Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich recently appeared on a Discovery Channel program that attempted to explain economics and capitalism. Reich, a seemingly well-educated man, kept referring to capitalism as simply dressed-up greed. In his fevered mind, there appeared to be no place for capitalism in the world, because it was based on greed. He referred to the writings of Adam Smith as proof that greed was the underlying motivation for capitalism - not personal achievement or bettering one’s life, not even providing the best for one’s family. It was just simple greed. Reich is not an idiot, but he is a demagogue. He’s entitled to his opinions, but when they are amplified and broadcast across the country, his extremist views influence others. The program provided no opposing views or commentary. This insult to our open, free-market economic system went unanswered, as do many other such insults.

Contrast Reich’s opinions with the observations of Alexis de Tocqueville, a French writer and political scientist who toured America in the early 1800s. He was struck by the incredible energy and vitality of everyday Americans - simple men and women who worked doggedly at improving their lot in life. He observed that this was possible only in America, because only in America did hard work pay off for the common man. Therefore, it wasn’t ‘greed’ that motivated Americans over the last 200 years, it was the possibility, the certainty, that if they worked really hard, no one could take their newly found prosperity away from them. It energized them, it gave them hope for a better tomorrow. And yes, a very few people became very rich doing so. But, the more important point is that hundreds upon thousands became very prosperous - much more so than if they’d remained in Europe. It was the growth and political stability of a solid middle class that distinguished America from any other nation at any other time.

This has always been the central argument against capitalism — the poor are exploited by the greedy rich. In Europe, the poor had been exploited by the rich and powerful for centuries, well before capitalism existed. And, there were proportionately more poor people in Europe during the 1800s than in America. They were held back by social barriers, denied education and opportunity, prohibited from relocating to areas with better economic conditions. This was the reality of life in England and Europe. Slavery was abolished in the United States by presidential decree in 1861. But only after pressure was applied by other European governments did Russia finally abolish serfdom for Ukrainian peasants in 1862, freeing hundreds of thousands from centuries of bondage. The lack of opportunity and incentive was a fact of life for millions of Europeans.

In America, those who escaped the rigid social and economic structure of Europe were becoming landowners, opened small businesses and sent their children to universities. This was impossible anywhere else in the world and in many places is still impossible today. What America’s largely classless society was able to accomplish was the marvel of the modern world - a relatively well functioning capitalist system with minimal interference by aristocrats, autocrats and bureaucrats. Was it perfect? No. Did excesses and failures occur? Yes. But, it’s still the best system ever devised by man. The irony is that the liberal elite who preach against a free-market economy and capitalism have benefited most from its bounty.

Take Robert Reich as an example -  he attended Dartmouth College and won a Rhodes scholarship to study in England. The Rhodes scholarship was endowed by Cecil Rhodes, a capitalist and diamond merchant. Reich then taught at Harvard University, the wealthiest educational institution in the world. Harvard endowments exceed $45 billion, most of them gifts from capitalist alumni. At Brandeis University he was the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economy Policy at the Heller School of Social Policy and Management. He’s currently a professor at UC Berkley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. Maurice Hexter, Florence Heller, Richard and Rhoda Goldman are philanthropists who endowed the institutions that paid Reich’s salary. Where did their money come from? Capitalism. This ingrate, along with his former girlfriend Hillary Clinton and thousands of other liberals, have no problem taking money from capitalists only to turn around and bite the hand that feeds them.

But then, this is what liberals do. They resent the fact that someone else has worked harder, worked smarter or had the good fortune to accumulate wealth. Envy is a powerful emotion. It’s corrosive, destructive and insidious. Envy, dressed up as public policy, is what threatens free market capitalism. Demagogues like Reich and Obama have used envy to whip up class warfare, turning it to their own advantage. Socialism is their choice of socio-political structure, not because it’s inherently better than capitalism, but because it can be easily controlled by a small elite. That’s right: Socialist activists like Reich and Obama firmly believe in their own superior intellect and abilities, and they’re more than happy to impose their ideology on the rest of America. The average American can’t seem to grasp this. Why would someone dedicate their lives to telling other people what to do? There doesn’t seem to be any profit in it. And that’s the key - Americans are so conditioned to a direct linkage between effort and material reward that the desire to accumulate personal power is totally foreign.

They don’t understand it because they’ve never lived under despotic rulers or communist totalitarianism. Josef Stalin murdered millions and destroyed entire civilizations. He controlled the Soviet Unions economy with an iron fist. As the supreme ruler, he could have any material thing he wanted. And yet, he lived like a pauper. This is unfathomable to the average American. Unfortunately, Americans will need to get used to it. Obama’s monstrous plan to grow government means that all Americans will be working for the government, whether they understand it or not and whether they like it or not.

Reich, Obama and other well-educated liberal elites have no problem taking money from capitalists to feather their own nests. They have no problem taking money from taxpayers, either. Using our tax dollars, they will build a utopia in their own image and likeness. And, they’ll do it in the name of ‘fairness’. At some point, Americans will wake up and find themselves yoked to a huge and unyielding machine that sucks the life out of them. But it will be too late. Betrayed by liberal ideals, Americans will have allowed the most despotic form of government to take hold. They will have thrown away their freedoms and their future.

Fox News reported that some homeowners are deliberately missing their monthly mortgages payments even though they can easily afford to make those payments. Evidently, they’re hoping for some kind of bailout or readjustment of the interest rate and/or the principal balance. Where did they get that idea? From the banks, insurers and investment houses that have been bailed out by the government for making stupid mistakes. From auto company executives who are asking that the rules of capitalism and a free market system be broken with a government bailout. Even the Gaffmeister himself, VP-Elect Joe Biden, blathered about resetting the outstanding principal balance on home mortgages so that payments totaled no more than 31% of household income. 31% is a rather precise figure. Not 30%, not 32%, but 31%. From what dark recess did he pull that number? How could that possibly apply to the myriad of financial conditions that describe each and every household in the US? This is how central planning works - it indiscriminately applies the stupidest principle across the board.

Now, re-setting what people owe on their homes sounds like a noble gesture. Except that it encourages people to go into delinquency, knowing that the socialists in Washington will come riding to the rescue. Also, what does this do to the homeowners who are living within their means, sacrificing on luxuries so that they can meet their financial obligations? It punishes them. If mortgage balances are allowed to re-set, banks will incur huge losses, much larger than the calamity we’re now experiencing. Banks will tighten credit and raise interest rates to cover their losses. Further, the value of all real estate plunges even lower. The combination will hurt homeowners who’ve been making their mortgage payments and paying their property taxes on time.

The clowns in Washington are trying to help. They don’t know how, so they’re playing with the knobs and levers of government, screwing up the economy further and delaying a rebound. Can they please take a rest?

The bell tolls for the Baby Boomer generation. They’ve arrived at the point in life when there’s more behind them than in front of them. Time to face your legacy, both personal and generational. It’s not a pretty picture. The generation of free love, free dope and free thinking has pretty much made a hash of everything. Somehow, they managed to transform 60s counterculture into monstrous governmental intrusion, replete with all the hallmarks of socialist dictatorships America had managed to vanquish over the last century. That’s the dismal legacy of the Boomers — through their own stupidity, lack of ethics and personal ambition, the intellectual ‘elite’ of that generation have brought this country a bitter harvest. They managed to turn America into a land of whiners, professional victims, thieves, vultures and con artists. And Bill Clinton is their poster child, whether they like it or not. When Hillary Clinton failed to win the Democratic nomination, it signaled the beginning of a decline in Boomer influence over politics. Barack Obama belongs to a younger generation of fools.

The triumph of situational ethics over morality, the worship of vice over virtue and the degradation of society took place once Boomers stepped in to take over the reins of government, business, academia and the media. The Boomers made drug addiction, promiscuity and criminality almost saintly virtues. They made excuses for antisocial behavior and promoted identity politics, race-baiting and victimology.  They tolerated, even promoted, a deep and abiding hatred for middle America. The Baby Boomers are responsible for the culture of entitlement and the manifestation of parasites in every form, from boardroom to the barrio.

The Baby Boomer ethos - ‘me-first-and-always’ - has permeated every corner of American society, turning this nation away from its founding ideals and the rugged, self-reliant individualism that personified Americans of days passed. We are stuck with this mess. And no amount of liberal hand-wringing and self-hate will undo the damage. Only the passage of time and generations can offer a possible cure. Hopefully, our childrens’ grandchildren won’t repeat the same mistakes.

Consider what liberals have at their disposal - Hollywood, celebrity worship, alcohol, drugs, promiscuity, mysogeny, sloth, greed and all manner of human frailties. These are the incentives, the lures, that are used to degrade and debauch our society. From the ‘liberal’ perspective, it’s okay to be an utter failure as a father, mother, friend or even as a human being, as long as you harbor resentment and hatred toward those who work hard, take care of their own and occassionally show up at church. From the ‘liberal’ perspective, it’s definitely not hip to stay married, care for your kids, stay sober, try to get ahead or believe that just maybe there’s a divine plan. That immediately puts you in the category of rube, hick, redneck, reactionary and racist. Heck, that makes you a clone of Dick Cheney, who according to Vice-President Elect Joe “Plagiarism is my middle name” Biden, is the ‘most dangerous man in America’.

Here’s what needs to happen over the next four years: we need to make 52% of Americans understand what America is, who Americans are and how our destiny was cast some 200 years ago. America is an extraordinary place, filled with exceptional people. How do we know that? Simple. Think about Europe in the late 1700s. Those who were restless, ambitious and dynamic, that had no place to go because of societal restrictions and class structure, gave up everything they had to come here. They were the strong ones. The weak ones gave up and stayed in Europe, resigned to their lot in life. They’re still in Europe, putzing around in a socialist purgatory that rewards mediocrity and dispenses misery. The truly exceptional? Well, they came here and they succeeded. America became the beacon of opportunity for everyone else around the world, beckoning the adventurous, the self-reliant and the motivated to come here, because here was the only place in the world where you could pull yourself up by the bootstraps and become something incredible.

And now, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelois, Harry Reid and the rest of the liberal left wants to throw it all away.

As Americans go to the polls on Tuesday, they’re not thinking about the historic consequences of their actions. Uninformed, bamboozled and misled, many Americans will vote in a regime that will destroy a political and economic system that has been a wonder to this world for more than two centuries. Years from now, honest historians will analyze the 2008 election, trying to understand how a free people could have so willingly taken on the yoke of servitude. Dishonest historians will celebrate the 2008 election as the triumph of the People’s Republic of America, when a Great Leader was at last permitted to shape his utopia, taking from the rich and giving to the, well, not necessarily the poor. First, to his friends and flunkies, and then maybe what’s left over, to the less fortunate.

Honest historians and political commentators may look back on the 2008 presidential and congressional races as a dark day for America, when socialism triumphed and the mistakes of 1930s and 1960s were to be repeated and amplified. In the 1930s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a liberal elitist, aided and abetted by a Democrat-controlled Congress, created programs and policy that still carry their toxic fallout into the 21st century. FDR instituted the concept of Big Government, the all-knowing, all-seeing Big Brother, and the rule of ‘experts’ who decided the fate of the country, as well as individual citizens. The country reeled from the effects of this socialist agenda. It took years to recover.

Lyndon Baines Johnson followed in FDR’s footsteps. Along with a Democrat-controlled Congress, Johnson, a liberal elitist, created more programs and policies that have devastated American society, the economy and our political system. LBJ and the Democrats created a culture of entitlement, a society of permissiveness and sloth, a nation of whiners and  hustlers constantly clamoring for more handouts.  The Great Society, War on Poverty and other social engineering programs have indelibly altered the American psyche and our country’s guiding principles. The Democrats knowingly and willingly sacrificed economic freedom and opportunity for America’s working class and poor in order to gain power. And, the story is about to repeat itself.

Where will Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid take this country? Will we be able to weather yet another round of failed policy and programs that pushed us over the brink into the hellpit of socialism? Who knows. Not even the Anointed One can predict the outcome.

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.