Watching last week’s so-called debate among the five Democratic candidates for their party’s presidential nod, the first thing that struck me was the tenor of the questions put forward by the moderator. Since it was on CNN, it was no surprise that most of the interrogation was about social issues. Free college education, stricter gun control laws and further redistribution of wealth were the main topics. By contrast, during the previous Republican candidates’ debate on CNN, the moderator sought to bait one candidate against the other with very little time given to questions of substance. It is also interesting to note that the viewing audience for the Republican debate drew almost twice the number of viewers as did the Democratic yawner.
Pundits on both sides of the political aisle concurred that front-runner Hillary Clinton won the debate. Coming in a close second was flamboyant Bernie Sanders, who is actually listed as an Independent, but has turn-coated to becoming a Democrat in the current contest. Everyone agrees that the self-proclaimed Socialist Sanders has pulled the entire field to the left. Consequently, all of the people on stage except for Jim Webb doubled down on the very liberal policies of President Obama. They vowed almost in unison to continue Obama’s war on guns and police and give the “black lives matter” movement a vote of confidence. They also proposed unlimited free stuff that would be paid for by a further raising of taxes on the wealthy. To the last point, Sanders has suggested raising taxes to 90 percent on the top earners.
The overriding theme of the evening called for an abolishment of capitalism. This means that the coming general election will be a simple choice of whether we retain the system that has made us the greatest nation in the world or that we choose to follow the practices that have made Venezuela, Greece and many other countries shining examples of the success of radical Socialism.
Just to make the difference of the choices a little more specific, I refer you to my old friend Webster, who defines them very clearly. He says that capitalism is “a form of economic, industrial and social organization of society involving ownership, control and direction of production by privately owned business organizations.”As to Socialism, his definition is an “economic and political system, aiming at public or government ownership of means of production, etc.”
In essence, you would be free to run your business or the government would run it for you.
Under the Obama administration, the path to Socialism has begun with the implementation of onerous regulations from almost every bloated department in Washington.
Other eruptions that occurred last week included the news that in addition to Russian and Iranian participation in Syria, troops from Cuba have now been inserted into the field of battle. This means that the countries that Obama has bent over backwards to mollify are now aligned against the very forces in Syria that he has promised to support.
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