Soap Box

When I see the rise of a presidential candidate who seems to have no other notable qualifications for the office other than his promise to institute a �one size fits all� type of socialism, where the affluent would be heavily taxed and the corporations would be made to pay high wages, not because of the caliber of one's work, but just because they show up every day, a government that would mandate cradle to grave social services, it is unnerving.

Not because I think such a candidate has a chance of winning a national election, but that such a candidate could garner enough traction to be seriously considered in the primaries.

Any thinking person capable of doing basic math knows that what he proposes is fiscally unsustainable and anyone who knows anything at all about world history knows that socialism has miserably failed in every unfortunate nation that has tried it.

Socialism is a dream and the reality of what it promises never materializes as it always morphs into something sinister and ugly and the genie never fits back into the bottle.

Since Lyndon Johnson's great society, which actually had little to do with forming a great society and everything to do with creating a new block of voters, there has been an ever-increasing dependence on government.

What was once called welfare or public assistance has become entitlements and is considered to be such by the majority of those who have been receiving them for three or more generations and those caught in this web know no other way of life, and that's pitiful, and to the everlasting shame of power seeking politicians and the public which keeps electing them.

The days of depending on nothing but the grace of Almighty God and your own ability to deliver a valuable service for a day's wages has largely given way to an attitude that by virtue of simply being born the world owes you a living.

That they should be able to share in the bounty whether they do anything to contribute or not which in reality ascribes to the "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his need�, the bedrock theology of communism according to Karl Marx.

Unfortunately, those who are willing to settle for socialism think it's a great leveling of the playing field, a getting even with the greedy well to do folks who have hoarded the wealth and denied a chance to the common folk.

Actually, socialism also creates classes of �haves� and �have nots�, except there are not as many haves and they are much more powerful than the old capitalistic �haves.� They are the handful who make all the rules, pass all the laws.

They still fly in private jets and ride in limousines.

In fact in Russia, in the old days, they had their own traffic lane to speed them through the crowded streets of Moscow while the hoi poloi, at least the few lucky enough to have a car, slogged along at a snail's pace.

They lived in special conclaves, shopped in special stores, their children went to special schools and all the while the common folks had to settle for the scraps and usually had to stand in line to get them.

Socialism kills the competitive spirit.

Russia had to buy grain every year just to feed its people and had a terrible time even producing a workable ballpoint pen.

The attitude of "why should I work hard when the lazy do nothings makes the same wages as I do" permeates its way throughout a socialistic society and production and innovation are a thing of the past.

Couple that with the amount of bureaucracy it takes to oversee the massive social programs and the amount of security personnel it takes to protect the privileged few and keep the jealous population in line and the whole thing finally becomes so top heavy that it collapses.

In my humble opinion, we have already headed too far in that direction, we need to contract instead of expand. Only disaster lies in that direction.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem

God Bless America

� Charlie Daniels

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