“Friends of Karl”

[Admin]

In My Opinion by Trevor Bothwell

Newt Gingrich once said that if Democrats ever lost a significant percentage of the black vote, they’d be in deep trouble. Rarely have truer words been spoken.

This is because Democrats need to appeal to the fears and hostilities of black Americans. They paint as evil bigots Republicans who oppose welfare subsidies, racial set-asides, or any other government entitlement program. Democrats want everyone to believe that because they care so deeply for the beleaguered African-American, it is only appropriate to reach into the pockets of the “haves” and give charitably to the “have-nots.”

The condescension aside, this is the epitome of socialism. But make no mistake: Democrats do not advocate socialist practices because they care about black Americans; Democrats prey upon and exploit black Americans specifically to retain their power at any cost -- and to further their ideal of a true socialist state in America.

My friend Andy Roth, an economist at the supply-side think tank the Club for Growth, told me recently that he honestly believes Democrats like capitalism, but they think of it as imperfect. “[To them,] capitalism is something that needs micromanaging in order to create the perfect society where no one is poor and everyone gets affordable healthcare,” he said. “Little do they realize their ideas to achieve that unattainable utopia are based on Marxism.”

Andy puts forth a strong and logical case, and I largely agree. After all, between the two of us, he’s the one with the economics degree. But I’m just not sure we should so casually accept the argument that Democrats don’t “realize” their ideology practically mirrors Marxist-Leninist theory.

According to Karl Marx, socialism is the material base for communism, which is characterized by collective ownership of property and the organization of labor for the common good of the people.

Now consider a recent speech by Hillary Clinton at a fundraiser in San Francisco, where she advocated the confiscation and redistribution of income by stating, "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." If listening to a senator tell you that she’s more entitled to your own money than you are doesn’t give you the heebie-jeebies, you’re most likely a Hillary-loving socialist yourself, or extremely gullible.

But that’s not the point right now. Neither is the intent of this column necessarily to discuss to what extent Democrats take advantage of the black vote. Rather, the purpose is to explain how the Democrats’ overall reliance on socialist economic principles compromises their ability to substantively attack and defeat George W. Bush this election year.

The standard Democratic complaint is that President Bush has driven the country to the extreme rightward boundary of the political spectrum, as Lanny Davis lamented on Hannity and Colmes at the outset of the Democratic National Convention.

This assertion is laughable, inasmuch as most conservatives would die for Bush to start acting like part of the team. Apparently, Mr. Davis believes that banning racial profiling of potential terrorists, refusing to prosecute illegal immigrants, and increasing federal spending on education, agricultural subsidies, and health programs even outside of Medicare and Medicaid are typical traits of your run-of-the-mill right-winger.

Hell, if it weren’t for Bush’s insistence upon identifying true terrorist threats, waging war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and cutting taxes, I might actually be tempted to write my own name along the margin of my ballot come November. Besides, if I put a little “D” next to my name, I’m sure someone at the poll would try to count it.

In actuality, that Democrats believe Bush’s policy is so far to the right might be the best overall indicator of how far to the left the Democratic Party has flown. Indeed, Democrats are so dedicated to socialist policy that they reduce themselves to calling President Bush a liar and baby-killer monotonously, instead of logically fashioning a platform that could actually win them millions of votes.

Democrats would be most successful by simply attacking Bush the spendthrift. Mimicking the conservative impression they gave voters last week during the convention, Democrats should campaign for decreasing agricultural subsidies (which mainly benefit already-wealthy farmers, anyhow), relaxing trade barriers, championing free international trade, and reforming the prescription drug entitlement Bush encouraged and Congress recently passed. Doing so would probably attract every “moderate” in the country, not to mention 25 percent of Republicans.

But, alas, doing so would require that Democrats first concede that overspending -- and not those dastardly tax cuts! -- is truly responsible for those burdensome deficits they love to scream about. After all, Democrats can least afford to go on record advocating fiscal responsibility by cutting spending -- this in itself would be the Achilles Heel of their socialist ambitions.

And so we come right back to Bush the Fascist, Bush the Liar, and Bush the Baby-Killer (no irony there, apparently). All because these Friends of Bill would rather be Friends of Karl.

In My Opinion Archives
Trevor Bothwell is editor of The Right Report, and he is also press secretary for Brad Jewitt’s (R-Md.) 2004 campaign for U.S. Congress. Trevor can be contacted at bothwell@therightreport.com.

[rraley]

Originally posted by Admin
And so we come right back to Bush the Fascist, Bush the Liar, and Bush the Baby-Killer (no irony there, apparently). All because these Friends of Bill would rather be Friends of Karl.

So we have Bush/GOP the fascists and Kerry/Dems the Socialists....I think it is time that we stop throwing labels at each other and instead sit at the table and seriously talk about the issues and debate the merits of each others' opinions.

I really have to say that this post missues a really glaring truth. First, that Democrats have an excellent understanding of capitalism, and second, that Democrats only invoke the evils of capitalism when it comes time to dupe the poor masses.

When was the last time that you saw a poor Democrat politician? Most all of the Dems at the national level are millionaires or higher. They are lawyers, actors, business magnates, rich widows, etc. Do you honestly think that they don't understand the finery of capitalism? Do you think that Terry McAuliffe and Hillary Clinton made millions on investments through luck? That Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson don't check their stock portfolios every day? How many of these people have you ever heard of going broke? The only reason that these people preach the evils of capitalism is to score points with the poor morons who support them.

I am reminded of a story that the foreman of the Ford Mustang assembly line once told me. He said that his office was accessed by coming down an open catwalk that could be seen by the entire assembly force. When the leader of the union would come to his office, he would be cursing loudly the whole way down the catwalk. He would be calling the foreman names, threatening Ford management, and putting on the best show for his folks on the floor. He would be yelling about how we was going to kick the foreman's ass and how he would be damned before he would let management do anything to hurt "my men!" Then, once he got into the office, he was all warm and affiable, and telling the foreman what a great job he was doing and thank him for his efforts. This union hack knew how to get things done, and he knew that what he preached coming down the walkway was all BS. But those workers would all stand there and think that someone was watching out for them.

It's the same deal with the Democrats and the poor. They assail the evils of capitalism to make the poor folks think they're being looked out for, while at the same time they are manipulating capitalism for every dime they can get into their pockets. What's really sad is that all of these Democrat voters fail to notice that despite all of the "efforts" to save their schools, their schools are still failing. Despite all of the "efforts" to give them better housing, they're still living poorly. Despite all of the efforts to give them free healthcare, their healthcare sucks. And yet they still blindly pay allegience to those who are misleading them... now that's sad.