Economics

Vladimir Lenin, the Marxist leader who helped establish the Soviet Union, which lasted in Russia from 1917 to 1991

The following article by Stanislav Mishin is stunning–coming from a man that writes for Pravda–the former Soviet Union communist propaganda organ. Maybe it takes a Russian who’s experienced communism personally to remind us Americans that ideas have consequences. He also wisely reminds us that “the one thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history.” And those who fail to take history seriously are condemned to repeat it.

I’m fascinated by Mishin’s astute analysis of what has led America down the road to socialism-communism. He sights the dumbing down of education, the Church, and the rise of Barack Obama. If he is correct, then we need to pray for a renewal of education in America, a great revival in the Church, and a change of political leadership. May we be faithful. RB

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath-taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless “sheeple”, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their “right” to choke down a McDonalds burger or a Burger King burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our “democracy”. Pride blinds the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different “branches and denominations” were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the “winning” side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the “winning” side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America’s short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American Congress (parliament). Again, Congress has put up little more then a whimper.

Then came Barak Obama’s command that GM’s (General Motors) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of “pure” free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise that the American president has followed this up with a “bold” move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK’s Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster.

Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our “wise” Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper…but a “freeman” whimper.

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democrat-controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set “fair” maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is.

The world will only snicker.

Barack Obama ran on the slogan “Change You Can Believe In.” Since his administration came to power in January, many Americans and people from all over the world have wondered what those changes will be. Would he be a far left ideologue (he was the most liberal-voting US Senator), would he govern from a center-left position (Bill & Hillary Clinton), or would he form a bi-partisan coalition from both sides of the political spectrum to deal with the nation’s problems (John McCain)?

I have also anxiously watched the moves of the new administration and listened to much commentary on the style and policies of our 44th president. I’ve heard the term “socialist” used to describe the new president. Some have even wondered whether there are “communist” leanings among his appointees and approach to various policies.

Like many of you I’ve been intermittently prayerful, worried, frustrated, burdened, and confused about the road America appears to be taking in 2009. The bad signs include:

• The federal government passing a “stimulus package” that increased our debt by nearly one trillion dollars. It was too much debt that got us into this mess.
• The so-called stimulus package contained over 9,000 pork barrel earmarks–basically paybacks to certain groups and constituencies that voted in our current leaders.
• Certain banks, financial institutions, and now the auto industry have been partially nationalized. Government is becoming the master of some businesses, their profits, even salaries.
• Now we’re about to add a nearly four trillion dollar Federal budget–meaning that in less than one hundred days, Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress will have spent more than all past presidents and Congresses combined. Remember that four trillion dollars is equivalent to spending four million dollars a day since the birth of Jesus Christ.
• Certainly all this out-of-control spending will lead dangerous inflationary pressures, the tanking of the dollar, and maybe even a Depression.

On April 3, 2009, during the G20 summit in Europe, Barack Obama announced, “Let me say this as clearly as I can: America is changing.” What does he mean? What direction does he want to take us?

I think I finally know.

Many years ago I learned during my basketball-playing days that you can’t be effective on offense if you don’t understand the defense you’re up against.  That understanding will dictate your offensive strategy. We the people of faith and commitment to the American Dream must understand what we are up against in 2009 in order to win the battle for our nation and civilization.

We are fighting against an American version of fascism.

Let me explain.

A very prophetic and insightful book was written in 2007–well ahead of the 2008 elections. Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg became a New York Times #1 best-seller. I read it soon after it debuted and marked it up extensively. Though I thought it was a little extreme two years ago, I realize now Goldberg was amazingly prescient about the changes some people wanted to bring to America. Barack Obama, not willing to let “a good crisis go to waste” is now the supreme change agent. The change in the air is moving America from freedom to fascism.

What is fascism? Here’s the Webster’s definition: “a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.” Oxford scholar and historian Robert Paxton further explains that “fascism is a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victim hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.”

Do Moveon.org, ACORN, or blame-America first community activists come to mind?

Goldberg points out that fascist states like Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany didn’t nationalize all businesses. They just controlled enough private businesses to achieve their social and political ends. Whereas socialism is total control of industry, and communism is complete control at gunpoint, fascism is a milder version of the same philosophy–a “partnership” between government elites and private commerce for the collective purposes of the “common good.” That’s where we’re headed in America today.

Jonah Goldberg states that American fascism has been a long time in the making. Teddy Roosevelt had fascist tendencies; Woodrow Wilson was the first truly fascist American leader. An intellectual, like Obama, he pursued grand visions for global government–the league of Nations which morphed into the UN; Franklin Roosevelt’s New deal was a quantum step forward in government control of private industry; LBJ’s Great Society was the social program format, and even some Republican presidents allowed the tentacles of Big Government to invade private industry under their watch.

Yet, the American version of fascism has a unique face. Goldberg says, “the American fascist tradition is deeply bound up with the effort to “Europeanize” America and give it a “modern” state look that can be harnessed to utopian ends. This American fascism is very different from its European variants because it was moderated by many special factors–geographical size, ethnic diversity, Jeffersonian individualism, a strong liberal tradition, and so on. As a result, America fascism is milder, more friendly, more “maternal” than its foreign counterparts; it is what George Carlin calls “smiley-face-fascism. Nice fascism.”

Goldberg’s book cover shows a smiley face with a Hitler mustache on it. Not very comforting.

It’s important to understand that liberalism, socialism, fascism, and communism are all cousins that are rooted in the same world view–atheism. They are man’s attempt to dethrone God, overthrow individual liberty, and force collective, politically correct behavior through an all powerful State. There are really only have two choices of final authority in a fallen world: under God or under men. Self-government under God brings liberty and prosperity to societies who live in freedom. Man-worship via the State brings bondage and poverty. William Penn said it best, “Men will either be governed by God or ruled by tyrants.”

America is again facing that choice in 2009. Will we restore our republic to being “one nation under God” or will we abandon it to Big Brother because we’re either asleep at the wheel or not willing to stand up and reform our own lives and institutions? American fascism–and maybe global fascism–is arising quickly in the body politic. What are we going to do about it?

We must begin a new American revolution to bring our nation back to God and his ways of liberty. I suggest the following points of action:

1. Commit to pray regularly and fervently for awakening among the people of God and repentance and faith among the nation as a whole. Get involved in the National Day of Prayer in your community–Thursday, May 7, 2009–and other local prayer thrusts.

2. Educate yourself on the threats to liberty that we face. Order Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg, and study it well. You can also purchase the latest book on this subject, another #1 book New York Times bestseller, called Tyranny or Liberty by Mark Levin. Mark is a constitutional lawyer and radio host who makes the alternatives as clear as day and night. His book reminds me of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense which so stirred the American colonists to action some 250 years ago.

3. Probably the clearest television thinker on this subject is Glenn Beck on Fox . Glenn is a passionate and funny communicator that tends to extremism at times, but I think he’s got the right approach on this one. His TV ratings are soaring at the moment for good reason.

4. Join a Tea Party being held all over the nation on tax day, April 15th, to peacefully protest the growing government takeover of America. We, the people, need to take a stand for right. It is “right that makes might.”

5. Vote for a change of governmental direction in 2010 (House and Senate) and 2012 (Presidency). We made a terrible wrong turn in 2008. We must elect leaders who believe in God, liberty, and limited government.

Otherwise we will all live under smiley-faced fascism.

The man who won the presidency with a message of faith and hope doesn’t seem to know how to govern by those principles.

If the first month of the Obama administration has any early trademark, it’s that faith (Yes we can!) has been replaced by fear, and hope by the looming shadow of Big Government. This is a stunning turn of events for the man that captivated America with a big smile and rhetorical visions of promise.

It’s also a lousy way to lead–and because of it, the markets continue to lose value, the financial confidence of the business community is teetering, and consumers aren’t spending. For the first time in my lifetime, our nation seems to be losing its economic faith and hope.  This could be disastrous if Barack Obama continues to flail in his leadership. Good Leaders inspire confidence; Poor leaders create fear.

Yes, we understand that Barack Obama inherited a serious recession caused by three major factors:

• Thirty years of liberal over-regulation of the housing market that created the monstrosities of Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac and forced other lending institutions to compete with them in selling bad loans to people who couldn’t pay their mortgages. The federal government is the biggest culprit in the current financial shake-up and the world’s largest debtor.
• Some businesses followed the government greed into bad loans and excessive debt.
• Some American consumers bought homes they couldn’t afford, maxed their credit cards to the hilt, and also ran up excessive debts.

So we can’t blame the president for this toxic mix of stupidity, but we can for his early governing response to it. He has done nothing but multiply fear and hopelessness so far.

In a speech last week in Colorado, President Obama, who would like to be known as a 21st century Franklin Roosevelt, did exactly the opposite of his esteemed predecessor. In less than thirty minutes of oratory, he called the current financial recession a “crisis” no less than twenty-six times–promoting fear and unease in the hearts of his listeners.  Wasn’t it FDR who said during the dark days of the Depression and World War II that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?” President Obama seems to think that the only way to get out of this mess is to play the fear card again and again.

Before that, and many other speeches on the subject, came the infamous “Stimulus Bill”–really a  Democratic wish list of social programs, paybacks to unions and other special interests, with a stealth universal health care provision. In the court of public opinion (a dismal 37% approval rating) and the only real polls now being taken–the voting of the financial markets–the “Porkulus Bill” bombed.  It also produced such disdain and loathing that it even elevated CNBC’s Rick Santelli to instant rock star status with his tirade before the Chicago stock exchange on February 20th. Here are his words which echoed the frustrations of a nation:

“The government is promoting bad behavior! We certainly don’t want stimulus pork and give people a whopping $8 or $10 in their check and think that they ought to save it. And in terms of modifications, I tell you what–I have an idea. The new administration is big on computers and technology. How about this, Mr. President and new administration. Why don’t you put up a website to have people vote on the Internet as a referendum to see if we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages? Or would they like to at least buy cars, buy a house that is in foreclosure … give it to people who might have a chance to actually prosper down the road and reward people that can carry the water instead of drink the water?”

“This is America! How many people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgages that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills? Raise your hand! President Obama, are you listening? You know Cuba used to have mansions and a relatively decent economy. They moved from the individual to the collective. Now they’re driving ‘54 Chevys. It’s time for another tea party. What we are doing in this country will make Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin roll over in their graves.”

Wow. Even former president Bill Clinton was concerned about Barack Obama’s current lack of positive leadership. Clinton said he was glad that President Obama “shot straight with us” about the economic crisis, but added that “Obama should also offer Americans more hope.” Clinton said he would like to hear that Obama “is hopeful and completely convinced we’re gonna come through this.”

Maybe he’s not convinced because he’s either a star-struck rookie still learning how to govern (something he’s never done before), or he just doesn’t have the faith himself. He should take a lesson from the last US president who presided over an economic recession–Ronald Reagan–who guided us steadily out of the malaise of the Jimmy Carter years into the greatest economic boom in history (1982-2007). Here are Reagan’s faith-stirring words:

“Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.”

Another person who understands the place of faith in economics and American history is author and political consultant Doug Simpson who ran my 2006 legislative campaign. In his wonderful book, Looking for America: Re-Discovering the Meaning of Freedom, Doug shares a magnificent perspective on faith and economics, hope and freedom. Here are some of his inspiring words:

• “Faith allows creativity, where fear does not. Faith always finds a new idea to make things better, to grow and multiply. In a word, faith is creation. Fear holds back, shrinks into bitterness and stifles new ideas…Faith loves and believes in the future, where fear covets and can only see the reality that exists in the present.”
• “The secret to the success of capitalism and free enterprise is faith. The secret to the failure of socialism and its children is fear.”
• “Faith cries out and innovates. It believes that even failure can be transformed into success, as long as you get one more shot at it. The key to the success of opportunity has always been faith. Fear cannot see opportunity, therefore it merely prophesies failure and, in the end, guarantees disappointment.”
• “Free market capitalism should be the eighth wonder of the world. It has been the primary economic governing system responsible for creating the wealthiest nation in all of history…Our poor are richer than the rich of the majority of foreign countries…We have produced an endless list of wonders of creation–creation born out of a desire to make life better and receive an achiever’s reward. That is what America is about.”
• “So what do we have that others don’t have? It’s on our money–In God We Trust–Trust means faith…When free market economics are coupled with faith they are an unbeatable combination.”
• “The reason why the free market has worked so well in America is not because we were a Christian nation by label, but because we’ve lived by the principles of Christianity of which the primary characteristic is faith. In other words, the system that we know as capitalism is a faith-based system.”

Let’s pray for President Obama–that he would stop speaking about fear and the need for ever-increasing government and lead us into the light of faith and freedom.  If our president will find his own faith, and lead us back to God, trust, repentance, hard work, liberty, and the economic blessings that follow those principles, then we can begin to believe in him.

And then we can all say, ”Yes We Can!”