How many times will he need to say “redistribute wealth” and “Marxist” before we actually realize the truth behind the myth he has created around himself?

In talking to friends and family members, I’ve been shocked to hear that question from educated, well-intentioned, kind people. They honestly don’t know what’s so bad about socialism. Let me just say, that floors me. It honestly floors me. Whenever those five words escape their lips, I’m literally so shocked it takes me a minute to pick my jaw back up off the floor, crank my brain back up, and start explaining why it’s just so terrible. But there’s just so much to convey, just so much evidence against it, that it’s almost like you don’t know where to start. I want to just scream, don’t you even look at history?! Don’t you see the hundreds of thousands of Americans who came before you who gave their lives to stop the spread of socialism and communism, because they knew that it had never worked? Don’t you see that of all the displaced peoples in this world, the vast majority of them are running away from socialism, not running toward it? Don’t you see that throughout history, every single time socialism has ever been implemented, it turns into absolute tyranny? What makes us so arrogant, so pompous, so self-righteous, that we think we can contradict all of history that has come before us? Isn’t that old saying always ‘pride cometh before the fall’? That’s never more true than when a nation begins to accept socialism despite all the evidence to the contrary that history has laid before us. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it; accepting socialism is nothing short of pride convincing us to ignore the lessons of history.
But that said, John McCain gave an interview today where he explained it in his own words. I thought I’d share them with you, as evidence that at least someone out there in Washington understands this. Again, I’m not pro-McCain, I don’t agree with him on a lot of things. But on this, I agree with him 100%.

HOST: Senator McCain, I hear people actually write me, say to me — I have a sister who said to me, “You know what, what’s the big deal with socialism. So what. He’s socialist. Why is that bad.” Could you please explain why socialism is bad?

SENATOR McCAIN: It doesn’t work, number one. It’s been tried many times. Second of all, redistributing the wealth creates disincentives to entrepreneurship, capitalism, small business, free enterprise. If people know that their hard earned — the fruits of their hard earned labor are going to be taken from them and given to others, then they are obviously going to have disincentives to work. The fundamentals of the free enterprise system is that less government is the best government. Now, there are times for government, in emergencies, in wars and, you know, many other areas where we can interpret it, but the fact is that government should let free enterprise, small business and capitalism function and, of course, it has to be — has to have regulation. Of course there has to be transparency. Of course Teddy Roosevelt was right where he said unbridled capitalism leads to corruption. But let’s not take people’s hard earned money that they worked to save and pass on to their children or build their businesses, let’s not take it away from them and give it to others. That’s — socialism is antithetical to progress and job creation and wealth, progress for all of society.
Full interview

Please, any of you out there who think that maybe socialism just might work, get your head out of your textbooks and look at the real world. Look at the unfettered harsh reality of history, look at the people socialism has so mercilessly harmed. Look at the good that the United States has done for this world in protecting those who have been victimized by socialism and communism. Look at the lives it has ended, the dignity it has destroyed, the villains it has produced. Then ask yourself, do you really trust anyone enough to give them that degree of power over you? Should anyone be subjugated in such a fashion? Is anyone in this imperfect world righteous enough for such power as is granted under the socialist system?
Are you really that pleased with the behavior and responsibility of your government that you would ever wish to give it any additional power over you, your life, and your family?

This nation was founded as a beacon of hope for the rest of the world, a beacon of freedom, equality, and liberty. We hear those words so often that it is so easy to forget what they really mean. It’s not freedom from offense or freedom from responsibility! It’s freedom to make your own choices about your own life and the life of your family. It’s the equality for all to seek after life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yes, we haven’t always been perfect at the whole equality thing, but we’re improving, we’re striving, we have good intentions! Don’t sacrifice those for tyranny.
But most importantly of all, we have the liberty to guide our own lives. We have the liberty to succeed by our own hard work and determination. But just as importantly, we have the liberty to fail, for without failure there will never be success. We have the freedom and the liberty to fail so spectacularly that we then pick ourselves up, dust off our hands and knees, and get back up again to try for the real American dream. The American dream does not guarantee success for all, it only guarantees the opportunity to strive for it. Not all of us are going to make it, but isn’t it a beautiful feeling to know that all of us could if we wanted to? It is up to us, the people, as individuals, to determine who makes it. It’s up to our own hard work, grit, and determination! Not the government, not our representatives. Whenever they stand in our way, they are at fault, not us. They must be chastised, not us. We’re not the problem, they are. So why would we give them any more power to restrict our liberties, our equality, or our freedoms?

Yes, socialism may offer some aspects of equality, but again, get your head out of a textbook and look at the reality of history! The only equality it offers is to equally wallow in misery. According to socialism, we will only be truly equal when we are all equally poor, downtrodden, miserable, and at the hand of a merciless tyrant. That is not freedom, that is not liberty, and we must not accept it in this country. We are one of the last hold outs of true freedom on earth. So many nations across this planet have accepted just a pinch of socialism here, a pinch of socialism there, until they are so swallowed up in it they have nowhere else to go. We have the opportunity right here, right now, to say no more. We have been walking down that path long enough, but so very soon we may get to the point where we no longer have a choice. We may get to the point where there are no more forks in the road, but rather we’re stuck on a one-way thoroughfare to socialism. Please, don’t get to that point, don’t let our nation go so far down that road that we can’t turn back. We need to scale back our government now more than ever, because it’s their fault that so many people are out of their homes, it’s their fault that our economy is in such turmoil, it’s their fault that our stock market is in shambles. It’s their fault, not ours.
So please, do not give them any more power over you. Do not invite that into your home, your country. Do not give up your opportunity to fail, because if you do, you will no longer have an opportunity to succeed.

First and foremost, he is not a law professor, nor has he ever been. There is a huge difference between a senior lecturer who is on leave and a law professor. I know law professors. In fact, a law professor from an ivy league university just released a textbook in which an entire chapter is dedicated to something that I did as a teenager. I know these guys, I know the differences, yet Obama does not? That’s scary.

But that’s not as scary as what the man is actually saying. There you go, folks! What he told Joe the Plumber was not a slip of the tongue, it was the truth seeping out from behind the facade. Here he says it again, he explains it in great detail. Not only that, but he then goes on to discuss the best ways in which to implement his redistribution of wealth. Note, he was not discussing whether or not it was a good idea, he wasn’t having a theoretical discussion about the pros and cons. No, he was just flat out telling you how he would accomplish this redistribution of wealth. Period.

What I think is perhaps the worst part is that Obama is a lawyer specializing in constitutional law. Clearly the man must have read the constitution at some point. But if you listen to this, it sounds like he’s never read it at all! Or at the very least, he doesn’t understand it. “Negative liberties”? What?! The only group it’s negative toward is the federal government.
Why? Because you remember that opening bit? “We the people”? The constitution wasn’t written on behalf of the federal government, it was written by the people! It was written to keep the federal government in check, it was written to keep the federal government under the control of the people!! Yet he thinks that’s a limitation inflicted upon us by the founding fathers that he thinks should be reversed by the courts? Hell no!

As for his statement that the Constitution doesn’t lay out enough about what the federal government is going to do for you, again, has he read it? I can’t even fathom his statement about the Constitution not laying out enough about “community organizing” and “ground level” work. Does he not understand the difference between the federal level of our government versus state and local level government?! Does he not get it?!
Or, perhaps, would he prefer that all state and local governments were kicked out the door in favor of a larger federal government? I mean, hell, if we’re talking about completely getting rid of the “limitations of our founding fathers”, is it really that big of a leap to say bye-bye to all of our local government? Because sure, we sure have seen how fantastic the federal government is at addressing local issues!

Man… I’m just astonished. This is like a child’s understanding of how our government works. No, sorry, that’s an insult to children. I’ve known children who have a better grasp of it than this! This is absurd.

All I can say is, people, please wake up! Please! This is our very foundation, our very way of life, that we’re talking about here! This goes beyond possible slips of the tongue. We have a long-standing pattern of rhetoric, behavior, and ideology from which to judge. So please, take advantage of these examples and come to grips with who this man really and what his intentions really are for our government. To me, it’s scary as hell, and there’s no way I would ever support this man.

As someone who has actually spent a good amount of time in a liberal, socialist-inclined country, I’ve often thought how most American liberals would feel after experiencing things like socialized health-care, government-controlled media, and so on. Every time yet another actor says, “If the Democrat doesn’t win the white house, I’m moving to Canada!” I can’t help but think, “Okay, have fun!” If people really, really want to live in a socialist country that badly, there are plenty of them out there to choose from. Please, go there, see how you like it, see how long it’ll be before you’re dying to come back here after paying such high taxes, not getting seen by doctors, not being able to afford the cost of living, et cetera. There’s just no excuse, our world is so easy to get around in, it’s so easy to communicate over long distances in an instant, so why not? Why not go experience that and leave America as one of the last bastions on earth that’s free from socialism!
Well, apparently I’m not alone in that, because I just found this, and I laughed. Oh boy did I laugh! Check it out.

Now, I love Canada and all; mounties are awesome, hockey’s great, I love how polite they are, Cirque du Soleil is brilliant, I love the cold weather, and I’ve even heard that poutine is at least tolerable! I adore Canada and Canadians, but I can’t say I agree with their approach to government. But that’s peachy for them! I’m not Canadian, I wouldn’t dare to tell another country how they should run their government or how their citizens should elect their representatives! (*eye roll* I’m looking at you, rest of the world, with so many of you butting into our elections and telling us how we should run our country! I don’t do that to you, please don’t do it to me!)
But seriously, I just don’t get how people here could fight so hard for socialistic principles without really finding out what it’s really honestly like to live in a socialist country. You wouldn’t say pizza’s your favorite food without tasting it first, would you? Go on, experience it! Pay the crazy high taxes, go into the debt, deal with the unemployment, deal with the inflation, deal with the extensive government control of *everything*, try to get health-care when you really need it most (i.e. like me, when your life depends on it), and try to even make small choices outside the government-mandated social norms. Go see how much fun that is, then come back and see if you still want to fight for those same controls here.
Or hell, can’t we just at least keep one country on Earth for those of us who don’t want socialized everything? Please? You can have yours, the rest of us can have ours, and we can all share like nice grown ups, right?

Of course, it still baffles me how the majority of liberals I know have so little faith in government, absolutely distrust the system, some of them even downright cling to crazy conspiracy theories about government mind control. And yet these people want to hand the government even more control than it already has? Well knock me over with a feather, cause that just makes no sense to me whatsoever.

So anyway, the next time someone stamps their foot like a two-year-old and says, “That’s it, if I don’t get my way, I’m moving to Canada!”, I’ll be the first to hand them the application form. If you’re that unhappy, go try it out for a while and then tell me how you feel about it, k?

Joe is my new hero!

Earlier this morning (or I guess yesterday morning, since it’s past midnight now), Joe the Plumber – aka Joe Wurzelbacher – appeared on Good Morning America, where he was interviewed by Diane Sawyer. And holy crap, can you believe it? Someone actually had the nerve to say something smart, intelligent, and reasonable on national television! On a channel that’s infamous part of the dreaded mainstream media, no less!
Oh Joe the Plumber, why can’t you run for president?
You have to see this video, it’s just too good! Not because Diane Sawyer did any kind of brilliant interview (in fact, I think she comes off as rather condescending, honestly), but simply because Joe the Plumber freaking rocks. Check it out!

Isn’t he just awesome? Don’t you wanna just rub that bright shiny head of his so that some of his calm, reasonable, logical mojo will rub off on you or something? I sure do!
Dear ole’ Joe said practically everything I’ve been thinking and trying to write about since starting this blog. He acknowledges that taxing those who are “wealthy” more exorbitantly than others is not only unfair, but completely contrary to the American Dream. People in this country should be encouraged to succeed! Taxing them unfairly once they reach that hard-earned success isn’t encouragement, it’s punishment. Who in their right mind would want to punish success?! Educate yourself, work hard, be frugal, be successful! I’ll be cheering for you all the way, because there’s room enough in this country for everybody to succeed if we’d all truly put our minds to it.
And Joe’s absolutely right, it is indeed a slippery slope each time some new politician takes it upon themselves to repeatedly lower that threshold of what qualifies as “rich enough” to pay unfair taxes. It’s class warfare at its absolute worst! Taxing people unfairly based on their level of success doesn’t make life any better for the middle class, because it will only keep people stuck in their own tax brackets, making it harder and harder for people to climb that ladder of success and secure their own futures based on their own ability and desire to succeed. We all know what it’s like to complain about how our taxes go up whenever we reach a new tax bracket, so why would we support somebody who would make that even worse? It just makes no sense to me.

But that isn’t even the best thing that Joe had to say. No, as great as that was, Joe went on to say something even better. For once, somebody finally had the nerve to stand up to the mainstream media – on their own turf, no less! – and remind America that we have the priceless right & privilege of voting. Those votes are important, so important that we should cast them based on our own research, our own decisions, and not on the opinions that others may attempt to force upon us (yes, I’m looking at you, msm!) Of course, listen to the opinions of others, engage in an open exchange of ideas. But don’t just adopt opinions willy-nilly because you think they sound okay, or because they sound warm and fuzzy! Dig for the truth, look at the facts, listen to both sides; be an adult, make your own educated decision, and vote accordingly.

Joe, for that, I love you. You’re my new hero. America needed to hear that so, so badly. And I love – LOVE – that it took an average American guy from a small town to finally work up the guts to say it. Small towns simply don’t get the credit they deserve anymore, Joe, in this world that favors elitism over substance, panache over the honest truth. God bless you, Joe! God bless you for standing up for everything that so many of us silenced Americans believe in – being reasonable, honest, direct, classy, and educated.
Joe, I know that it took guts to stand up to Diane Sawyer the way you did. It took such nerve to stand up to the entire overbearing, condescending nature of the mainsteam media. And on top of all that, on top of delivering that all-important message, you managed to do it with true class and dignity. Thank you. You have millions of fans right now and you deserve it.

As for everybody else, I really, really, really hope that Joe’s message will ring true with more people. I sincerely hope that more people will honestly look into the policies and backgrounds of both candidates in a fair, open, and reasonable manner. I hope they’ll choose to base their votes on research rather than an ad, substance over a hunch; truth over manipulation. No matter which way you decide to vote, that’s fine by me, so long as you do your absolute best to learn everything you can about the candidates, both who they are and where they want to take this country. Because that matters so much more than anything else right now. We’re facing tough times ahead, we need to elect a President because we believe in him, not because he had clever advertising, cute campaign slogans, or warm and fuzzy rhetoric. Don’t sell yourself, your country, or the power of your vote short. Live up to the great privilege and honor that it is to have a say in the leadership of your country.
A vote is a truly, truly previous thing. Please, don’t waste it, don’t ever take it for granted. Use your power wisely, judiciously, and responsibly: cast an educated vote!

I’m really, really, really sorry that this video is from Fox News, but I haven’t been able to find the source video anywhere else and I really think you need to see it. It doesn’t have any talking heads speaking over it, no anchor offers his editorial opinion after it, it’s just Barack Obama’s own words. I’ve seen the longer version, this doesn’t do anything to take his words out of context; the split you’ll see it merely cutting out some pauses and a few “ums” and “ers”. Since the longer version did have talking heads over it, I’ve chosen to show this shortened version instead.
Anyway, watch and listen as Barack Obama personally answers a direct question from a plumber who owns his own small business:

Plumber: Your new tax plan’s gonna to tax me more, isn’t it?

Obama: It’s not that I want to punish your success, I just wanna make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they have a chance at success too… I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.

“Spread the wealth around.” Read that again. Go ahead. Watch it again. Listen to what he’s saying. Listen to it.
Now tell me that’s not Socialism.

We’ve heard such statements before from Michelle Obama, we’ve heard it from people on the periphery of the campaign, we’ve even heard allusions to it from Obama. But this is the first time that I’m aware of where those words, such specific words, have come straight from the mouth of Obama while on the campaign trail. How much more obvious does it need to get before people realize that Obama is a flat out socialist?

Read more after the jump. I do hope you’ll continue reading, as this is one of the most important posts I’ve ever written. I’d greatly appreciate your kind attention.