Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Duke that unified Germany in the mid-1800s once said that the average citizen who upholds the law and enjoys his sausage wouldn’t want to see how either is made. The same can be said of parasites who’ve harmed this country and its citizens. Using the institutions of democracy - the right to vote, the right of free speech and assembly, an open legislature, an impartial judiciary and the separation of powers, the parasites and their champions have short-circuited the safeguards put in place by the writers of the Constitution. And they were provided cover by a biased and agenda-driven media cabal.

Enemies of the American way of life have been at it for some time and have refined their craft to an art form. They comprise a large part of the Democratic Party and its patrons, themselves top-tier parasites. Everyone thinks parasites are those who simply don’t want to work or are looking for a free handout. Actually, top-tier parasites work very hard for their piece of the action. What makes them parasites is that their reward is so gigantically out of proportion for their efforts.

Think of the lawyers who ‘represented’ taxpayers in every state against Big Tobacco. Who made billions? Certainly not the states who brought suit against the tobacco companies, nor those sickened by or dying of smoking-related illnesses. Individual lawyers charged the states they were representing as much as $39,000 an hour for their services, based on the percentages they exacted from the awards paid by Big Tobacco.

Then there are the union bosses who live off the dues collected from industrial workers for whom they provide so little in the way of promises made. By the way, if you’re an influential liberal, you can serve on the boards or regional councils of a few non-profit liberal political action committees and collect a stipend from each. It’s possible to earn $200,000 a year for part-time work. Not bad by anyones’ standards.

Lobbyists. Consultants. Academics. The list goes on and on. Well-educated. Smart. Well-connected. It’s like a club. Except, you the taxpayer don’t belong. Only your paycheck does. You have little say about how the money is spent or who gets that money. Unlike a private charity, you can’t dictate where the government spends your money, even though our Constitution absolutely grants you the right and privilege to do so. Your concerns and misgivings about where this country is headed will be dismissed as stupid, regressive and possibly racist. You can’t possibly know as much as the liberal elite. Don’t question their motives or their results. They know what’s best for you.

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.

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.