Democratic Socialism

15 06 2019

220px-Brodskiy's_LeninVladimir Lenin was quietly but quick to point out that the only way to establish Socialism is at the end of a gun, via government, a seemingly antithetical method to creating the “globalist, borderless, and equitable “ society that Marxists dream of. The problem is human nature requires authoritarian government in the absence of a self-governing morality, which is usually religious in nature.

As Speaker of the House Robert Winthrop once said, “Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the Word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet.”

Daniel Webster said, “Whatever makes men good Christians also makes them good citizens.”

Do you think it’s a mere accident that Socialism is moving in to fill the void left by abandoning God and the Bible as the source of moral moorings? Ever ask yourself the question of why “the Greatest Generation” was so great?

They were mostly poor farm kids who grew up in the most economical challenged time in our history, and no, they were not all committed Christians, but they had a moral foundation that was Biblically rooted, most attended religious services at least sometimes, and had those basic civil lessons affirmed at home, school, in government, and society in general.

This “new” brand of “Democratic Socialism” is only new to those who are ignorant of history, and without coercion it will not succeed. Marx knew that, Lenin knew it, and so did Stalin, Mao, Castro, Chavez, Che, and Kim.

You want a revolution? Really?

“The end of Socialism is Communism.” – Vladimir Lenin

Question For Bernie: What Happens To Those Who Don’t Want To Join Your Commune?

Advertisement

Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : American Heritage/History, Communism/Marxism/Progressivism, Political, Religious, Uncategorized

Democratic Socialism: Recycling a Bad Idea

10 09 2018

Upton Sinclair was an American author, very popular in the early 20th Century. He was a Progressive, after the mold of many, such as Wilson, Jack Reed (assisted Lenin and the Bolsheviks-he is buried on Red Square), Margaret Sanger, etc. of that era, and founded the California chapter of the ACLU.

His unsuccessful political career included a run for Congress on the Socialist Party ticket, and also for the Governors office on the Democratic ticket, where his greatest success was with his “End Poverty in California” (EPIC) campaign, although not great enough to win him the mansion. On reflection of his political career, in the late 1950’s, he mused, “American’s will take Socialism, they just won’t take the name…we have to outflank them.”

It is with that as a backdrop I make the following comments, related to this meme of Bernie Sanders, self declared Democratic Socialist.Image may contain: one or more people and text

I submit to you that the Progressive and “Social Justice Warrior” rhetoric against “old, white, misogynistic, chauvanistic and racist men” has more to do with marginalizing opposition and advancing the Democratic Socialist ideology than any of the aforementioned disparaging accusations.

You don’t get any older, or whiter, or manly (ok, maybe more manly) than Bernie. But hey, I give Bernie kudos for having the cajones to wear the brand!

In 2016 (according to that right wing rag, the Washington Post), twice as many voters under 30 yrs. old voted for the Democratic Socialist than for Clinton or Trump combined! (Clinton-766k, Trump-828K, Sanders-2M+)

If that’s not concerning enough, think of it this way: The Democratic Socialist candidate got 63% of that voting block compared to Hillary’s 37%. Worried yet? Wait there’s more!

Vladimir Lenin was vaulted to power by the Bolsheviks in 1917 Russia. Lenin called himself a Democratic Socialist, and their party was the “Socialist Democratic Labor Party”.

Now the situation in Russia was a bit more drastic in early 20th Century than here, now, but the language/rhetoric being used is exactly the same. Lenin capitalized on what he labeled as “Polyezni”, or “useful idiots”, to gain power, and then to carry out the next step, which was to basically marginalize, then eliminate his opposition. (I’ll not get into the gory details; you can look up “Red Terror policy”.)

Lenin said, “Communism is the end of Socialism”, or perhaps more generally translated, “The goal of Socialism is Communism”. The declared enemy of the Socialist Democrats is the “Bourgeoisie”, the Middle Class, those Capitalist business owners who own the greater percentage of wealth, both then and now.

It looks like an ever increasing portion of American voters are now willing to own the brand of “Socialist”, and judging by many of the candidates being nominated for the upcoming mid-term elections, it seems the old guard Democrats, those old Truman and Kennedy supporters, are losing ground within the party. In fact, based on this trend and some of the new Socialist nominees commentary, Truman and Kennedy would not be welcome in today’s Democrat Party. (Heck, they’d actually be in the right half of the Republican Party today!)

I leave you with this famous quote from the greatest British Premier of my lifetime, Lady Thatcher:

“Socialism works great, until you run out of other people’s money.”


Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : American Heritage/History, Campus Protests/Black Lives Matter, Communism/Marxism/Progressivism, Political, Uncategorized

Recall Babylon

14 01 2017
A Great Catastrophe
Mrs. Obama said she had “no hope” now that Trump was elected. Millions of snowflakes are bereft that Hillary did not win the election. Many people are so lost in their grief they’ve had to get therapy, join “safe rooms” and drink hot chocolate while petting puppies to give them solace at the loss of the election. Many more are so angry they’re going to actively join in attempts to sabotage the new President, and a lot of these people represent around 90% of the media, many are in elected positions, many more are un-elected bureaucrats, and some are going to be causing havoc in the streets. Many on social media are lamenting they “no longer have a leader”, refuse to accept the new President as legitimate (failing to understand the electoral system which balances elective power), or simply refuse to accept him as President b/c Hillary lost.
 
I’ve seen talk of impeachment, even before Trump has been inaugurated. Good luck with that. But I would be perfectly happy with a true conservative, Mike Pence in the Oval Office anyway. You won’t like him.turris_babel_by_athanasius_kircher
 
For those who are so lost and anxious without a “leader/provider”, if the person in the Oval Office is where you find your confidence, your strength, your security and self worth or identity, you have appropriated your faith hope in a power/figure who can do nothing to make you a better person, improve your standing in your community or provide real sustenance for your children or make them better people when they grow up. The only person who can do that is you.
 
Maybe it’s time everyone started a little self reliance program and quit waiting for government to “fix it”.
 
When you place all your hopes and securities in one man, I don’t care who he is, you are following the crowds who empowered every dictator in history.  If your happiness, your self esteem, your security in life, is dependent on that special someone in the White House, you are pathetic.
 
Time to get on with life. Definitely do not turn a blind eye to government, but face the facts, just like I and millions of fellow conservatives faced the fact that Obama won, not once, but twice. Confession: I flew my flag at half mast after Obama won the second time for 3 days. During that time I still went to work, did my job, and loved my family and friends.  No, I didn’t curl up in a ball and cry, or start planning a rebellion, join a riot, organize a protest at the inauguration, threaten to move to Canada, or tell the world how ashamed I was that America had elected a Marxist.
Even after 4 years of proving that he was facilitating Muslim Brotherhood advancement in our own government, and abroad, had ceased indictments of co-conspirators in the largest Islamic terrorism trial in American history, and castrated our Counter Terrorism operations, I still wasn’t “hopeless”, as Mrs. Obama described herself to Oprah Winfrey.
 
My Hope is placed in the Christ. Not a man, not a political system. Not even in the American People. No greater mistake can be made than to place our great hope and trust in any single man/woman, all of whom are corrupt, sinful and whose “heart is deceitful and desperately wicked’. I actually heard Mr. Obama referred to during his campaign as “savior”, the great “Hope” (his own campaign poster), and supporters of his celebrating that the gas tank would be full, won’t have to worry about paying their bills, because Obama would take care of them.
 
Reality Check
We are witnessing the disintegration of America as we have known it. We’ve been divided and subdivided for ease of conquest. We are disunited, angry, and polarized like no time since prior to the Civil War. I believe it is the natural progression of any society who rejects truth, visa vi, Biblical Christianity. We are less educated than indoctrinated, less informed than misinformed, and less circumspect than disrespectful, except of those we find who agree with us.
 
We have been “Community Organized”. Read Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” to understand what that means. To quote Alinsky, the “community organizer is an agitator”, who takes advantage of divisions and differences among people to completely separate them from traditional views, beliefs, or practices which unify society in general, in order to remake that society. It’s Karl Marx with a hint of Vlad Lenin.
 
How has this happened? While visiting my daughter and her husband who now live in the Dallas Metro area, I made an observation, the truth of which I knew cerebrally, but now realized tangibly. Urbanization.
 
I grew up in a tiny rural Kansas town some cultures would call a village, of 161 people. That’s inside the city limits in 1976. (The surrounding farmers and ranchers also take part in the community) I knew the population count because my grandmother and I took the census from her dining table. We knew everyone who lived there. Yes, everyone knew your business, but everyone also knew when you needed help. It is still that way; a very strong community who takes care of its elders, celebrates their neighbors joys in life and mourns their sorrows, work together and for each other, and exercises individual liberties to the extent the law will allow, yet knows the true sense of “Community” where all hold dear that sense of responsibility for the common good, but the importance of individualism. It’s not heaven, but it’s closer than Dallas.
 
I think Fort Worth/Dallas is not unlike most other metropolitan areas, maybe just a little more modern than some I’ve been to, at least in the context I am considering. A combined population of over 2 million people who have no real sense of community. People who live in the city have fewer real friends, are active in far less community events, organizations, services or activities. They volunteer less, don’t know their neighbors, and thus are much less likely to participate in their own community. They have little interest in its success and are focused mostly on their own lives and businesses. There is little perceived responsibility to ones neighbor, block, subdivision or suburb/city. I don’t know if it’s always been this way, but I suspect so. (In my opinion this is why church is important as a focal point of “community”. My little hometown has two.)
 
Humans possess an innate desire to be part of something bigger than themselves. God placed this intrinsic need within us for our own survival, and more importantly to draw us to Him. Like all God given human desires, when perverted they become destructive, both physically and spiritually.
 
Where there is little or no sense of community, i.e. big cities, there is still that need to belong. You don’t see gangs roaming the streets of Podunk, USA. You don’t find Union halls in Smallville. Per capita fewer will belong to Kiwanis or Lions in Omaha than in North Platte.  
That’s why racially driven revolutionary organizations do better in Houston than in Lubbock. “Community”, like many terms in our American lexicon, has been redefined to represent those who look like you, or hold the same ideology. The classic sense of community, although still thriving in those rural settings, has for the most part gone by the wayside.
 
Chicago,the stomping grounds of Mr. Alinsky, as every other major urban center, demands more and larger government providing more and more services, and when those are provided the populous demands more, or requires more. Chicago has not had a Republican Mayor since 1869. In fact, fewer than 25% of America’s largest 100 cities have Republican Mayors, and in the top 10 only 1, San Diego. The truth of statements made by our Founders and Statesmen centuries ago are being proved out today:
As Speaker of the House Robert Winthrop (1847) said, “All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they may have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the Word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet.”
 
This, I think, is the crux of the issue. We have thrown off our Judeo-Christian moorings, both individually and socially. It is a vicious cycle. I don’t have the answers, I am just making observations. Perhaps this is the natural evolution of society; a reflection of the spiritual condition of mankind which, when concentrated, reveals the true level of depravity.
Recall Babylon. Perhaps we should be prepared to be scattered.

Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : American Heritage/History, Campus Protests/Black Lives Matter, Homeland Security, Muslim Brotherhood, Political, Religious, Uncategorized

Turkish Connection I

24 04 2010

Note: This will be too lengthy a study to develop in one post, so I will break it up a bit into more digestible portions. This is the first in a three part series entitled “Turkish Connection”. When finished with this post be sure to read II and III.

Will Turkey Replace Israel as America’s Chief Ally in the Middle East?

The evidence confirming that possibility is becoming too great to ignore and I intend to expound upon it from a couple of different approaches.

After several months of hinting to Israel that the newest American administration may not be so supportive of the Jewish State, recent weeks have clarified that point with stark contrast to previous administrations going all the way back to Harry Truman and the declaration of Israel’s independence in 1948.

President Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with Joe Biden, James Baker and others in the Cabinet, have made it clear that Israel can no longer depend on the backing of the US Government.

The Left in the United States has long been known for its anti-Israel sentiment, even to the point of parroting “Palestinian” propaganda demonizing the Israeli response to repeated terrorist attacks upon civilians in schools, café’s , buses, and nightclubs not to mention random “potshots” by Palestinian rockets numbering in the thousands before Israel finally responded. The standard sentiment in the media is ‘Jews are fair game but Israel is not allowed to respond’.  The Jewish State of Israel has become the “redheaded stepchild” of the West, and world leaders are loathe to utter a sincere sympathetic statement or any such moral support on her behalf.

The “Palestinian problem” is now Israel’s to solve unilaterally.  The problem is not Israel’s handling of the situation. Nothing she does will be acceptable. The problem is this.  Israel exists.

This sentiment is exhibited by most of Europe, South America, Africa, and all of Islam. Never mind the historical fact that the “Palestinians” were mostly Jordanian or Egyptian citizens prior to the invasion of Israel by five surrounding Arab states the day after she proclaimed independence. The UN Partition Plan would have forged two states; one Jewish, the other Arab. The Jews agreed. The Arabs did not and vowed to “drive the Jews into the Sea.” The only real change is where the lines are, and that only the result of Israel’s own security provisions.

That Partition Plan of 1947 was the result of much discussion, planning and compromise which characterized the expiration of the British Mandate issued by The League of Nations back in 1922 after the breakup of the 600 year old Ottoman Empire at the end of World War One. The Mandate charged Britain with governance of the territories from the Mediterenean Sea to Mesopotamia which included Palestine, Transjordan, and modern Iraq. It also reinforced the Balfour Declaration of 1917 citing Palestine or a portion thereof to become recognized as a future Jewish State.  By the end of WW2 the Jews were more than glad to relocate to their ancient homeland of King David where Israel and Judah had prospered two millennia prior. The Jewish Diaspora expired.

The Ottoman Empire had been the seat of the Islamic Caliphate for 400 years. After the Ottoman’s (Sunni Muslim) conquered the Fatimid Dynasty (Shia Muslim) beginning in the 14th century and reaching its own zenith in the 16th century, Sunni Islam became the dominant school of theology, pushing Shiism into small pockets and containing it to Persia (Iran) where it continues to be dominant. The Ottoman Empire, allied with Germany, came to a close after the end of World War 1 when Great Britain was successful in driving the Turks from Palestine, Transjordan, Syria and most of the Arabian Penninsula., with the help of the Arab tribes who were loosely unified by Sir Thomas Edward Lawrence.

With the demise of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Revolution, a new Republic of Turkey was established and under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Caliphate was abolished and a new secularized government began to develop a prosperous economic and political player on the world stage.  Turkey managed to remain neutral during most of WW2, finally joining the Allies in 1945.  The new Eurasian country became a strategic ally to the United States and Europe during the Cold War and has maintained good relations with the West for the most part since its inception.

Many have extolled the success of Turkey as a model for the Islamic world to emulate, successfully balancing an Islamic culture with a modern secularized government. It has, thus far, been the most Westernized Islamic country in the region.

However, a recent movement is afoot in Turkey to Islamize the government. This is not, for the most part, a radical militant movement such as Al-Qaida or Hamas, but a more subtle movement that is better served by maintaining a peaceful appearance and a smile, extending the hand of friendship and unity while educating the opponent and his children. This movement has a leader who has opposed a secular government in Turkey since the 1960’s and was arrested by the Turkish authorities in ’71 for “clandestine religious activities” after which he was harassed occasionally. He has met with Pope John Paul II, Greek Orthodox and other Christian leaders, as well as Jewish Rabbi’s in an effort to moderate, and “build bridges” between Islam and the West.

Fethullah Gulen, a Sunni Imam, has become a major figure in the United States since his ‘migration’ here in 1998, reportedly to seek treatment for diabetes. According to Rachel Sharon-Krespin writing for Middle East Quarterly, his “absence also enabled Gülen to escape questioning on his indictment in 2000 for allegedly promoting insurrection in Turkey in a series of secretly-recorded sermons.”  It is also reported that although he has not lived in Turkey for the past 12 years, he has had tremendous influence there to the point of “Islamizing” the Turkish government, so much so that all government employees are Muslim. So much for secular government in Turkey…More on that…

(Continued on next post)


Comments : 7 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories : American Heritage/History, General, Historical Islam, Islam, Israel, Political, Turkish, Turks, Turkey


%d bloggers like this: