Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Why All This Fuss About Socialism?

In the early days of Obama, many Conservatives loudly decried him as a Socialist.  A lot of mainstream folks responded with either indifference or confusion?  They either didn't believe he was a Socialist, or they didn't care.  Some even decried the Conservatives as being divisive by applying labels and using "-isms" to pigeonhole people.

A lot of people didn't seem to care about or know why they should care about having a Socialist President of the United States (POTUS).

In a previous post, I defined Socialism as:
1.  a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole
2.  procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.
3. (in Marxist theory) the stage following capitalism in the transition of society  to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist   principles.
George Bernard Shaw, the noted Fabian Socialist, said that:
"Socialism, reduced to its simplest legal and practical expression, means the complete discarding of the institution of private property by transforming it into public property and the division of the resultant income equally and indiscriminately among the entire population." (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 ed., Vol. 20, p. 895.)
I don't intend here to rehash my earlier remarks about how Socialism and Christianity are mortal foes.  Rather, I want to point out here why anyone who values freedom should be opposed to Socialism and Socialist policies.

To be clear, I am not talking here about the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russian, China or any other country than the United States of America.  If anyone in France, the United Kingdom, Greece, or most of Europe is reading this, then they too might want pay attention and apply these lessons and ideas within their own country.

What I am talking about here is the creeping Socialism that has been overtaking the USA for decades now.

It began in the days of US President Woodrow Wilson.  He called himself a "Progressive."  The reality is that in US political history, you can use the terms Socialist, Progressive, Fascist and Liberal interchangeably.  They are just different shirts worn by the same guy (or gal).

Wilson started us down the road of Socialism, and he did it with the help of some pretty big Capitalists.  Which may account in part for the mistaken notion that Fascism is somehow a "right-wing" phenomenon, when in fact Fascism is nothing more or less than Socialism that wraps itself in the flag of a specific country and says, "We are #1," and then puts the government in charge of everything, either directly or indirectly.

If you don't believe me that Fascism and Socialism are the same guy, perhaps you will believe someone who experienced the Nazi takeover of Austria first hand.  Kitty Werthmann  was a teenager when Hitler annexed Austria.  You may remember some basics of the story from the Julie Andrews musical "The Sound of Music."

Here are a couple of highlights from Kitty's story that the Von Trapp family managed to avoid.

Hilter eliminated unemployment. He made it mandatory that no one could buy food if they didn't have a food ration card.  And, you didn't get a food ration card if you didn't have a job.  And if you didn't have a food ration card, you starved to death.  So, all those mothers who wanted to stay at home and raise their children now had no choice.  They had to go out and get jobs in the working world.
...a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death.
“Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men."

To "help them out" Hitler instituted state-run day care (can you spell Head Start?).  As a result, the state was able to directly educate an entire generation of children from their infancy.


“When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.
“You could take your children ages four weeks old to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, seven days a week, under the total care of the government.
“The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology."

Hitler eliminated a lot of the poor health in society.  Because health care was nationalized, it was the civic duty of citizens to be fit and healthy.

“Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.”
And then things got worse.
“The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free.
“We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had."

But being fit was only half the story...


“In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps. The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated.
“So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work.
“I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van.
“I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months.
“They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.
“As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia."

And, they had a Consumer Protection Agency too, just like we recently got...

"My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables.
“ Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn’t meet all the demands.
“Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control."

I could go on and on with the list of things that the National Socialists implemented, welfare, nationalized health care (free aka "affordable"), nationalized education (free education for all), gun registration followed by gun confiscation.  


One of the earliest was the removal of religion from the public square. This was followed by encouraging youth to have sex and girls to "have a baby for Hitler." Babies which would be raised by the state. 

These changes were not all done at once.  And, they were not forced on the people, at first.  They gratefully traded their freedom for the security of free government guaranteed benefits.

And here we hit the crux of matter as to why all this fuss about Socialism.  It is simply this:

Socialism makes citizens into slaves. 

You don't believe me?  Consider the state of the slave and his family.

  1. Full Employment: Slaves don't ever have to worry about unemployment.  Mom and Dad, and even the children work when they become old enough.  Mom's don't have the option of one of them staying at home to raise the kids while the other brings home the bacon.  If they don't all work, the Master punishes them.
  2. Economic Equality: No matter how hard they work, or how much they produce, they get paid the same as the slaves who do nothing every time the Master looks away.  They are taxed 100% and then the Master gives them what she or he thinks is appropriate to keep them healthy enough to keep working.
  3. Equal Opportunity: Slaves don't get to keep the fruits of their labors.  No matter how hard they work, or how smart they are, it won't automatically make their situation better.  Did you know that it is probable that Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin - an invention that made the Southern cotton industry get real economic legs and is credited with "reinvigorating slavery," actually took credit for an invention made by his slave?  You don't hear that story in American History class, do you?
  4. Free Healthcare: The slaves don't have to pay for healthcare.  The Master gives them whatever level of healthcare that the Master decides is suitable for them, even though the Master may have access to a much better level of care than is provided for the slaves.
  5. Free Housing: The slaves don't have to pay for their food and shelter.  They get whatever food and shelter the Master decides to give them.
  6. Safety From Crime: The slaves don't get to have access to guns.  That might not bode well for the Master, making it hard for him to keep the slaves in line.
  7. Free Education: The slaves don't have to pay for education.  They get whatever education the Master thinks they need to be effective in the work he assigns them.
  8. Free Clothing: The slaves don't even have to pay for their clothes.  The Master sees to it that they have whatever clothing he or she feels is appropriate for the work they do.
  9. Opportunities in Government Service: There is opportunity for a better life... Slaves that are especially pleasing to the Master can work in the "big house."  There, they get better clothes and food and education, because they are directly serving the Master.

Doesn't that list of "government benefits" sound a lot like the Liberal agenda for this country?  It does to me.

When I first read the title of Star Parker's book, Uncle Sam's Plantation, I thought, "Great, now another black writer is going to condemn this country and make up some notion of how people of color don't get enough breaks.  I couldn't have been more wrong.

Star Parker describes herself as "a welfare, crack ho."  The story she tells of her gradual realization that the welfare system has the "unintended consequence" of enslaving its recipients is enlightening.  Now, she is a champion of Capitalism and freedom.  A stance that causes many people of color to decry her as an "Oreo", black on the outside, but white on the inside.  That kind of thinking is another tool used by Liberals to snatch economic freedom and victory from the hands of the poor and keep them in poverty.

The Socialism in this country was championed by the Democratic Party by the likes of Woodrow Wilson and his protege Franklin D. Roosevelt. And, it is the Democratic Party that pushed to keep slavery in place.  It is the Democratic Party that passed the infamous Jim Crow Laws.  And, it is the Democratic Party that initiated "The War on Poverty" under Lyndon B. Johnson.  I believe it is now and always has been the aim of the Democratic Party to keep people of color under their thumb and their control.

I wish I could say that the Republican Party has staunchly opposed this creeping Socialism and reprehensible oppression of people of color.  Unfortunately, the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass has largely been won over into the camp of Socialism too.  Most presidential elections, we are given the choice between a Socialist (Democrat) and a lite-Socialist (Republican).

Neither choice is very appealing and neither turns back the tide of Socialism and slavery that is rolling in on us.

What is the Answer?
Constitutional Conservatives need to quit viewing politics as a spectator sport.  They need to overcome their natural revulsion over running for office and get into the ring.  They need to run for offices at all levels, local and state mostly, and take back our country one city and county at a time.

Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM). The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein. 

The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein.

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