Joe the Plumber has gotten a taste of what happens when you stick your neck out. The mainstream media wasted no time in digging up details on his divorce, back taxes, drivers record, licensure and other personal details — a quick slap upside the head to show him who’s running the show. Average Americans should take notice: this is the shape of things to come. Productive Americans who question the liberal orthodoxy will be called out, their lives examined, their sanity questioned and their personal well-being jeopardized. From here it’s only a short step to interrogations, searches and seizures. Ask anyone who lived through the Stalinist era what that knock on the door in the middle of the night means.

Let’s say you’re brave or foolish enough to confront a Democratic candidate on the issues and ask something as straightforward as why you’re penalized for working hard and living within your means while the government burns money by the truckload. And then let’s assume the candidate gives you an answer that clearly telegraphs his real plans for people like you. And silly you doesn’t like what you’ve heard, so you exercise your First Amendment right to say so. Obviously, the candidate can’t retract his statement; it’s been recorded and replayed. So, the propaganda machine backing this Democratic candidate (which would be the entire media universe with a few small exceptions) must destroy you in order to create a diversion. By tar and feathering you, they hope to dissemble the candidate’s response to your rather straightforward question and even dissemble the question itself. By destroying the person, they hope to destroy the question.

By quelling dissent, the socialists hope to slip a noose around the neck of every productive American in order to bring them to heel. But don’t worry, the noose is only temporary. It will be quickly replaced with a yoke so that productive Americans can spend the rest of their lives in servitude, feeding the engines of a massive socialist state ruled by a permanently installed, unaccountable elite. Stalin would be proud.

Our man Joe has verbalized the angst of productive Americans across the country: Why are we bothering to work so hard if the rewards are taken away before the ink on the check is dry? Barack Obama’s intent was made very clear in his brief exchange with our intrepid plumber — don’t even try. Just lay back and let the government take care of you. Obama wasn’t speaking to Joe. He was speaking to his constituents who eagerly await the day when they can get even more for doing even less. Obama doesn’t know how to speak to Joe because Obama doesn’t understand how business is grown, how wealth is created, or what it takes in terms of risk and sacrifice to do so. He is so steeped in Marxist philosophy that the simplest of business concepts is beyond his comprehension.

Joe understands that every increase in income tax, either for himself or his business, delays his ability to hire another employee, which in turn prevents the business from growing. Joe also understands that he has to pay tax on any profit before he can plow that money back into the business. Therefore, the higher the tax rate, the less money to be put back into the business. Joe isn’t putting the money in his pocket. He’s trying to build a business by reinvesting in it. That’s how small business are bootstrapped from nothing. If the business does well, Joe and his family do well. If the business suffers, Joe still pays his employees and still pays his bills, but he and his family make sacrifices. If Joe is willing to take the risk, put his money on the line, work day and night, he should be given the chance to smell success. After all, very few small businesses succeeed, and it’s not for lack of trying. But, Americans continue to try, starting thousands of new businesses each year.

Sen. Obama doesn’t grasp this. He wants to take Joe’s reinvestment money and hand it out to whomever the Gang of Three (Obama, Pelosi, Reid) thinks will vote their way. Yes, it’s that simple. The Gang of Three will make sure that any new spending will be directed toward maximizing their political power and growing their voting bloc. They are the champions and enablers of redistribution. Joe the Plumber called it: We will slip into socialism when the Gang of Three takes power, should Obama capture the presidency. The parasites will celebrate.

Voter registration fraud is but the tip of the iceberg. The A.C.O.R.N. flap doesn’t expose the real problem at hand - taxpayer funding of entities whose activities are designed to increases taxes and deliver a predictable voting bloc to Democratic candidates. Unfortunately, A.C.O.R.N. is but one of many organizations that deliver this valuable service to the Democratic Party, most of which operate out of the spotlight. The Republicans have no comparable mechanism for gathering votes and voters, legally or illegally.

Monumentally egregious is that the recent bank bailout bill includes a provision which tacks on a $450 charge at closing for any residential real estate financing transaction - and the money goes directly to A.C.O.R.N. This is insane. The Democrats forced this into the bill after the Republicans beat back an outright $400 million grant to A.C.O.R.N. and its ilk. This isn’t just funding some organization that is ideologically aligned with the Democratic Party. It’s buying votes, plain and simple. The mainstream media is silent on this subject.

This isn’t even stealth funding anymore. The Democrats and A.C.O.R.N. don’t even bother with the pretense of hiding their relationship and what each party gets from it. The Democratic Party pours money into A.C.O.R.N. or its sister organizations. They in turn hire people to go out and ‘register’ voters, fill out absentee ballots for these voters or drive them to the polling station on election day, sometimes in exchange for money, cigarettes and who knows what else, to vote for Democratic candidates. The money passes from the taxpayer, the DNC and private donors through A.C.O.R.N. to the voter in form of money or cigarettes offered by the A.C.O.R.N. organizer. That’s buying a vote. It’s nationwide and it involves millions of votes. This is corruption on a vast scale, selling votes for one political party to ensure that funding for A.C.O.R.N. is provided by the taxpayer in the form of new taxes and fees. This makes Tamany Hall look like a glee club. Where is the outrage? Why is no one protesting this assault on the only fundamental right that makes any difference - the right to vote? The votes of thinking, responsible and productive Americans are being negated by the Democratic Party and its allies. If there was a time for the Republican candidate to say something, it would be now.

It’s not difficult to pick it out. Paul Krugman’s Nobel Prize for Economics speaks volumes. A constant and unyielding critic of everything American, Krugman’s knighting by the European power elite signals its preoccupation with political agenda over personal achievement. Is Krugman any kind of economic superstar? To some, yes. But his unbalanced and aggressive partisanship undoubtedly diminishes his academic prowess. Oliver Stone’s ‘W’ is clumsy and unrelieved propaganda at best. And yet, Stone is given a wide berth to prance his fantasies across theater screens in an attempt to re-write history while it’s still being made. There is no artfulness, no cleverness in the effort. It’s just another ham-fisted hatchet job subsidized by Hollywood, with a production budget somewhat larger than Michael Moore can demand. Examples of truly lackluster academic, political and artistic work abound. Mediocre or suspect achievement is elevated to the status of near-divinity because it delivers the party line, not because the work itself is inherently solid, innovative or ground-breaking. The leftists deal winning hands to other leftists in a self-enriching cycle of self-dealing and self-promotion.

It’s a form of censorship. While we still have our First Amendment right to free speech for the moment,  (unless you’re a radio talk show host in Chicago, or wish to speak your mind in St. Louis County, where you’d be out of luck) saying anything you want doesn’t mean that preventing it from being heard abridges your First Amendment right. This is a critical piece of logic: You can say anything you want. But it doesn’t mean you will be heard. And, most importantly, it means that someone can actively prevent the hearing. It’s how the liberals develop their tactics and justify their actions in order to blot out anything that counters their world view. Therefore, an academic paper that denounces leftist social engineering as a failed policy may be written, but that doesn’t mean it will be published. Ever. An economic theory that unmistakably proves government intervention as ultimately detrimental to trade may have merit, perhaps even revolutionary concepts, but it will likely never see the light of day. The same holds true for social policies, regulations, business concepts, popular culture and even entertainment.

When a hapless piece of filmography like Religulous is thrust upon the public to counter a popular satire like An American Carol, one wonders how well-organized and far-reaching is the apparatus of mediocrity. The Fox News Channel reported that theater employees were crediting other films, including Religulous, with receipts from the sale of tickets for An American Carol. Theater managers were posting an ‘R’ rating next to the movie title and times in theater ticket lobbies so as to dissuade families from attending what is a PG-13 rated film. Let’s face it - $8 per hour theater cashiers aren’t doing this of their own volition. Are they being directed and by whom? Does the apparatus of mediocrity reach this far and wide? Hopefully not.

The apparatus of mediocrity is well-entrenched and well-financed, in many cases with tax dollars. It exists in government, academia, business, entertaiment and the news media, influencing most every aspect of our lives. It is the mechanics by which liberals and socialists execute their agenda. Does it hurt more people than it helps? Probably. Does that not matter to liberals and socialists who claim to have the best interests of everyday Americans at heart? Probably not.

In the not so distant past, there existed a quaint American notion that everyone should shift for themselves as best they could and not be a burden to others. And failing their best efforts due to illness, accident or other misfortune, they would ask their family, friends and neighbors for assistance, usually temporary, while a solution was sought. It was unseemly and shameful to thrust one’s hand out for charity, even when the situation was desperate. There was, after all, pride in one’s ability to confront challenges and overcome adversity. The theme of rugged self-reliance is deeply rooted in American mythology. So is individualism, as in thinking for yourself and acting on one’s own convictions and principles. It is today hopelessly out of style. Like brown shoes at a black-tie affair, rugged individualism is the rough-edged, country bumpkin cousin of a more contemporary American self-image. 

The stylish sophistication of liberalism and its preoccupation with class, money and power, as well as intolerance for anything other than its own ideology, has displaced traditional American values across much of the country. Liberals have spawned a contagion of negative self-indulgence and self-absorption that has diminished the historically positive and energetic character of everyday Americans. They’ve promoted a mentality of dependence and a reliance on the political and social elites to set the agenda and deliver salvation to the masses - the patronage/dependence linkage. This social contract perpetuates the welfare state while it pulls more and more Americans into its clutches, promising more than it can deliver while squandering human potential on an incredible scale. It is the religion of the liberals.

Americans begin to question their own self-worth and personal judgement when overreaching social engineers and crusaders pronounce that traditional, common-sense ideals are dead and gone. Instead, the liberals offer a brave new world of self-imposed thought control and victimology, a world of diminished expectations and limited possibilities. It has the effect of freezing class distinctions and keeping individuals from moving up - precisely what the liberal elite have in mind.

The patronage/dependence linkage is not the exclusive domain of the poor or disenfranchised. Corporate CEOs, Wall Street honchos and non-profit divas all make pilgrimages to Washington, hat in hand, sniffing for a handout. They don’t find it the least bit shameful to take their place in line with other parasites eager to take their fill at the public trough. Of course, this is all figurative. The CEO, honcho and diva will send highly-paid surrogates to perform this humbling task, hurried along with stern warnings that there had better be pork at the end of the rainbow, or else. They join politically connected representatives from private foundations turned public charities, socialist front organizations, pressure groups and PACs, each pushing for their turn at the trough and may the devil take the hindmost. At the top of this slop heap sit the power brokers, the influence peddlers, the demagogues and the robber barons, elected or otherwise, all engaged in an orgy of self-aggrandizement as the economy and society spin out of control, convincing the average Joe that they’re doing this for his own good.

So where does this take us as a nation, as a society? This country was founded on the principles that we have the inalienable right to dream as big as we dare, that we can achieve whatever we set our individual or collective minds to, and that America is indeed an exceptional place, populated with exceptional people in an exceptional time. How do we recapture that sensibility, that rugged individualism, personal energy and dogged determination that powered us to the top of the world in the last century? There is a prescriptive, and it’s something that socialists fear most - that innate human drive to better oneself, one’s living conditions and personal wealth. It’s as old as fire and cave-dwelling. Humans are hard-wired to create, build, innovate and expand their horizons. It’s this drive to achieve that socialists abhor, that they labor to blunt at every opportunity. It’s why Democrats have created enormous tax barriers for the working poor, why lower middle class Americans find it difficult to get ahead, and why liberals promote European-style socialist ‘democracies’ that lull the population into lowered expectations and a life of dimished potential. And  when we all recognize precisely what the liberal elite have in mind for us, Americans may once again be inclined to unleash their exceptional drive and sense of purpose.

Stub your toe? Break a fingernail? Borrow more money than you should have? Obama’s administration will make it right for you, aided and abetted by a Congress rushing to save the ‘middle’ class. Let’s fully understand what Obama and Biden are promising: As a homeowner, should you fail to pay your property taxes, the federal government will pay them for you. If you fail to make your monthly mortgage payments, the federal government will either, a) make those payments for you, or; b) allow you to renegotiate the principal, or; c) walk away from your obligation with no consequences. If this should come to pass, or if anything near this should make it out of a Congressional committee, the world financial markets can expect another series of catastrophic financial shocks courtesy of the good ole US of A.

These kind of campaign promises, if ever realized, would literally vaporize the value of all residential real estate in the country. If any mortgage, even those issued or guaranteed by the federal government, can be ‘renegotiated’ at any time during its term, then the value of that property is also subject to change. Therefore, a deadbeat can stop paying off his/her mortgage whenever they like and then renegotiate the terms and principal. This would also have the effect of lowering the value of the property attached by that mortgage. The lender would have no recourse. In order to recoup the loss, the lender, even if it’s the government, would need to raise interest rates for those who do pay, and add exhorbitant fees to the borrowng process. The deadbeat’s neighbors would feel the pain, as well. Their homes could be devalued as well, adding instability and volatility to home prices. That’s the last thing this battered economy needs.

But logic and reality don’t prevent the Obama campaign from promising what amounts to free money for those who don’t take responsibility for themselves or simply want something for nothing. Imagine the thousands of parasites who’ll rush to buy a home with the expressed intent of defaulting on the mortgage so that they can get a 30-40% reduction in the principal just for the asking. What kind of unimaginable consequences would that spawn? It’s obvious that Obama courts not working Americans but rather those who benefit from this kind giveaway and who outnumber productive citizens at the voting booth. It sets a dangerous tone that has parasites voting themselves every kind of perk at the expense of those who work and attempt to live within their means. And those parasites inhabit every part of the socio-economic spectrum: Just ask Hollywood and TV producers about their spanking brand-new $200 million in tax credits, courtesy of the banking bailout bill.

But then, Obama and Biden promise that only the ‘rich’ will pay. And when that 5% of the population is eventually beggared by the demands of the other 95%, what then, Mr. Obama? To whom do we turn to feed the beast once the wealthy are decimated or leave this country? How will business grow, how will capital be formed? Once the wealthy disappear, there will be only two sources of capital - government and union pension funds. The transition to socialism will be complete.