presidency.
Did Obama grant political, judicial, taxation, and opt-out favors to his supporters? Did he take from the treasury and pour billions into businesses to further his agenda? Was this constitutional? How do you know? Did any of these businesses fail to deliver and go bankrupt? List a few.
Did Obama and his supporters in Congress advance the cause of freedom and liberty? Is Obama a socialist according to our definition? Do you feel more free or less free today?
&n
bsp; Are you supportive of trading your individual freedoms for more security to fight terrorism, such as granting government access to your private messages, papers, medical records, Internet habits, associations, gun ownership, religious beliefs and private behavior?
Does personal virtue play a role in successful self-government? Explain how these quotes proved prophetic regarding America’s problems today: Benjamin Franklin—“Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” And, John Adams—“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.”
Part XV--SOCIALISM AROUND THE WORLD
“... Vagabonds and beggars have of long time increased, and daily do increase ... being whole and mighty in body, and able to labour ... there to put himself to labour, like as a true man oweth to do.”
* * *
649 Max Baucus, speech on Senate floor, March 25, 2010, recorded by C-SPAN.
650 Matthew Boyle, Nearly 20 percent of new Obamacare waivers are gourmet restaurants, nightclubs, fancy hotels in Nancy Pelosi’s district, The Daily Caller, May 17, 2011.
651 Health Law Waivers Draw Kudos, and Criticism, New York Times, March 19, 2011.
652 See, for example, Scott W. Atlas, M.D., IPAB: President Obama’s NICE Way to Ration Care To Seniors, Forbes, October 21, 2012.
653 David Rutz, 36 Times Obama Said You Can Keep Your Health Plan, Washington Free Beacon, November 5, 2013.
654 ABC News, President Obama Continues Questionable Promise, July 10, 2009.
655 McClatchy DC, Analysis: Tens of millions could be forced out of health insurance they had, November 7, 2013
656 All quotes from a White House news conference addressing the cancellation of healthcare policies under the Affordable Care Act, November 14, 2013.
657 Barack Obama, speech at Shaker Heights High School, Shaker Heights, Ohio, recorded by C-SPAN, January 4, 2012, emphasis added.
658 WBEZ interview of Senator Barack Obama, 2001, emphasis added.
659 Senator Barack Obama gave a lengthy speech in support of TARP on the floor of the Senate on October 1, 2008.
660 The New York Times, Obama’s Interview Aboard Air Force One, Transcript, published March 7, 2009.
661 U.S. Department of Health & Human Services press release, June 28, 2013.
662 Renae Merle and Dina ElBoghdady, Obama Readies Steps To Fight Foreclosures, Particularly For Unemployed, The Washington Post, March 26, 2010.
663 New York Times, U.S. Winds Down Longer Benefits for the Unemployed, May 28, 2012.
664 U.N. Security Council press release, 6191st Meeting, September 24, 2009.
665 New York Times, The Final Numbers on ‘Clunkers,’ August 26, 2009; New York Times, Was the Car Rebate Plan a Clunker?, October 30, 2009.
666 Obama Signs Overhaul of Student Loan Program, The New York Times, March 30, 2010; Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) who was a former U.S. Secretary of Education.
667 Ed O’Keefe, Eric Yoder, Boehner’s Comments Revive Debate On How To Tally Federal Workers, The Washington Post, February 17, 2011.
668 Lachlan Markay, IRS Requests Army of Bureaucrats to Facilitate ObamaCare Implementation, The Washington Examiner, February 17, 2011.
669 Sean Alfano, Arizona immigration law SB 1070 draws lawsuit from Department of Justice, Daily News, July 6, 2010; see Arizona Senate Bill 1070, 2010.
670 See SNAP Annual Statistics provided at www.fns.usda.gov.
671 See Public Law 111-296-Dec. 13, 2010, at www.gpo.gov.
672 See Peter J. Wallison, The Dodd-Frank Act: Creative Destruction, Destroyed, American Enterprise Institute, July-August 2010.
673 FoxNews and AP, Obama suspends deportation for thousands of illegals, tells GOP to pass DREAM Act, June 15, 2012.
674 C-SPAN, January 30, 1995, brought to light in 2012 by researchers at Breitbart.com.
675 Fred Lucas, Feinstein Uses Fast and Furious to Make Case for National Gun Registration, CNSNews.com, November 1, 2011.
676 USA TODAY, Obama claims executive privilege, Holder held in contempt, June 20, 2012.
677 Barack Obama, said during a fund-raiser speech in Chicago, Ill, August 12, 2012.
678 Proverbs 23:7 .
679 James Allen, As A Man Thinketh, 1903.
Chapter 86: The Rise and Fall of Socialist Europe
There is an eerie similarity between today’s decaying European Union and the failed Soviet Union. Both attempted to amalgamate a variety of sovereign nations, each with its own unique culture, history, economy, resources, and national work ethic, into a single economic and political power.
Both empires adopted a common currency—the ruble for the Soviets, and the euro for the Europeans.
Both adopted central ruling bodies to act in behalf of the individual nations—the Politburo/Central Committee/Party Congresses, and the European Parliament/Council/Commission.
And both started to crack up after about six decades. Story: After centuries of wars and conflict, six of Europe’s nations decided to form a compact of cooperation. The goal was to prevent Germany and France from slugging it out in another of their costly conflagrations. Their hope was to keep the peace by intertwining mutual goals, and reviving their war-ravaged heavy industries of coal and steel production.
It started in 1950 when the nations of Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands sent delegates to a round table and formed the European Coal and Steel Community. In 1957, they expanded their cooperation by treaty to become the European Economic Community. Some 36 years later, in 1993, they evolved into the European Union (EU).
Economic Powerhouse: The EU grew into one of the largest and most powerful economies in the world. By 2007, it had 492 million people in 27 nations, with a cumulative GDP of $14.8 trillion, ranking it first in the world (2010 estimate).680
Keeping Peace: Managing the EU has been convoluted by political party voting blocs, power grabs, widely divergent views on social issues, and political standoff’s.
The EU is ruled by a parliamentary system at the highest levels, fraught with political infighting that makes some nations threaten to leave. Germany is the heavyweight on the block, holding sway on many EU decisions because of its productivity, money and influence.
The Euro Burrow
In 1999, a common currency was created called the euro. As of 2012, only 17 of 27 EU nations had adopted it, and for a while the euro was on track to becoming the premier currency on the planet. And then came the 2009 debt crisis in Greece and in other EU nations.
With all EU countries taxed to support all other EU countries, and all EU countries borrowing from each other to give each other loans, it is no wonder that a toppling of any single member of that circle of dominoes could bring them all down. Saving Greece from collapse was an act of survival for the entire EU. But that wasn’t the root of the EU’s real problem. They had to save the euro. As Germany’s Merkel declared, the single-currency euro was “the glue that holds Europe together.”681
Rescuing the euro required massive bailouts by other banks. For help, George Papandreou, prime minister of Greece, turned to raising taxes: “We need a mechanism which can be funded through different forms and different ways,” he said, calling on nations to kick in “a financial tax or carbon dioxide taxes” to meet their needs.682 People watching on the sidelines wondered why taxes had to be raised. Why not stop spending? Lenders demanded austerity programs before shoveling over billions in rescue money, but the heart of the people was so accustomed to the generations of generous entitlements that cutting back was too abrupt, too archaic, and way too mean.
Standing in the Bucket
Most people know tha
t standing in a bucket and pulling up on the handle doesn’t lift anything, not even a little. That is the problem the EU was facing with its mutual and individual country economies. The debt crisis that began around 2008 put the EU in the awkward position of borrowing from itself to lend to itself—pulling on the handle and expecting to rise.
The European Snake Eating Its Tail
The European dispensers and recipients of social welfare and social justice have long boasted of an elevated life style—shorter work weeks, generous holidays, universal health care, early retirements, full pensions, and cradle-to-grave care of the highest order. Much of this luxury has been paid for by ever-increasing taxes and the money the EU saves by not carrying the full load of self-defense—the cost of military protection has been left largely to the alliances with NATO and the American nuclear umbrella.
So, life in socialist Europe was relatively rosy for many years until it all came to a screeching halt at the foot of reality.
The World-wide Debt Crisis
When the international debt crisis of 2008-09 forced the EU to examine its profligate ways, the long-ignored wreckage was massive—deeply entrenched unemployment, shrinking tax revenues, bloated budgets, growing numbers of retirees, exploding numbers of pensions coming due, and heavy welfare demands.
People weren’t dying fast enough. Longer life expectancy, lower birth rates, low economic growth, lack of productivity, too much reliance on services, lack of manufacturing, and all the problems and complexities that followed, exacerbated the rapid drain on the treasuries.
The Naked Socialist Page 52