DEMOCRATS 08 AND SOCIALISM, THE ENEMY FROM WITHIN - THE SUNDAY COMMENTARY

With the major focus for the 2008 Presidential election centering around the War accompanied by continual maneuverings from Democrats in Congress to unsuccessfully force a surrender in Iraq, Democrat Presidential candidates and the Congressional Majority are talking about and proposing a very subtle but dangerous attack against the very foundation of our nation.

While terrorism poses a severe threat to our nation, this attack by Democrats is equally as dangerous but not nearly as obvious. Their attack does not crumble buildings or kill our people but instead erodes the very fabric of our society which in essence if allowed to flourish will arrive at the same goal in many respects as Islamic fascism for this nation, the end of The United States as a world power and the elimination of our free society.

Islamic fascism has as its goal the total destruction and/or conversion of The United States and her people to Islam. The goal of Democrats while sparing the death of our people is similarly destructive to this nation and that goal is Socialism. Under the Democrat goal, the nation will survive as a government which differs from the Islamic goal of elimination, but that government will be all powerful, encompassing every aspect of American life with liberal Democrats controlling the lives of every citizen while eliminating the freedoms and liberties that are afforded us by the Constitution.

This advance to Socialism has been a subtle yet continual attack against our free Republic for many years. It has gradually whittled away many of our Constitutional rights by giving nearly unlimited power to the Federal Government. The first major advance to Socialism came with FDR's New Deal and the introduction of Social Security and the Welfare State. Social Security was a plan that even FDR's mother refused to participate in and to keep it from becoming a PR problem for a very socialistic President, Roosevelt actually paid his mother's Social Security tax for her.

This attack went virtually unchecked because of the Great Depression and by the time the Depression ended with the onset of WWII Americans had grown accustomed to the programs and had accepted them as part of the natural way of life. The next major attack for the advance of Socialism came with LBJ's Great Society which initiated Johnson's War on Poverty that introduced massive welfare programs that to this day leave a large number of Americans so dependant on the government that they have forgotten or never learned how to care for themselves.

Other initiatives that Johnson introduced encompassed federal control of transportation, which until that time had been handled mostly at the state level, federal controls on education, again taking control from the state and of course the huge Medicare and Medicaid entitlements.

Several of these programs were either eliminated or reduced during the Reagan Presidency as he made great strides in reducing the size and scope of the federal government. Unfortunately some of this Socialism that has been a Democrat stalwart worked its way into the GOP during the first Bush term as Congress passed a massive prescription drug entitlement which Democrats were only all to willing to embrace.

Now the 2008 Presidential race has begun in earnest and dangerous proposals by every Democrat candidate reek of Socialism, especially Hillary Care, Obama Medicine and Edwards Preventative Medicine. Candidate proposals constantly invoke wording like, "mandate, " and "requirement." For instance under Hillary Care every American will be required to have papers proving health care coverage or they will not be allowed to work. Edwards will require government mandated , "preventative, " doctors visits or face some form of financial punishment.

Their Universal Health Care proposals are just the tip of the iceberg in the Democrat plan to erode America into a Socialist state that is controlled by the federal government. Every proposal that is made by candidates and the Congress now or a future Democrat Congress call for tax increases which make the American people the financial slaves to the power of the government.

Fred Thompson has eluded to this slide to Socialism with his campaign slogan, " A government that is large enough to do everything for us, is powerful enough to do anything to us." A truer statement about socialized government has never been made.

Socialism as proposed by Democrats erodes every freedom and liberty that our Constitution by law allows us and turns the power of the people over to the control of the Federal Government. WWII gives us a perfect example of two results that Socialism can have on citizens and the nation they live in. Two distinct results of Socialism in Europe before WWII revealed itself through the occupation of Europe by Nazi Germany. The people had grown so dependant to government that both Germany and Italy readily accepted Socialized dictatorships in Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolph Hitler in Germany. Of course other factors attributed to their rise, but Socialism blinded the nations to the dangerous results.

Other Socialistic nations like France, Belgium, Poland and Austria had become so weak militarily that they were quickly bowled over by the advance of the Nazi Juggernaut. The only government in Europe that stood strong against the Socialist/Fascist advance was Great Britain under Winston Churchill. Their stance proved to be enough to involve other free Nations especially The United States which brought about the defeat of Nazi Germany and Italy. Yet Socialism in Europe still has allowed for may weak nations who still depend on United States strength for defense.

Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama and the remainder of the 08 liberal candidates have shown in this last week their disdain for the military through their failure to condemn the add against General Patraeus by Moveon.org in the New York Times. Clinton and Dodd voted AGAINST a Senate resolution condemning the add and supporting Patraeus and the troops while Obama and Biden did not even have the guts enough to vote their stance but in campaign appearances last week both complained about the attack on the add and garnered that into their anti-war stance and yet another attack against the President and the war.

This weakness by Democrats in backing the military combined with their obvious plan to Socialize America creates an enemy within our nation that if allowed to have absolute power through the winning of The White House and retaining or adding to their majority in Congress in 2008 will quickly send us down the dangerous path to American Socialism and weaken us from a military stand point while using appeasement and compromise with our enemies such as Islamic Fascists which eventually could lead to the end of our Super Power status and possibly a victory for Islam and the conversion of America.

It is certain that if they are given this control and power in 2008 by voters that Socialism will be our lot, disguised by Health Care, and other legislation that increases and eventually completely hands over control of every aspect of our life to a Democrat controlled Federal Government.

Abraham Lincoln once stated, "At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. "

Democrat Socialism is that danger and that suicide that President Lincoln warned about. We are a nation of freemen and women who have been allowed by law though our Constitution to live in a nation, "of the people, by the people and for the people." The Democrats want through their all encompassing government take the strength of the people and by government regulation, entitlements and control transfer the true power of this Nation from the people to the government making each of us Socialistic slaves to a Democrat controlled Federal Government!

Ken Taylor