George Rebane
[This is the transcript of my regular KVMR commentary broadcast on 27 March 2019.]
Socialism used to be the third rail of American politics, no more. A form of governance that requires and ever-larger government to handle the people’s everyday affairs was anathema after WW2, especially with the country having had its brief love affair with socialism during FDR’s depression years. Ever since the Great Society’s programs began to get traction in the 1970s, the workings of socialism in America, if not its name, became more and more acceptable as our governments created more programs every year to solve this or that social problem, most of which its then previously entrenched programs had created.
Every economic slowdown and recession since then has been an opportunity for liberals to introduce and launch more ‘people oriented’ programs, the first purpose of which was to buy votes to re-elect those politicians promising the new largess to be paid for with other people’s money. Funding these required ever higher taxes and more borrowing. And each one created more Americans who could not conceive of getting along without a regular government check.
Things kicked into high gear with the Great Recession and Obama’s victory promising a “fundamental transformation” of America, which included more taxes on corporations and bringing them to heel with a spate of new regulations, while putting the country on the sure path to a globalist future. Of course, growth stalled and we had the slowest and longest drawn out recession recovery in the country’s history. But sacrifices had to be made; after all, our elites were busy transforming the country.
The 2016 election marked a true fork in America’s political road. For the first time the Democrats were confronted with the choice between an unattractive candidate promising to continue Obama’s anemic road forward, and a self-declared, actual socialist, an outsider who would really get the promised transformation on its way. Instead, the country decided to elect another outsider who also promised many things, all centered around capitalism and prioritized America first. His programs would deliver anything except bigger government and a less sovereign and secure America.
While the mainstream Democrats were busy with their shock and awe to torpedo the Trump administration, their fringe or alt-Left comrades started planning various stratagems for 2018 with policy offerings that would build on Obamacare, the climate hysteria, and Bernie Sanders’ socialist nose now firmly under America’s political tent. Then as the Pelosis, Schumers, and Schiffs were busy feeding their media comrades ‘clear evidence’ of all kinds of Trump’s wrong doings, the alt-Left was assembling a spate of leftwing policies that would be introduced in time for the 2018 election.
So, the 2018 election came and delivered the expected historical results to the party out of power, which included a gaggle of very loud, energetic, ignorant, and ideologically dedicated young alt-Left Democrat congress critters. They immediately began introducing their socialist initiatives into the policy vacuum created by their party’s leadership still fiercely focused on Mueller’s upcoming proof of Trump’s Russia collusion. Suddenly, the Democrats had a full plate of new policies to offer Americans that included free college, single-payer healthcare (aka Medicare for All), amnesty for illegals, and, of course, the Green New Deal. This immediately resulted in massive happy dancing in the streets by the leftwing core that swept along almost all of the Democrats preparing themselves to be the party’s 2020 presidential candidate who would take down Donald Trump. Now, with no debate or discussion or even as much as a by-your-leave of their leadership, the Democrat Party had in a place a socialist platform on steroids.
So, counting on the support of pre-educated millennials and a soundbite electorate, the Democrats promise to deliver their $100T+ ten-year fundamental transformation of America. A transformation that will not only restructure our government, but also change almost every aspect of American lives ranging from our homes, how we travel, what we eat, our healthcare industry, and how we communicate with each other. We will then transform from an open market capitalistic economy based on growth, to a command economy that delivers an already demonstrated stagnant ‘new normal’ managed from a one-party Washington for the promised benefit of all. Americans have never had a more dramatic and consequential choice about their future than they will in 2020.
My name is Rebane, and I also expand on this and related themes on Rebane’s Ruminations where the transcript of this commentary is posted with relevant links, and where such issues are debated extensively. However, my views are not necessarily shared by KVMR. Thank you for listening.
rebanesruminations.com 
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