Sunday, September 27, 2009

The New Four Letter Word


Most of us would have thought by now that after the last 3 years of political campaigning that the fire of politics would be over or at least clamed down. But if you have been paying any attention to the media the rants and political opposition has only gotten crazier or if not worse. Personally I love it and enjoy the debates and conversations that we see taking place today. In a democracy this is always called for: a good fight between the majority and the minority. As a moderate I love to look at both sides of the extremes and try to see where they are coming from and wonder why in the world do they do some of the things that they do and why do things happen like that happen. I am an analysis of patterns and I love to observe peoples habit.

The new four letter word that we see being shouted in the political arena is the word “socialism”. The far right is calling Obama and democrats who support Universal Health Care socialist. Are they right? Is this a bad thing? Would America benefit by socialism in any way? These are three points that I am going to try and tackle in this note. I am sure some of you wont agree with me, but that’s ok you have the right to be right- LOL

Wikipedia says:
“Socialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with an egalitarian method of compensation.

Most socialists share the view that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and derives its wealth through exploitation, creates an unequal society, does not provide equal opportunities for everyone to maximize their potentialities and does not utilize technology and resources to their maximum potential nor in the interests of the public.”

Now if this is true then not only is Obama a socialist, but most people would support this theory is some way and we already do these things in America in several ways: Medicare, Medicate, Cobra, The Public School System, Veterans Hospitals, Maternity Leave, Sick Leave, Government Housing, Welfare, Government Bailouts, The War in Iraq, Having army stations in most parts of the world, and the UN.
In my personal opinion all of these programs are a form of socialism. People in power/ the government make decisions with tax payer money, which is not regulated or decided by the people, and uses it to benefit people with little income who cannot help them.

Clearly we all would agree that the government does a horrible job of running most if not all of these programs. We see our veterans sitting in hospitals that look more like Holocaust Camps, our kids are declining in their education, Government bailouts are mainly helping the rich people rather than the poor, and the welfare and social security program needs to be fixed.

My whole thing is I do agree with free public school and I wish we could get to a point when we could have free colleges and day care. I also agree with Maternity leave pay and veterans homes. I don’t think anyone would dispute that. We know that we need social programs in America to help those who can’t help themselves, but why do we want the government more involved in our lives when it comes to our physical health. This should be an issue left to the private sector and if it gets out of control in the private sector then we as Americans should have “tea parties” on private sector ran health care systems.

Like I have said before I love Barrack Obama and I even have a lot of his stuff and I have read both of his books and I am even in the process of trying to do an internship for the White House, but why don’t we start telling the truth about socialism and where him and the majority of progressives in our country stand. Why cant we say without fighting that are president is a socialist without it being a bad word. Why are we fighting over words and attitudes rather than policies? Why are we talking so much about his race and racism, (this conversation was started by both extremes: Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Rachael Maddow, Keith Obberman, Nancy Pelosi during the campaign when both sides where talking more about him being a black candidate rather than a candidate), than talking about where we disagree on policies and how we can come to some type of agreement.

Socialism as we all know can work in when run by the private sector. And what I mean by this is an example of charter schools, they are funded by the government but the responsibility is left up to the administration and parents. This is an example that works. No one minds our tax dollars going to help fund education, the problem comes in when the government tries to take over and dictate what is taught, who teaches, the requirements for school success, and tries to regulate. Give my tax dollars to the schools please and leave. I want the administration and parents working together to decide what is best for public schools.

We have to agree that our tax dollars must go to fund different things that will help the poor and needy: senior citizen homes, veterans homes, welfare: by why aren’t these funds being given to places like: churches who have food pantries, the salvation army, low income housing that is ran by the states or private owners. This is where is tax money will become most effective and we will be able to see more things done and done right. That’s why we need to continue to let health care be private. Let private companies compete across state lines- yes there needs to be rules and regulations but the government does not need to offer a socialist program when it comes to health care because again as I said before: look at our veteran homes in America; go to one and tell me what you think and then I will prove to you that if this health care bill passes that is what we will have for all people.
I have become passionate about this topic and subject clearly because I am not agenda motivated, I just don’t want anyone telling me or imposing on me their rights at the end of my life or at the end of the life for the people I love. We need to fix what we have and it needs to be better regulated, but their does not need to be completion from the government because it will kill the QUALITY of what we have now.
And when it comes to the word socialism I don’t think it’s a bad word I just want Americans to start debating it and calling it what it is. If the majority of Americans think that we should become MORE of a socialistic society that is ran by the government in more areas of our lives, then fine, but can we at least fix what the government is running now (OUR ECONOMY) and the other things that I have listed first and then talk about health care. We are putting a band aide over a deep cut if we choose to go about with socialism in health care.

So when it comes to the three points that I was trying to make in my opinion and again I am not making this to be a bad word, I am just simply saying lets debate it and have conversations on what works: yes our president, whom I love and pray for, is a socialist. No I don’t think that socialism works- government is suppose to support the private sector not run it- give my money to the places that will fix the problems but don’t regulate to them what to do. And in my personal opinion I think we need to focus more on rebuilding the middle class and the private sector than rebuilding the government. Let the private sector run things; give people like me a shot first and let’s see what happens. Give me 890 billion dollar bailout and let me take it into the private sector and see what I can make happen. I promise you that I could run health care clinics, school systems, programs for the poor- better than the government and the bureaucrats can.

I am all for making things fair and equal but only in the private sector. If we are going to continue to say that this is a democracy then we have to understand that in a democracy there are always going to be different classes of people: lower class, middle class and upper class. That’s the definition of democracy in a society. But if we don’t want that, then we have to admit that we will no longer live and support capitalism. But rather if we choose not to walk in this we will take socialism to dangerous places and the most dangerous place is dealing with the physical health of individuals. But this at the same time should not surprise people, if the government can regulate who lives and dies in the womb, then what makes you think that they won’t regulate who lives and dies in the nursing home……

That’s all I am saying: I could be wrong but I doubt it…

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