http://crosshairs.archangelsandwitticism.com/2010/03/08/hey-bill-if-it-walks-like-a-duck.aspx About two weeks ago Bill O'Reilly started his program on Fox News discussing Socialism in America, here is an excerpt:
"A recent Gallup Poll is simply incredible: 36% of Americans have a positive view of socialism, including 53% of Democrats. A socialist believes the government has the right to control and/or seize private property and regulate the distribution of goods and services. That means the government has all the power, and you have none. And 53% of Democrats think that's a positive thing? Gallup says it didn't define 'socialism' and therefore some of the respondents simply don't know what socialism is. Even so, the poll is disturbing because there is a trend by the Obama administration to expand the federal government and redistribute wealth. It is long past time for Americans to wake up - the far left wants to diminish personal power and impose social justice on the nation. They want to erode our personal freedoms in order to right what they consider wrongs brought about by capitalism. Talking Points believes that will not happen, and the more exposure this quasi-socialism gets, the more Americans will object. America was founded on hard work, personal responsibility and honest achievement. Socialism has no place in the USA."
Later Bill expresses his opinion that he does not believe Obama is a "Socialist."
When this aired, two weeks ago, I was going to write about this debate but as we all know time slips by and well, instead I just let this simmer in the old brainpan until I thought that the time to discuss this socialist label had passed. The reason I am writing about it now is because it hasn't gone away. Bill is still randomly asking some of his quests if they believe Obama is a socialist, and most of them have refused to call Obama what he is, a socialist.
Now I watch the O'Reilly Factor almost every night and I agree with many of the things that the host has to say, but not all. I give O'Reilly and his coworkers at Fox News a lot of credit for giving us the chance to form our own opinions about what is going on. But even though I do not expect to agree with what Bill says all of the time, some of the things he states are a bit worrisome.
For example Bill has stated that he believes Obama is generally a nice guy who wants to do what is best for the country. Sorry, after Obama's harmful left wing agenda of the last year, that dog won't hunt here.
For one Obama may be a nice guy to those close to him or to those who can do him favors, and he certainly displays a pleasant persona in public, but he has repeatedly shown that he is more than willing to throw friends and relatives under the bus when it helps him. Basically nice guys don't sacrifice their grandmother's reputations for political purposes. In other unguarded moments Obama has made it clear how he really feels about the bible and gun clutching American people. Nice guys don't smile at you when you're face to face and then scorn you behind your back.
Not to mention that if Obama was really only trying to do what is best for the country, as a politician, he would be a very rare bird indeed.
Likewise Bill has stated that Obama "is an intelligent guy." What proof he has of this I do not know because all of Obama's academic records are well hidden. This proof of intelligence is certainly not reflected in Obama's disastrous first year in office, or with his inability to carry on a conversation, news conference or speech, or even tell us how many States are in the Union, without the ever present teleprompters. For that mater Obama cannot correctly pronounce "corpsman" on even his third try with his teleprompters. While Obama has been smart enough to hoodwink a lot of people, that is not really a major accomplishment, just ask any used car salesman how easy that can be.
My personal theory on how Obama came to be known as an intellectual was from the numerous Ayers and Dohrn parties the Obama's attended. Everybody just knew that when it came to Trivial Pursuit, the Euro-Soviet Version of course, you wanted to make sure that Barry was on your side.
Meanwhile Obama has clearly shown that he is not intelligent enough to listen to the American people, or even the pollsters.
On the other hand O'Reilly's educational background is well documented and shows that he "is an intelligent guy." Like Obama, O'Reilly attended Harvard, unlike Obama, O'Reilly actually writes his own books. Surely someone as well educated as O'Reilly should know a socialist when he sees one, right?
Yet despite Obama's repeated socialist ravings about "spreading the wealth", his overbearing insistence on a socialistic, unconstitutional national health care plan, his takeover of banks, GM and Chrysler, his meddling in the unions and his desire to see 'card check', along with his agenda of 'cap and trade', Bill states that his refusal to call Obama a socialist is because Obama has not yet tired to take "control and/or seize private property."
But I ask what were GM and Chrysler if not "private property"? What about the banks and unions that are now being controlled by the Federal government? What of the Feds now determining private corporate salaries and bonuses? Isn't that controlling private property? Apparently Bill has a checklist of socialist wrongdoings and until Obama checks off everything on that list Obama should still be considered a capitalist.
After a full year of Obama's definite, unbridled socialistic agenda Bill still refers to it as "quasi-socialism"? Excuse me Bill but everything this Administration has pushed in this past year has been socialistic, there is nothing "quasi-socialism" about it.
Total socialism is not going to happen overnight. The Left has been making steady progress for the last sixty years to get to where they are now. Today Obama takes over GM, tomorrow he uses the "nuclear option" to force socialist heath care down our throats and in the not too distant future we arise one morning to find Old Glory replaced by the Obama "Pepsi" flag flying over the White House.
So if Bill is waiting for Obama to come in and confiscate his home before he admits that Obama is a socialist, well, when that day comes Bill will have waited too long to help any of those Americans he mentioned who might not know what a socialist is.
Yet one might forgive Bill his reluctance to label Obama. Certainly Fox News has an agenda, although certainly not as corrupt as say MSNBC, but one must understand that Bill O'Reilly and Fox still have set some goals. Perhaps Bill is reluctant to call Obama what he really is in the hope that Obama will once again grant Bill an interview? That is after all what Bill does for a living. Or maybe it is because even despite of Bill's own conservative leanings, O'Reilly is still an East Coast intellectual, and we all know how academics, especially those Ivy Leaguers, love to debate things before they can settle on anything.
But out here in every day, raise the kids, get up and go to work, Middle America most of us don't have the time or inclination to waste our days debating the true colors of a man's character and philosophies. We take a man for his word and judge him by the faithfulness of his words and by his actions to determine who that man is and what he stands for, thus there is little use for any unnecessary debate. Here in Middle America if somebody sticks his hand in our pocket we don't wait until he withdraws our wallets before we call him a thief.
I also have to disagree with Bill about many of us not knowing what a socialist is. Most of us have spent our lifetime watching the depraved socialism of the USSR, China and Cuba. We have sadly watched as socialism has encroached upon our system of government and upon our European allies. We well know what socialism is and how it plots to end our way of life. Heck, most of us learned all we really needed to know about the evils of socialism just by watching Dr. Zhivago. But many others of us saw first hand the atrocities of socialism by fighting in Korea and South Vietnam.
Likewise it matters little to us what label you wish to apply, be it socialism, communism, fascism, progressivism, Marxism or Liberalism. They all boil down to the same unconstitutional, anti-American agenda that is now upon us from our very own White House and Congress.
Most of us who did not vote for Obama already knew that he was a socialist. Liberals who voted for him also knew, and that is why they voted for him. Others may have been fooled into thinking that Obama was at worst a Centralist, but if they still believe this then they are beyond help anyway. Indeed it did not matter to most of the 97% of African-Americans voters who voted for him what his political philosophy was. Sadly too many of them voted for Obama for the same reason they cheered when OJ got away with murder.
So Bill you can continue to debate and to ask your guests if they believe Obama is a socialist until the cows come home. We here in Middle America already know the answer.
Middle America simply says it like it is, for when it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck. And Bill your duck came out of his socialist closet kicking and screaming years ago.
Now all we have to do is wait until Obama kicks open that Muslim closet door, and I believe he already has his fingers on the handle.
God Bless America
Semper Fi,
Mike
"Copyright 2010. Michael E. Tank All rights reserved. No part of this document may be copied, faxed, electronically transmitted, or in any other manner duplicated without express written permission of the author."
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