9.22.2010

LIBERTY IS DEAD -- and this is the proof

Socialist Party Platform of 1928
The America as We Know It !


1. "Nationalization of our natural resources, beginning with the coal mines and water sites, particularly at Boulder Dam and Muscle Shoals."


2. "A publicly owned giant power system under which the federal government shall cooperate with the states and municipalities in the distribution of electrical energy to the people at cost."


3. "National ownership and democratic management of railroads and other means of transportation and communication."


4. "An adequate national program for flood control, flood relief, reforestation, irrigation, and reclamation."


5. "Immediate government relief of the unemployed by the extension of all public works and a program of long range planning of public works ... All persons thus employed to be engaged at hours and wages fixed by bona-fide labor unions."


6. "Loans to states and municipalities without interest for the purpose of carrying on public works and the taking of such other measures as will lessen widespread misery."


7. "A system of unemployment insurance."


8. "The nation-wide extension of public employment agencies in cooperation with city federations of labor."


9. "A system of health and accident insurance and of old age pensions as well as unemployment insurance."


10. "Shortening the workday" and "Securing to every worker a rest period of no less than two days in each week."


11. "Enacting of an adequate federal anti-child labor amendment."


12. "Abolition of the brutal exploitation of convicts under the contract system and substitution of a cooperative organization of industries in penitentiaries and workshops for the benefit of convicts and their dependents."


13. "Increase of taxation on high income levels, of corporation taxes and inheritance taxes, the proceeds to be used for old age pensions and other forms of social insurance."


14. "Appropriation by taxation of the annual rental value of all land held for speculation."

13 of 14 items on the 1928 Socialist party platform has come to pass without a shot. Soft tyranny disguised as freedom. Without a whimper or tear shed, we surrendered liberty. Now the so-called conservatives (Palin, Romney, the Huckster) have taken over the Tea-party and co-opted them into the GOP.

And just to give you an indication of the extent to which the current constitutional culture in the United States has given centralizers like Pelosi and Obama, that is, people who want the federal government to have authority over everything you do, every minute of your life, how they have gotten what they want through a “we’ll never amend the Constitution to correct what the Congress is doing” attitude among conservatives, let me read for you a little bit of the appendix to Milton Friedman’s “Free to Choose.”


Milton Friedman was the leading advocate of liberty in American economics in the 20th Century. Now, I myself am not at root a Monetarist. I mean, people who are expert in economics know that he was also the leader of what was called the Monetarist school of economics. And I think he was mistaken at root about that. But the bottom line is Milton Friedman was a very prominent libertarian in the 20th Century, somebody who stood for freedom.

And he had a bestselling book, coauthored with his wife Rose in I think 1978, called “Free to Choose.” It was a number one bestseller for months and months. And in the appendix to that book, Friedman reprinted the Socialist Party platform of 1928. And the reason why he reprinted the Socialist Party platform of 1928 was to show us that by 1978 we were living with the Socialist Party platform of 1928. That is, every single element of it has been adopted.
 So plank one in the Socialist Party platform of 1928, “Nationalization of our natural resources, beginning with the coal mines and water sites, particularly of Boulder Dam and Muscle Shoals.” And then in parentheses he says “Boulder Dam, renamed Hoover Dam, and Muscle Shoals are now both federal projects.”


Number two, “A publicly owned giant power system under which the federal government shall cooperate with the states and municipalities in the distribution of electrical energy to the people at cost.” And in parentheses he says, “We’ve made a regional start on this with the Tennessee Valley Authority.” There’s actually more to it now than there was in 1978.


But anyway, number three, “National ownership in democratic management of railroads and other means of transportation and communication.” Parentheses, “Railroad passenger service is completely nationalized through Amtrak. Some freight service is nationalized through Conrail. The FCC controls communications by telephone, telegraph, radio, and television.” And of course what Friedman didn’t know in 1978 was that now the federal government feels free to wiretap millions, literally millions of Americans, without ever identifying them, without ever getting a warrant from any kind of a judge. It’s even more problematic than it was when Friedman wrote this.


 Number four, Socialist Party platform of 1928, “An adequate national program for flood control, flood relief, reforestation, irrigation, and reclamation.” Well, Friedman in parentheses says, “Government expenditures for these purposes are currently in the many billions of dollars.” And of course they’re far greater now than they were when he wrote that. I mean, I could go through the rest of this platform from the Socialist Party of 1928. But my point is, for those of you who don't think the Red vs Blue, Yankee vs the Red Sox idea is dangerous because we’ll lose the republic that the founding fathers bequeathed us, wake up.

We already...
 We lost it.


We don’t have the constitutional republic the founding fathers bequeathed us. We are living with 20th-century socialists’ idea of what a central government ought to look like.


 So you can count number four in the Socialist Party platform of 1928 as having been completed, absolutely completely. And just ask anyone in Florida how they get homeowners insurance if they live in Jupiter, Florida or below, and they’re probably going to give you a similar answer.


So the bottom line is people commonly object to the idea of, oh, lord, the socialists will get control of the government. Well, you know, have you looked at the Democratic and Republican parties lately? And how do you think they behave? The idea that the federal Constitution is doing what it’s supposed to do, that it’s performing its only function, which is to limit the power of people in federal office, is absurd.

You’d have to have been asleep.


Federal judges and the Congress have completely remade it so that the other day, when Pelosi was asked where do you get authority to tell people who their doctor will be, she laughed because it assumed, you know, the question had underlining it the idea that there was something illegitimate about the way federal officials have been behaving since 1937. Well, of course, as you and I know, there is something illegitimate about the way that federal officials have been behaving since 1937.

So the question remains -- what are you going to do about it?

3 comments:

Unknown said...

If that were the case in the 20's, just think of how all-inclusive that parties propositions are now.

LandShark 5150 said...

Blue -- its past the scary point and hit pissed off in mid-stride.

LandShark 5150 said...

Blue -- its past the scary point and hit pissed off in mid-stride.