Socialism Around Us…EVERYWHERE!!!!!! (gasp!)

I’ve been thinking of writing something very similar to this for the past month or so, but ran across this piece in the Shreveport Times today. The author, Jared Clemons, says it as well as I ever could…

Socialism is bad. And as Elmer Fudd would advise, we need be “vewy vewy quiet” when speaking of something as truly heinous as socialism.

But I’ve always had a penchant for being taboo, so I will have to respectfully go against Mr. Fudd’s recommendation.

So what is socialism? According to Merriam-Webster, socialism is defined as “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.” OK — simple enough, right?

At a recent town hall meeting in Lebanon, Pa., a livid Katy Abram fulminated against health care reform, specifically the public option because it would be the “systematic dismantling of this country” and would end up “turning (the U.S.) into Russia” or some other socialist country.

I can totally understand why Ms. Abram would want to cure this country of the socialist malignance that has continually pervaded this country since the Constitution was drafted.

Here are a couple examples of socialism’s ominous influence:

Libraries: Oh my God, Becky, look at her… books? How does she have that? I’ll tell you how — because of your tax dollars. Yes, the government collects your, my, our tax dollars for the purpose of erecting a commonplace where we can share a service, essentially, for little-to-no cost.

As horrible as this sounds, this idea is still being allowed to permeate across this nation and as we speak, somebody is using my tax dollars to enjoy a service that simply perpetuates this socialistic demon. Down with the library!

Medicare: Yes, even Granny is a socialist. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administers Medicare (the nation’s largest health insurance program) to nearly 40 million Americans age 65 or older, some disabled people under age 65, and people of all ages with End-Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure treated with dialysis or a transplant).

Yes, you read correctly, 40 million elderly individuals are a part of this socialistic plague. And it’s important to note that they even realize that they’re contributing to the problem, as many of our nation’s senior citizens have vehemently expressed their opposition to allowing the government to have a more integral role in regulating health care.

“Keep your government hands off my Medicare” is the battle cry that many folks have been chanting as of recent. Well, rather than tie the government’s hands, let’s go even further and do away with the lurid idea of Medicare altogether! Yippee!
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There isn’t enough time to adequately condemn socialism’s insidious existence, but here are a few more examples of how socialism has invaded our nation: public transportation, the interstate system, social security, and sidewalks — yes, even that concrete slab in front of your beautiful capitalistic home is a facet of socialism.

As Ms. Abram stated so passionately to Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., on behalf of the other exasperated patrons in the building, “You have awakened the sleeping giant. We are tired of this.” And rightfully so.

America, it’s time to do something about Socialism.

Let’s march the streets in protest — the streets that socialism built, of course.

But for the sake of not allowing hypocrisy to dismantle this anti-socialist movement, only those who haven’t pushed along this socialistic agenda need engage in this protest.

Any able bodies? I’d think not.

Jared Clemons, of Lake Charles, is a senior at LSU majoring in political science.

Mr. Clemons well points out the idiocy of this argument against anything Obama. From health care to the Town Talks rant today against Cash for Clunkers, critics are far too quick to jump on the anti-socialism bandwagon. Of course these same critics seem just a quick to ignore the many aspects of their life that would not exist without that same socialism; they would have you believe that they themselves have never in fact benefited from socialism.

Let’s see…in Central Louisiana we have roads, hospitals (yes although private all of our local hospitals were mostly built with government funds), public schools, police, fire protection, water service, the postal service, the military, ball parks, golf courses, neighborhood parks, drainage, Kisatchie (almost entirely built by those evil socialist nightmares the WPA and CCC), dams & flood control, airports, public universities.

That last one is an interesting one because so many of the voices of the anti-everything-Obama movement are coming from university professors. That’s interesting because every university in Louisiana was built and is funded at least in part by the US government. Centenary’s campus in Shreveport was built by the WPA. LC gets funding from all sorts of government agencies and is actively seeking more funding for a medical school. Even my own Tulane which prides itself in being the only major private university to be fully non-sectarian was originally built by the state legislature as the University of Louisiana. It gets hundreds of millions of dollars a year from state and federal coffers. And of course, every public university in the state is pure socialism and every instructor and professor at those universities are government employees. So when a professor from LSU speaks out against socialism, I find it strange that he would want to dismantle the system that provides his paycheck, insurance, and retirement each month.

Two sides of a coin…(oops, oh wait, coins are socialism too…)