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SOCIALISM PERFORCE?

Irrespective of the desires or intentions of either of the major political parties:

• Is the United States-under black-hole attraction--imperceptively and inexorably being drawn into a situation wherein the federal government may be obliged to directly control the financial and economic lifelines of the nation?
• If this were to occur, would it be transitory or permanent?
• If transitory, how long might it last?
• In other words, are we on the verge of becoming a national corporation: “United States, Inc.”

The Republican Party always has postured itself as being the best steward of the economy, business and the military, while disdaining and relegating to the province of the Democrats the bread and butter social, health and other “mommy” issues that directly affect and are of vital concern to most of the populace. After the Great Election Robbery, George W. Bush inherited from the Clinton Administration a country that was so well ordered in all aspects that, along with Cheney, the Neocons and their “Project for a New American Century” (PNAC), he had enough time to sit around and fantasize how he could overcome his “pusillanimous” pop’s decision in Iraq by finishing the job and making the desert bloom with American-style democracy. Then, on an unimaginably beautiful September morn, fantasy suddenly materialized in the realm of the possible.

Of course, Dubya and his duendes did a credible feint in the direction of Afghanistan—and, at Bora Bora, conveniently left their straw-man swinging in the winds of those ancient mountains. Then, unabashedly, they proceeded to begin their “Pax Americana,” on the shores of storied Mesopotamia’s Tigris and Euphrates. The untried theories of the PNAC document were put to the test and found greatly wanting.

Slighting the military, in both theaters, with regard to materiel and personnel, Dubya far outdid Saddam Hussein in bloodletting, carnage and physical destruction. He devastated the country’s infrastructure and caused the death and maiming of tens of thousands of Iraqis, Americans and allies. A goodly portion of Iraqis fled as refugees to other countries. Flaunting their pro-business slant, the Bush Administration—with scads of questionable, no-bid contracts and soldiers of fortune—equalled the amount of U.S. military personnel in the Iraq theater. Billions of dollars of greenbacks were mounted on wooden pallets, shipped to Iraq and dispersed—with no receipts evident therefrom.

While, at home, the president did a fly-over, watching his fellow citizens drowning in the Mississippi Delta, the country’s financial system, left to the lazy lethargy of laissez-faire, were being mishandled and gradually drained, in a gruesome orgy of “greed is good.” We are at the end of a shipwrecked, criminal, Republic administration. Instead of quietly fading away, Dubya and his “brain” deign to justify their gross ineptitude.

Those who control fortunes and for whom money far outweighs politics, are suggesting that the economy is in such a state of free-fall that only massive infusions of government money, in all sectors, can avert disaster. Others suggest that, instead of a bail-out of the Big Three automakers, the only practical way is for the government to buy them out and control the manufacture of green automobiles and mass-transportation manufacture. The pending Obama Administration is forecasting a Rooseveltian-type jobs program on a gigantic scale. It appears they intend to convert crisis into creation by immediately beginning to wean us from dependence on fossil fuels and other planet-destructive activity. An untold number of jobs should be created by concentrating on the repair and creation of infrastructure and facilities necessary for the utilization of alternate sources of energy. Let the sun shine, the wind blow and the waves roll.

If all of this sets us upon the sea of socialism, the Republicans have only themselves to blame. Since Hoover, their primary concern has been with giving business its head, leaving the general populous to scrape up the leftover crumbs. They have proven—especially in these last eight years—that such an attitude, left to its own volition, will bring us to the point at which we now find ourselves. Contrary to their defamatory assertions during the campaign, Barack Obama is not a socialist--quite to the contrary. However, if their unbelievable bungling at the helm of the ship of state causes us to sail upon the sea of Socialism, so be it!