A few days ago, I saw a bumper sticker that said:
Socialism. I didn't vote for it.
WTF?!? Since when did this country turn socialist?
We still have a free market economy. The economy isn't centrally planned or dictated by the government. Our citizens aren't taxed to the hilt for comprehensive social services like medical care. Most of our basic personal freedoms aren't sacrificed to benefit the state -- the social order, where we sacrifice many of what one would consider basic human rights to the government in order to guarantee prosperity, doesn't exist in the US.
The US is FAR from socialist. It is very much free market capitalism that runs this country.
It offends the fuck out of me that just because President Obama is trying to achieve economic/social/political equality for ALL Americans, there are people that have the gall to call his goals socialist.
Didn't a Republican create Social Security and other safety nets that many of us have used at one time or another? Didn't a Republican abolish slavery and then fought a war to keep the country together? Didn't Republicans enact many of the laws that protect American workers from exploitation and harm? Or try this: Didn't Republicans create the laws that protect business and insure that everyone has an equal chance?
Yet Republicans are the ones that want to dismantle or make a mockery of these innovations that make our system of government unique and the envy of the world.
People are too gullible these days and are willing to listen to whatever they wish, as long as it fits into their beliefs. However, they need to learn how to see things from a balanced point of view. Learn how to get the facts from various sources. It's time that the mentality "Just because so-and-so says it's the truth, it is the truth" ends. That's pure bullshit. People like these are one of the reasons all is all messed up with this country, because they are too willing to let people feed them the truth, instead of discovering it for themselves.
Case in point: One of my closest and dearest friends, a staunch Republican, constantly complains that the majority Democratic government in his state, is one of the many reasons why he can't get ahead. What he fails to see -- and I decline to point this out to him, as we have a compact that whilst we can bitch about the other party, we will not try to change our respective opinions, and engage in debate -- is that his party is a primary source of why he can't. Their policies don't support him, his needs or his aspirations. However, with the advent of the Affordable Health Care Act, he hopes to benefit from one of the few pieces of bipartisan legislation that is President Obama's legacy.
Anyway, there are people that may feel my line of reasoning flawed. Perhaps it is. But at least I'm looking at the whole picture from multiple points of view and trying to be objective.
