“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”–Winston Churchill

Barack Obama and the Democratically-controlled Congress have made one thing perfectly clear: ideology trumps everything–including common sense, basic free market economics, and patriotism.

That’s right. I said patriotism. Patriotism is defined as a love for one’s country. In order to love one’s country, one has to believe it is preponderantly good. Not perfect, but a place where, when you add up all the plusses and minuses, you come with a net plus. A big net plus.

It has become more than apparent that the vast majority of Congressional Democrats and the president himself believe America is an inherent minus. So much so, that “tweaking around the edges” of the most successful and prosperous nation the world has ever produced will not suffice. For these profoundly misguided Americans, 220 years of exceptionalism must be tossed aside to make way for a new era of social utopianism–which can only be achieved by massive government involvement in every important aspect of American life.

That’s not patriotism. That’s unbridled hubris and a lust for control that should infuriate every reasonable American.

Note that word “reasonable.” Never before in modern American history have we had a presidential election where reason mattered less. We had hope and change. We had a thrill running up a leg. And we had the surest sign that those who believe America is fundamentally flawed nation were confident they could sell that ideology to a majority of the electorate. To wit:

“I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal… This was the moment — this was the time — when we came together to remake this great nation…”–President Barack Obama

Only in the fevered imaginations of egomaniacal ideologues could the idea that all the goodness the world has to offer was waiting for their ascension to power.

But give them credit. They calculated their strategy well. “Hope,”"change” and “messiah” got them to election day. Now “fear,” “catastrophe,” “depression” etc., will be wielded like a billy club in order to smash any resistance to their agenda.

They even have their “Emmanuel Goldstein.” Goldstein was the enemy of the state in Orwell’s “1984,” a man whose presence on a viewscreen required “two minutes of hate.” Democrats started with George W. Bush for obvious reasons, but they’re smart enough to know that demonizing the former president for standing against their worldview has a limited shelf life.

Enter Rush Limbaugh. Both the president and Democratic members of Congress, with ample help from their media cheerleading section, have made it clear that this radio host–that’s right, a radio host–will replace the former president as the symbol of everything that is wrong with America. They are also calling him the “de facto head of the Republican party” in order to demonize them as well.

Note who else they’ve belittled whenever it suits their purposes: Wall Street, bankers, pharmaceutical companies, oil companies, coal companies, insurance companies, Americans who don’t think, as Joe Biden remarked, “paying higher taxes is patriotic”–and Americans who think there’s something wrong with paying their neighbor’s mortgage along with their own.

Are some people deserving of scorn? Certainly. But bad people don’t equal a bad system. Our system of Constitutional government combined with our brand of free market capitalism has produced unparalleled bounty and freedom for the entire world. That it can falter on occasion has far more to do with human foible than systemic failure.

Yet it is the perception of the latter which is being heavily promoted. Without the fear of systemic failure, Americans cannot be convinced that the massive transfer of wealth from the private sector to the federal government is anything more than a naked power grab. They will not be persuaded that the rewarding of sloth, irresponsibility and stupidity–in the name of “social justice,” no less–is anything more than the entitlement mentality run amok.

So, as Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel remarked, Democrats are not about to let “a serious crisis go to waste”–even if they have to sustain it longer than necessary to get what they want.

Options for those who want to stop the madness? I can think of three. One is immediate and the other two either untimely, or unlikely.

First and foremost, hammer our Congressional representatives with emails, letters and phone calls–just like we did when they tried to foist illegal immigration “reform” on us two years ago. Tell them you have no interest in mortgaging the country’s future to satisfy the ambitions of those whose core belief is the idea that Americans are “too stupid” to run their own lives without massive government interference.

Two, vote these socialist, do-gooder hacks out of office in 2010. I know, Republicans aren’t much better, but given a choice between Hitler and Mussolini, you vote for Il Duce. And two years is a long time, but it’s better than four.

Lastly, maybe it’s time Americans demanded to know–without the slightest ambiguity–whether or not the president of the United States is an American citizen. Perhaps I am succumbing to the fever known as “conspiracy theor-itis,” but I am hard-pressed to imagine how someone with America’s worst interests at heart could have an agenda substantially different from the one being proposed by our current president. I find it incredible that the same mainstream media which found a twenty-year-old drunk diving charge lodged against the former president are uninterested in whether or not a basic tenet of our Constitution is being violated.

I love this country–warts and all. Those seeking to completely remake it like to think of themselves as patriots, but their ambitions betray them. They yearn for a Euro-lite, socialist nation where entitlement, mediocrity and victimhood are embraced, and Americans are, as Churchill put it, “equally miserable.” We’re better than that.

Far better.

atahlert@comcast.net

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