Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) receives almost all of his campaign contributions from donors outside his native Connecticut. Michigan’s laughable excuse for a governor, Jennifer Granhom, received the maximum allowable contributions for her last reelection campaign from notables such has Madonna, who originally hailed from Bay City, Michigan, but now resides in England. Granholm, a Democrat, also received the maximum contribution from Ed Begley, Jr., a California resident who likely has never set foot in Michigan. Charlie Rangel, (D-NY) regularly accepts money from Hollywood types, even though he represents a congressional district in New York City that’s largely black and poor. Races for governor and secretary of state in all 50 states are flooded with money from the East and Left coasts. Congressional seats are funded with union dues from a national pool of money.  The vote of every congressman and senator is a hotly contested commodity to a well-financed and nationally integrated leftist movement. There are no ‘local’ races any more and they haven’t existed since the 1960s when the Left made its bid for national power.

A key strategy for Democrats and their leftist leaders has been to nab the secretary of state position in each of the 50 states. This is an extremely important position because secretaries of state certify elections, decide whether nor not recounts are undertaken, and whether or not investigations into voter fraud or election irregularities are necessary. As evidenced in gubernatorial elections manipulated or stolen by Democrats in Oregon and Washington recently, the secretary of state plays a key role in determining the outcome of an election. The Democratic Party and its union allies have spent untold millions to ensure that most secretaries of state are Democrats, placing Republican candidates for local, state and federal office at great peril. The mainstream media, of course, don’t bother to report this troubling development.

There are no laws that prohibit leftists from California to fully fund the congressional aspirations of leftist candidates in Virginia except for the individual campaign contribution limits. But, given the success of ‘bundlers’ who contribute hundreds of thousands under questionable circumstances to Democratic candidates, the current campaign finance laws leave huge loopholes open to abuse. The McCain-Feingold Act is a joke, perpetrated by two of the most cynical and self-serving members of the Senate: John McCain (a Republican in name only) and Feingold, a left-leaning Democrat. This piece of legislative garbage all but assured that incumbents would enjoy an overwhelming advantage over their challengers, while at the same time silencing critics of the incumbent officeholder. It may as well have been crafted by two Democrats.

Further, the McCain-Feingold Act doesn’t prohibit lobbyists for government-sponsored organizations such as Fanny Mae or Freddy Mac from contributing to the campaigns of Barney Frank or Chris Dodd, both implicated in the mortgage meltdown that triggered the greatest economic decline in the US economy since the Great Depression. Conflicts of interest and outright corruption riddle the election process, but the mainstream media keep this from the American public.

Organizations like A.C.O.R.N., funded with tax dollars, and unions like the SEIU and the UAW, funded with member dues, add another layer of fraud and intimidation to the election process. Both entities are national in scope, with incredible reach and enormous resources. There are no opposing organizations or funding mechanisms on the side of conservatives. In fact, the country can rely only on the fragmented, amateurish attempts of grass-roots movements like the tea-party and tax protesters to mount any kind of response to the well-financed, nationally-coordinated efforts of the Left.

So, what’s the solution? It’s critical that local candidates for office and their supporters find out who is financing the election of their Democratic opponents. For example, in Michigan, the 2008 congressional race for the 13th district was financed unknowingly by Michigan taxpayers. The Democratic candidate, Gary Peters, was appointed to a faculty position at Michigan State University through the efforts of governer Jennifer Granholm. Peters spent very little time at the university while he collected a nice taxpayer-funded salary during a two-year campaign against Republican Joe Knollenberg, who was busy in Washington fending off the Democratic majority in Congress. During this time, Knollenberg endured a signficant personal financial crisis, but didn’t even advise his own staff. In the end, supported by teacher and labor unions, and free to compaign 24/7, Peters cruised to a narrow victory over Knollenberg and promptly aligned himself with the most radical and leftist elements of the Democratic Party, per the guidance and wishes of his mentor, governor Jennifer Granholm.

This is taking place across the country. Secretaries of state are certifying elections they know to be flawed, local candidates are being outspent by Democrats funded by outstate donors, and Democratic politicians are providing state jobs for their favored candidates so that they don’t suffer any economic consequences when running against their Republican rivals. Ths is corruption at its most extreme. It makes Democrats voterproof and ultimately impervious to accountability. It smells like the Soviet Union.

The mainstream media tried to hide it. The political pundits on the left and center talked around it. The lobbyists spun it. Joe Wilson was pilloried to create a diversion for it. But, there was no getting around this simple fact - President Obama hardened his stance on nationalizing healthcare and the ‘public option’. In his September 2009 address to Congress, he reiterated his commitment to ramming through a socialist agenda regardless of its consequences and despite the safeguards provided in the Constitution. Our President, the one who promised a transparent administration, careful and open review of pending laws, and bipartisan agreement on major issues, would fundamentally remake America if given half a chance. Even the Russians are alarmed.

Barack Obama is the champion, the chief enabler, the high priest of entitlement, pork barrel politics and class warfare. His address before Congress was divisive, corrosive and loaded with vitriol aimed at his perceived enemies and detractors. He obfuscated, embellished, bamboozled, misled, misrepresented, parsed and basically lied throughout the speech. While Republicans held up copies of plans that had been repeatedly ignored by Democrat legislators and the White House, Obama cooed and fluttered his eyelids, promising to look at any good idea placed before him. So much for hope and change.

The Democrats want to nationalize the best-performing sector of the economy, citing increased costs and inequality of care. Yes indeed the “costs” have been increasing — and so have the available cures, remedies and options for the sick. Twenty years ago were was no such thing as angioplasty at any price. Today, it is a common lifesaving procedure. Twenty years ago no angioplasties were performed. Today, thousands are performed every day. This adds to the “cost” of healthcare, but it also puts productive Americans back to work. And once at work, they pay taxes. Angioplasties also cost less than bypass surgery, the only option available twenty years ago. In other words, the medical sector of the economy is growing, creating more jobs, more opportunities, more productive benefit to the nation as whole. Innovation drives new technology that saves more lives and returns those people to a productive life more quickly and with fewer side effects. It is for the most part market-driven even though it is highly regulated, heavily taxed and repeatedly preyed upon by the unscrupulous.

To criticize this growth would be equivalent to criticizing Ford Motor Company for selling more cars this year compared to last year. It would be like characterizing increased sales of new cars as increasing the cost of transportation to Americans. That is the specious argument that Democrats have made. They are lying to the American public, obscuring the fact that healthcare systems continue to improve in the efficient delivery of care to every American. The reason why the healthcare sector has grown is primarily because the volume and choice of medical services have grown - as should be the case with any healthy sector of the economy.

Our healthcare system is a technological wonder that cannot be duplicated anywhere else in the world. There is little reason to fear that China or India could somehow create a cheaper knockoff. Even if they could, it would benefit only their own people – if their governments allowed them to access that care. Top-quality healthcare can’t be imported or exported. Hundreds of thousands flock to the US for elective and cosmetic surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment. They place themselves in the care of highly trained and highly motivated doctors, nurses, technicians and various healthcare specialists. The US is the epicenter of medical advances, drug development and treatment options. And yet, Obama and the Democrats are firmly resolved to destroy it.

Why destroy such a vital part of the economy? Because it stands in the way of making Democrats and Obama voterproof. If the Democrats were ever able to dispense healthcare the way they dispense political favors and government dollars, their dependents would never vote them out of office. By controlling your health, Democrats control your body and therefore control your life. Once you’re standing on line for daily medications, you’re nothing more than a serf. The Democrats can do with you what they wish. That appears to be their plan. They don’t care about innovation and they certainly don’t care about bringing the cost down otherwise they wouldn’t be talking about penalties and taxing medical benefits.

Think about it: How does taxing the average middle-class wage earner’s medical benefits lower that wage earner’s medical costs? How does it make health coverage better? The answer is it doesn’t do anything to benefit the middle-class wage earner, who’s going to end up paying for other peoples’ healthcare through higher insurance premiums, taxes on medical devices, taxes on employer-paid plans and taxes hidden in every layer of the healthcare delivery system.

And yes, Obama did lie: He will extend medical coverage to illegal aliens, except they won’t be illegal when the benefits kick in. In the few short months by when medical coverage is offered, Obama will have granted amnesty to those illegals. In the meanwhile, illegal aliens will continue to get their medical services paid for as they have been for decades - by municipalities, counties and states who in turn tax the rest of us. He’s using a very simple political calculus — those who benefit from government-run healthcare and pay nothing for it will outvote those who pay for their own private insurance AND government-run healthcare for others.

Obama’s plan calls for penalties if citizens don’t sign up for a public insurance plan. But, he never mentions those who can’t afford it, don’t work, don’t want to work or are incapable of working. What happens to them? In fact, the Congressional Budget Office calculated that after all is said and done, after the Obama administration has turned the entire healthcare industry into a government program, 25 million Americans may remain uninsured. What?! That was the entire reason this healthcare debate was ignited in the first place! What Obama is proposing would then create a huge new tax burden for middle-class Americans, destroy the most vital sector of our economy and still fail to provide healthcare for 25 million Americans. This is sheer insanity. Or is it? Maybe, this is a calculated move to grab power and install a socialist regime.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have flogged their respective Democrat legislators to fall in line behind a public option that is an out-and-out socialist power grab. Once enacted, it will give Democrats incredible power over the electorate, which could explain this manufactured crisis and the campaign of lies that envelopes healthcare legislation. Once these people have you under their control, it’s unlikely they will relinquish it without a struggle.

When we last left our intrepid President, he was using his special coded phrases during the Notre Dame commencement speech to tell us clearly that he intended to ‘re-make’ America into something other than what it was or is. It didn’t take more than a single, distant voice to throw him off his teleprompter read, and he didn’t regain his tempo until that person was silenced. But, he did manage to get back on track and delivered his usual stirring, if Orwellian, spiel. And, in what can only be described as Olympic-level semantics and mental gymnastics, he proposed that the right wing nut cases (his inference, not this writer’s) and the compassionate, intelligent left (once again, his inference, not this writer’s) find a middle ground, as if there can be a middle ground between right and wrong, or good and evil acts. The abortion issue is just another instance where Obama obfuscates his radical position with conciliatory language that holds no meaning or commitment on his part or that of the Democratic Party.

But, it was the teleprompter thing, again. Ask anyone who speaks from a well-grounded understanding of their moral or political conviction, or who speaks with a clarity of vision that only a moral imperative can drive, and you’ll find that they can easily overcome a balky teleprompter, a noisy crowd or a mass of hecklers to deliver their message. This actor, this poseur Obama, can’t seem to do it. He’s rattled by the simplest of glitches, he’s peeved when someone asks a question that’s not on the list and he’s angered when someone doesn’t kiss his butt. This is a dangerous person. He believes his own press releases and his great ‘mission’. This is a charismatic orator and personality who can perform on the level of a Hitler or a Mao, both of whom were incredibly charismatic speakers and with mere words drove their nations over the brink and into madness. The only difference here is that someone else is writing those speeches, which would or could imply that someone else is calling the shots and doing the thinking.

So, it’s back to trying to figure out who is or are the brains behind Barack Obama. This week’s candidate is Jeffrey Immelt, chairman of General Electric, which happens to own NBC, CNBC, MSNBC and scores of local TV and radio stations. Now, GE hasn’t done particularly well under Jeffrey Immelt, especially the ill-conceived “Eco-Imagination” drive to push GE’s various ‘green’ businesses. Despite 8 years of constant flogging by Al Gore and Robert Kennedy, Jr., Americans just haven’t been all that interested in environmental issues. GE is over-invested and over-leveraged in the alternative energy sector, especially wind power, because the other nations who’ve tried wind power already know it’s useless and are dialing back. Jeffrey’s in trouble. So, why not throw your support behind a candidate who will gladly carry your water for you when he’s president? And by the way, Jeffrey can have his TV network scorch the competition just to make sure that Obama gets elected.

How about that national health care? Here’s another potential GE bonanza. After all, GE is one of the largest makers of medical equipment in the world. A huge government spending spree would do wonders for that profit/loss statement and Jeffrey’s personal bonus package. And then of course, there’s GE Capital. No, they’re not a bank, but they did receive $240 billion (more than anyone else) in TARP money to save GE Capital’s balance sheet and Jeffrey’s summer home in the Hampton’s. But don’t worry, they’re going to pay it back with PPIP money - the Private Public Investment Program that promised to screw American taxpayers in a way they’ve never been screwed before. Unlike TARP, GE can borrow all the money it wants and never pay it back. Why? Because Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner set it up that way. More on that in this week’s home page article.

In any case, Jeffrey Immelt could be a plausible choice as Barack’s brain. The lag in response time, the carefully crafted words all sound like typical corporate newspeak. Or is it typical political newspeak? In fact, is there any difference? Immelt, like Obama, is a politician. He controls vast amounts of money that doesn’t belong to him. He will do whatever he needs to do to advance his personal agenda, and he doesn’t care who gets hurt. Is our man Jeffrey Barack’s brain? Our next installment on the hunt for Barack’s brain takes an unexpected turn…

Barack and Michelle Obama chose not to send their daughters to Washington DC public schools. Not surprisingly, Barack Obama adamantly opposes choice for children attending DC public schools, characterized as the nation’s worst public school system. This is not an unusual stance for a Democratic politician. The Democratic Party in general doesn’t want any choice in education, reflecting the wishes of its major constituents - teacher unions, public employee unions, socialist activists and the ACLU. For those unfamiliar with the true mission of the ACLU, removing parental choice and parental influence in education is one of its highest priorities. ACLU members are and always have been dedicated to a socialist agenda. The ACLU is and always has been wedded to the Democratic Party.

Therefore, Democrats are unfailingly opposed to any reforms of the public education system or any serious competition. Charter schools have found Democratic politicians to consistently adversarial. Further, a good many Democrats are supporting a nationwide ban on home schooling because it poses a minor threat to the hegemony of the union-controlled public system. As test scores sink, truancy and dropout rates increase, the National Education Association and its rival American Federation of Teachers can only offer a single solution - more money. This despite the fact that the US spends more than twice as much as the next biggest spender, and still ranks 55th in scholastic achievement globally.

Teacher unions, academics and schools of education ignore calls for reform. Study after study has shown that the techniques and fads embraced by public educators and many college professors are flawed, stupid and wildly inappropriate. And still, the education monopoly plows forward, confident in its political heft and gamesmanship.

One need only to watch as DC school chancellor Michelle Rhee attempts to reward good teachers and fire incompetent teachers. The firestorm has now involved not only teacher unions and the ACLU, but Congress itself, simply because the chancellor wants to strip tenure away from truly bad teachers. But, why should elementary and secondary public school teachers get tenure when 60% of college professors don’t have tenure? In fact, tenure doesn’t even belong in public schools in the first place. The concept of tenure was developed in the late 1800s to protect the religious beliefs of a college professor, can you believe it? And here, teacher unions have applied tenure to the protection of incompetent, even dangerous, teachers who are screwing up our kids. And the Democrats back them 100 percent.

Democrats have no problem backing the teacher unions and the ACLU. After all, incompetent teachers create ignorant citizens. Ignorant citizen don’t discriminate between BS and reality when it comes to political discourse. Ignorant citizens can make their way to the voting booth as easily as informed citizens. Unions provide shuttle buses for the ones who can’t find voting booths on their own. For Democrats, a screwed up public education system is all upside and no downside. It perpetuates and grows a solid, consistent voting bloc. Could it be that Democrats are so cynical and self-serving that they are perfectly willing to ruin millions of lives, destroy this country’s future and impair opportunity for the sake of power? You betcha.

The $25 billion in taxpayer dollars granted (not a loan, but a gift) to US carmakers is not actually intended to keep these companies afloat. Rather, this is a payoff to labor unions for their unwavering support of the Democratic Party and its near-total sweep of Congress and the White House. The $25 billion, and the next $25 billion and whatever follows is largely earmarked for union workers, their health benefits and their pensions. And, it keeps union bosses flush with money from dues and ‘management fees’ derived from handling medical benefits and pensions investments. Very little of that taxpayer money will be used to develop new transportation technologies or enhance current vehicle technologies. And no, it won’t be used to develop high-mileage vehicles.

Because nearly everyone in America suffers from long-term memory loss, it’s important to understand what’s going on in Detroit and the impact this is going to have on the rest of the country. Two years ago, GM was able to shift its pension and benefits liabilities to the United Auto Workers, which gladly accepted this enormous responsibility. Ford and Chrysler will follow. Why? Because the UAW knew that if Democrats were in power, it would have no problem shifting these liabilities to the federal government and have all Americans chip in to cover their operating expenses and salaries. They’ve succeeded. Their plan has been executed to perfection. Now, it’s just a matter of cashing the checks from Washington.

In case this doesn’t make any sense to the reader, one must understand the perverted logic behind it all. It’s quite chilling. Union bosses actually don’t give a damn about the carmakers or the workers they claim to represent. They care about themselves and the union organization. They are perfectly willing to put the carmakers out of business and screw their own members out of pensions and benefits as long as the union continues to flourish. They can run the pensions into the ground, knowing that the Obama administration and a Democrat-controlled Congress will continue to bail them out until the cows come home. Sound familiar? It’s similar to what the parasites on Wall Street did — run their businesses irresponsibly, knowing that the government would be forced to make them whole at the taxpayer’s expense. It’s called moral hazard, a term everyone in America should get really familiar with. Look it up on wikipedia.org

The Producer or Parasite? blog, website and all of its features are aimed at the general public - those who have only a mild interest in politics, society and where this country is headed. The goal is to get these Americans a bit more involved in the political process or to at least be aware of what’s going on. Although political wonks, junkies and insiders are more than welcome, there are plenty of other sources more focused on specific issues and more scholarly in their approach. Producer or Parasite? is not and will never be a think tank or conservative news outlet. That’s not the mission. Rather, this blog and website is here to ask questions that John Q. Public might have and then answer it in a way John Q. Public can grasp. It becomes a question of balance: where to set the bar so that every reader gets something out of the posts and weekly columns. What’s becoming obvious is the huge gap between the politically aware and the average American.

A recent study concluded that most Americans know little about the Constitution, that there are actually three branches of government, or that Presidents can’t declare wars or make treaties. And, too many Americans think the electoral college exists to prepare a citizen for public office. Further, most Americans cannot name the Speaker of the House, the Senate Majority Leader or the House Majority Leader, much less understand what they’re really up to. We’ve voted in a new President based on sound bites and saturation advertising. Europeans are laughing at us. Terrorists are sharpening their knives.

How did Americans become so utterly ignorant of their situation? Theories abound, but it’s probably just a result of the extraordinarily poor education received in public schools compounded by a media culture that doesn’t value academics or critical thinking in any form. Actually, it’s rather ironic: the failure of public education actually protects and enriches those most responsible for that failure. Ain’t America great?

Ann Coulter has had a taste of what liberals will do if you disagree with them, having been assaulted at almost every college campus where she has been invited to speak. What threat could Ms. Coulter pose that college students feel the need to bombard her with vegetables, push her from the stage and hold unruly demonstrations? Apparently dissent and debate is not something liberals can easily tolerate if it’s directed toward them. Karl Rove was similarly accosted by an antiwar activist while onstage during a panel discussion. Funny, no high-profile liberal has ever been pelted with fruit by a group of young conservatives. Al Franken has never had to suffer the humiliation of picking rotten tomatoes out of his hair or trying to outshout some idiot with a bullhorn and yet he encourages, even demands, the very same action be taken against his conservative opponents. 

And then, there are the thugs - the ones that show up to disrupt speeches, meetings and events being held by conservatives. The mainstream media spends little time examining the motives and resources of liberal thugs. When they are mentioned, it’s almost always in the context that the targeted conservative truly deserved to be assaulted, or that the conservative’s viewpoints where somehow dangerously inflammatory, controversial or racist. Therefore, these thugs were fully justified in their actions.

The thugs appear wherever pressure is required. St. Paul, Minnesota is probably not a hotbed of liberal thuggery and so one can assume that they were imported specifically for the 2008 Republican convention. Who paid for their travel, food and lodging? It could be some of the many liberal front organizations that receive money from wealthy donors like George Soros or Peter Lewis through intermediaries. The money could have come indireclty from the campaign coffers of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, or possibly the Democratic National Committee. It’s easy to do. If the Obama campaign can accept millions of dollars in untraceable prepaid credit card donations, it’s likely the money can flow out of the campaigns in equally devious ways. The more likely scenario are private foundations that laundered the money through several layers of middlemen. In any case, liberals feel that the ends justify the means. If a little muscle can get us all to the promised land just a little quicker, so much the better. Lenin would agree.

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.

Senator Barack Obama is now President-Elect Obama. The crowds went wild in Grant Park and Times Square. Certainly, it’s a historic event - an African American candidate breaks the color barrier. But, there are many more accomplished and experienced African Americans who were ignored by their own parties, the media and voters in general. Why this guy? In any case, we’re stuck with our choices good, bad or indifferent. The Obama administration and a largely Democratic Congress will now shove through legislation and programs that will grow government and limit our personal and economic freedoms. It will be unprecedented in American history. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a socialist elitist who firmly believed in and enforced a class hierarchy in the US. Lyndon Baines Johnson was a socialist elitist who firmly believed in a morally and ethicly ambivalent society. But, neither man was so brazen as to promise he would dismantle the protections of the Constitution and call for an internal, civilian security force equal in power and funding to our military. And neither man openly promised forced redistribution of wealth, pitting one class of Americans against another.

This will come as a rude shock to those who think that Obama will pay for their gasoline, pay their mortgages and give them ‘free’ health care. It will never happen. Instead, every form of taxation will be increased and new taxes will be instituted. Everyone will suffer. If you thought medical care was expensive, time-consuming and frustrating, wait until the government gets involved. You’ll be waiting line for an aspirin. There is nothing that our government does exceptionally well, with a few colossally expensive exceptions — aerospace and defense. And the reason these two areas can point to incredible technical and operational achievements is because cost, the taxpayer’s liability, is no object. Get ready for a $20 bottle of aspirin coming to a drugstore near you. Oh, that triple bypass that will save your life? You’ll have to wait 10 years. But, if you’re politically connected, perhaps a Democratic party apparatchik, you’ll be in and out in 4 days.

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.