Where are we headed?

On the eve of perhaps the most transformational election in our nation’s history, let us hearken to the ominous prediction of Norman Thomas, the Socialist Party USA’s most successful presidential candidate (and founder of the ACLU): "The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

Most people seem to scoff at the suggestion that Barack Obama is a socialist, or that his “spread the wealth around” and “bring about redistributive change” comments indicate socialist leanings.

I don’t.

I acknowledge that he’s not a member of the Socialist Party USA. He doesn’t have to be. He’s a Democrat, a progressive Democrat, and the most liberal Democrat in the US Senate. Why buy the cow when you’re getting the milk for free? Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, is the only senator that may be to the left of Obama, and is an Independent (but caucuses with Dems, of course). At least he’s honest enough to admit his intentions. Barack Obama is not.

I don’t hold out much hope for this election because, sadly, the electorate’s voting trend over several decades may give credence to an observation Norman Thomas made near the end of his life: “The difference between Democrats and Republicans is: Democrats have accepted some ideas of Socialism cheerfully, while Republicans have accepted them reluctantly.” (Recent example: Bipartisan support for the financial bailout.)

Too many Americans have become too comfortable with government providing too many services to too many people. And it may be too late to stop the progressive juggernaut.

The Democrats owned the White House, the Senate, and the Congress in 1933 when FDR’s New Deal legislation flew thru his famous Hundred Days (with Republican support).

The Democrats owned the White House, the Senate, and the Congress in 1964 when LBJ’s Great Society legislation installed another round of progressive programs.

If the Democrats own the White House, the Senate, and the Congress in 2009, will BHO embark on yet another ambitious agenda to create the Amerika that he envisions?

Never mind that many of those programs were intended to be temporary to address problems-of-the-day and retired when things got better; as the brilliant economist Milton Friedman said “There’s nothing so permanent as a temporary government program.”

The one thing we can be thankful to Comrade Obama for, although it hasn’t seemed to matter to so many Americans who just want “a chance to make history”, is that he hasn’t denied the permanence of his Universal Healthcare dream or his return to highly progressive tax rates. (The latter will most likely result in an actual reduction of proceeds to the Treasury, as the reverse of the principle that a significant cut in tax rates usually increases real collections.)

In summation, I fear that an Obama victory portends a bleak future for the formula of free market entrepreneurial capitalism, individual responsibility & autonomy, and voluntary personal charity that have made this country the greatest experiment in human governance of all time.
As P.J. O’Rourke put it, “America wasn't founded so that we could all be better. America was founded so we could all be anything we damned well pleased.”