(Some people will read this and think Rick has really gone off the deep end. Paranoid alarmist and offensive. Fair enough.)

There is a thought that troubles me.
If (hypothetically of course) you have someone who is a hardcore Marxist who wants to take over the United States and transform it into a totalitarian socialist utopia – what would that look like? And who could stop it?
No seriously. Think about it for a moment.
You may reply “Oh it could never happen here. America will always remain basically a Constitutional republic in which the people are basically free. We would never allow the formation of a totalitarian government that seeks to control everything we say and believe and do”.
Consider for a moment. Imagine you could travel in time and go back to:
- Russia before the Communist Revolution
- Germany before the ascendancy of the Nationalist Socialist party
- Iran before the Islamic Revolution
- Cuba before the Communist Revolution
- Chile before Pinochet
- Argentina before the Junta
- Liberia before the Civil War
- Rwanda before the genocide
- Yugoslavia before its breakup
- China before the Communist Revolution
- England before Oliver Cromwell
- France before the Revolution
- Italy before the Fascists
- Spain before the Civil War
- Venezuela before Hugo Chavez
- Cambodia before Pol Pot
And describe to the citizens of those nations what will happen to them five or ten years down the road. How many people would refuse to believe it? How many would say with all sincerity and conviction “oh it could never happen here! We are too civilized! We have the rule of law! We would never allow it!”
And yet it did happen. And in some cases – not all – the people very much allowed it.
Now before I proceed let me make two points clearly and for the record:
- In no way whatsoever am I suggesting hinting or implying that President Barack Obama is somehow similar or analogous to Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, Ayatollah Khomeini, and so on. At this stage I am making an historical point. Nothing more.
- In no way do I suggest that all of these nations had/have no serious economic-social-political problems or are/were not in need of some urgent reforms. However I will suggest that most people in most or all of the above situations would have said “yes we need change – but what you tell me is going to happen five to ten years from now is much worse”. Germany in the 1930’s had serious problems – but Adolf Hitler was not the answer.
What if once upon a time a young man whose social-political ideology was essentially Marxist wanted to obtain political power and transform the United States into a (totalitarian? maybe but not necessarily) Marxist state? But do so peacefully and with the support and cooperation of a majority or at least the more powerful plurality of the American citizenry. And then consolidate social-economic-political power such that even if a majority or a sizable plurality of the American population objected to these radical transformations there would be nothing they could do. The changes would become permanent.
Not only “we won” but “and now we can never ever lose”.
Tell me – what would it look like?
Tell me – how could one stop it from happening?
Now I will show you some of my cards.
I am not quite prepared to say “President Obama is a Marxist (or a socialist or whatever)”. He may well be. I think the evidence suggests he is either a real live American Marxist or the closest things we have had to a Marxist president. I do not want to use that word Marxist because it is a label – even if it may be accurate – and labels can be slippery things. And people tend to laugh at and dismiss you when you use such labels – even when they are accurate. They sound so alarmist! And heck – maybe Marxism is a good thing. Maybe we should welcome the direction in which President Obama would have us go as a nation. We can debate that.
At the very least his Senate voting record placed him to the left of the only self-described Socialist in the United States Senate (Bernie Sanders of Vermont). And so far it appears he is more or less working to accomplish government control and management of the the American no-longer-free-market economy. First the banks. Then corporations. Next health care.
(Yes I am aware that the federal government has not really “taken over” these things. But it most certainly is establishing a “controlling interest” in them.)
Tell me – what would it look like?
Would said young man go on national television and say “hi – I am an avowed Marxist who believes in redistributing wealth… in government control of business and finance… in government oversight of universal health care. Please vote for me!”
Probably not.
Or would said young man more likely present himself as a populist reformer… friend of the middle class (as well as of the poor and certainly no enemy of the rich)… as a uniter not a divider… as a non-ideologue who is beyond petty partisan politics… as an agent of hope and change who inspires people with idealistic words and positive feelings?
Tell me – how could you stop it from happening?
What happens right now to people who voice criticism of the president and his policies? (And let us be fair – criticism of Congress. Because this is not just about President Obama. Before President Obama took office we had Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.)
What happens to financial organizations that say “no we do not want government interference and control – please take back this TARP money”?
What happens to secured creditors who say “no as a matter of fact we do not think it is fair that we should lose 70% of our investment in order to save that automobile manufacturer and put the unions in charge”?
Okay. Those of us who think President Obama so far is the worst president we have ever seen – we have the elections of 2010 and the presidential election of 2012. No seriously. We do. Although one wonders what steps will be taken between now and then to make it certain or at least much more likely that the Congress and the Presidency remain in the hands of the Democratic party. And one wonders how possible it will be to reverse bad policies and repair the damage.
What would it look like if someone wanted to radically transform a nation? And how could people stop it once they realized what was happening?