I am sharing with you a letter I received from American Solutions. The point of which is that we should refuse to allow "political correctness" to strip us of the words we MUST USE in order to communicate truths.
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American Solutions General Chairman Newt Gingrich recently wrote an article in the Washington Post that has annoyed a few people, including it seems, President Obama.
In this article, Gingrich repeats an earlier assertion that President Obama is "the most radical president in American history" and describes with several examples how the governing team of Obama-Pelosi-Reid operates as a "secular socialist machine."
It appears that describing Obama administration policies as "socialist" is more than President Obama and his defenders can stand. They seek to marginalize any serious discussion of whether President Obama is indeed attempting to impose socialist programs on American society.
Consider President Obama's remarks this past weekend at the University of Michigan:
The... way to keep our democracy healthy is to maintain a basic level of civility in our public debate.... Throwing around phrases like "socialist" and "Soviet-style takeover;" "fascist" and "right-wing nut" may grab headlines, but it also has the effect of comparing our government, or our political opponents, to authoritarian, and even murderous regimes.
... The problem is that this kind of vilification and over-the-top rhetoric closes the door to the possibility of compromise. It undermines democratic deliberation. It prevents learning - since after all, why should we listen to a "fascist" or "socialist" or "right-wing nut?" It makes it nearly impossible for people who have legitimate but bridgeable differences to sit down at the same table and hash things out. It robs us of a rational and serious debate that we need to have about the very real and very big challenges facing this nation.
The President would have us believe that using the term "socialist" undermines democratic deliberation and robs us of rational and serious debate about the challenges facing our country.
We disagree completely and believe that assessing Obama administration policies as socialist or not serves a very useful purpose. We believe that people can learn a lot about socialism when examining many of the Obama administration policies.
Here a few examples:
* The recently passed healthcare bill is a government takeover by regulation of approximately one-sixth of the economy. It will raise taxes by almost $1 trillion dollars over the next ten years and insurance premiums and associated healthcare costs will likely continue to go up each year.
* President Obama supports an economy wide cap and trade system, which he believes will strengthen job creation. Opponents believe that a cap and trade system will kill jobs and lead to government control of the entire U.S. economy, or, in other words, a socialist means of government control and of taxing and redistributing wealth to politically favored constituencies.
* A free market economy is about rewarding companies that produce high quality products at a competitive cost and allowing them to fail when they are unable to deliver value at a price consumers are willing to pay. A socialist approach is for the government to bail out companies with taxpayer dollars and then manage them, even though we already have an established bankruptcy process in this country for the orderly reorganization of failing companies. President Obama chose the socialist approach when he bailed out General Motors and Chrysler.
* During the 2008 presidential campaign Barack Obama said "When you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody". This world view is socialist in perspective, especially when you consider the spreader of the wealth is the federal government. Well it's time to get ready for some more wealth being spread around because the Obama Administration is talking about introducing an entirely new form of taxation to the U.S. It's called the Value -Added Tax (VAT), and it functions as a national sales tax on materials and goods at the production level, which will be passed along to the consumer in the form of higher prices on everything that is purchased.
These are a few of many examples in which President Obama's administration has or is trying to increase the size and power of the federal government in a manner that justifies the term socialist.
We believe the American people can decide for themselves whether certain terms reflect their understanding of reality. At American Solutions, we will continue to use the terms we believe accurately reflect the direction of this Administration.
Over the coming months in this election year we expect a vibrant national debate about the direction of this administration and what words most accurately define it.
Along the way, we will be providing you with updates on the actions of the "Secular-Socialist Machine" and asking for your feedback and help in stopping it.
Sincerely,
Vince-Signature
Vince Haley
Vice President for Policy
American Solutions
P.S. We're in Greenville, South Carolina today, May 5, for another stop on our Real Jobs tour. You can watch the event live at 6:30 PM ET by going here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-real-jobs-summit.
P.P.S. If you wish to read more about how President Obama's administration is rightfully considered to be pursuing socialist policies, we recommend Jonah Goldberg's article in the latest issue of Commentary, " What Kind of Socialist Is Barack Obama?"
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