We’re all socialists now
“I got a letter the other day from a woman. She said, ‘I don’t want government-run health care. I don’t want socialized medicine. And don’t touch my Medicare.'” – President Barack Obama, at a town hall meeting in 2009
A few days ago, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley fired off a series of hostile tweets about Democrats.
She wrote, “2020 was the year socialism went mainstream. The dangerous ideology, which has failed everywhere it has been tried & ruined countless lives, is on its way to becoming the default economic policy of the Democratic Party.”
Say what?
First, it’s a little silly for a woman who once toiled in the fields of Donald Trump to discuss the “default economic” policies of anybody.
Because Trump, like most presidents, has added to the national debt.
Aside from that, she just happened to post that tweet on the very day that Trump was pushing to line the pockets of Americans with $2,000 in stimulus money.
Yep! We’re all socialists now.
Not only that, many of Haley’s fellow Republicans in Congress joined Democrats in voting to hand out that stimulus cash.
Haley should know better.
She doesn’t.
She’s considered to be a possible future presidential candidate.
She’ll have to find more creative ways to attack her opponents than to call them “socialists” who engage in “socialism.”
People love their government largess. They just don’t want to be reminded it had been served up through something called “government.”
They love to ride along highways (maintained by the government); they send their children to public schools (paid for by the government); go to public parks; they enjoy all of those streetlights; garbage collection; snow removal; and-on-and-on-and-on – as long as somebody hides the fact that by getting those things, you don’t always have to pay a cent to get them.
They’re all some form of SOCIALISM.
So, these constant sneers Republicans make against the “socialist” tendencies of Democrat, are tiresome.
A few years ago, Republican Congressman Robert Inglis of South Carolina remarked that somebody told him at a town hall meeting, “Keep your government hands off my Medicare.”
Inglis tried to explain the incongruity of that statement. But the person never quite caught on.
If we ever desired to live “socialism-free,” perhaps what happened in rural Tennessee in late September 2010 might be a lesson worth examining.
Gene Cranick lost everything in a fire. He wouldn’t have if he’d only paid his fee for a county-wide firefighting service because he lived beyond the county limits of Obion County. That was supposed to have been mandatory.
When firefighters arrived at Cranick’s burning home, they refused to extinguish the flames.
All because Cranick hadn’t paid his $75 homeowner fee.
He lost three dogs and a cat. And, oh, of course, his entire house.
A little bit of socialism would’ve helped him save everything.
If your neighbor calls the police, officers don’t ask for cash to arrest a burglar. That neighbor may have never paid a single tax dollar for police protection.
It just doesn’t work that way.
Sure, when you buy stamps, you’re effectively paying to send letters through the mail. But you certainly don’t pay anything to receive letters.
That’s a form of socialism.
Republicans are convinced everything should be pay-as-you-go as far as the government is concerned. It has hardly ever been that way.
You don’t have to be a property owner to send your children to school.
One of the common definitions of “socialism” is, “Socialism is taxpayer funds being used collectively to benefit society as a whole, despite income, contribution, or ability.”
I’m sure that anybody reading this with the hope of getting a COVID-19 vaccination won’t have to worry about paying for it.
That, too, is a form of socialism.
We’re surrounded by something that Republicans swear is bad for us.
I’m not talking about changing anything. I’m merely saying we should stop allowing people to define who we are.
Especially if those same people gladly engage in the same activity.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 40-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.