WAS KRUSCHEV RIGHT?
There are two Americas.
One puts in, the other takes out.
According to the Census Bureau, 49.1 percent of all American households contain one or more members receiving some sort of government social-services program.
They used to call that the dole.
Now they call it welfare.
Half of Americans call it their right.
The other half call it their burden.
Federal statistics show that 49.1 percent get a check, and 47 percent pay no income tax. The burden of supporting government – and a dependent half of the population – falls to 50 percent of Americans. In the land of equality, life is decidedly unequal. And the so-called disadvantaged seem to be at a substantial advantage.
America is comprised of the earners and the takers.
And the dividing line, right down the middle, is the defining reality of American politics. It’s not about philosophies, it’s about money.
One party stands for the half of the population that earns money. The other party stands for the half of the population that gets money from the government.
It’s that simple.
In overwhelming proportion, those who are recipients and beneficiaries of government social services favor the Democratic Party. The reason is obvious. That party represents them and their interests. It is the party of “We’ll Give You More,” and it makes good on that promise with staggering reliability.
It is the party of greed, covetousness and envy. It preaches an entitlement steeped not in gratitude, but resentment. The Democratic Party promises checks not in the name of compassionate neighbors, but in the name of classist attack. It teaches recipients to believe that they are “owed,” with the unavoidable consequence that each new benefit is only fuel for the fire demanding the next.
The Democrats are the party of the welfare class.
The Republicans are the party of the productive class.
Sadly, the Republicans are not as faithful to the interests of their natural constituents as are the Democrats – plenty of Republican politicians are seduced by the ease of buying votes with government checks.
But, basically, that’s how it goes.
If you put in, you’re a Republican.
If you take out, you’re a Democrat.
And that’s the underlying reality behind public opinion polls which show the president with an unshakable base at just under half the population. There can be some drift around the middle, and that drift may end up deciding elections, but it’s pretty much just a game of halvesies.
For another six months.
Because this will be the last 50-50 election.
After this, the free-enterprise system slips into the minority. Four years from now, a majority of American households will be on one government dole or another, and the Democrats’ permanent majority will be established.
At that point, the electoral process will be reduced to representative kleptocracy, where the growing majority will simply vote itself a larger and larger check.
That’s why this election is important.
It’s something significantly more than a choice between two individuals. It’s only secondarily about Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It’s primarily about whether America clings to some scraps of capitalism or slips irretrievably into socialism.
Or worse.
Because it’s looking like Kruschev was right.
In 1959, he told Americans that their grandchildren would be communists. Laughed at then, he has been essentially proven right.
“You Americans are so gullible,” the Soviet premier said. “No, you won't accept Communism outright; but we'll keep feeding you small doses of Socialism until you will finally wake up and find that you already have Communism. We won't have to fight you; we'll so weaken your economy, until you fall like overripe fruit into our hands."
Can any honest observer deny that that has taken place? Can any honest observer deny that this November’s election is a fork in the road, back to the free American marketplace with its belief in the possession of property, or onward to the lowest common denominator of government-directed collectivism?
“The proletariat will be the undertakers of capitalism,” the communists say, paraphrasing Marx, and in November they may be literally proven true.
It is inconceivable that in this society half of the population is truly incompetent or handicapped. It is unbelievable that half of the world’s largest economy is populated with people who would perish without a government teat to suck. We cannot be that dysfunctional.
But we can be that lazy.
And entitled.
And deluded.
And unless this election gives capitalism – the right to live by the sweat of your own brow – another chance to prove its worth, the next cycle will find a majority of voters seduced and lost to the belief in something for nothing.
Yes, the president will attack corporations and banks and oil companies, as well as successful individuals and industries. He will sing from the songbook of communist class warfare.
And almost half the country will agree with him.
Which will leave the other half of us with not only the bills to pay, but the country to save.
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2012
