Remember the summer GOP national convention when socialism was the hot topic?
“Democrats have chosen to go down the road to socialism," said Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel. “If we let them, they will turn our country into a socialist utopia," railed South Caroline Sen. Tim Scott. "Their vision for America is socialism,” said Former U.N . Ambassador Nikki Haley. “And we know that socialism has failed everywhere."
President Donald Trump wrapped up the socialism charges in his closing speech saying, "This election will decide whether we save the American dream or whether we allow a socialist agenda to demolish our cherished destiny.”
How ironic that Trump is presiding over a great new plunge into economic socialism that subverts free market capitalism.
“Where free markets and the magic of the invisible hand were always the fundamental pride and strongest weapons of the United States in the fight against communism, America now appears to have abandoned its core principles and is leading the charge toward financial socialism,” read an analysis in the Japan Times. “The role of government in America’s economy is surging and the bigger it gets, the lower the credibility of free market capitalism gets around the globe.”
Former Republican Sen. Judd Gregg told The Hill that Trump telling America companies to stop doing business in China “is a startling blunt exercise in socialism.” He added that the “explosion in the size of deficit spending now and for the foreseeable future” under Trump “can only be labeled for what it is: a form of socialist fiscal policy.”
A report in Reuters described the CARES Act as “an example of contemporary socialism.” It noted that “income redistribution is at the very heart of socialism” and said the CARES Act “passed by Congress and signed by Trump provided $2.2 trillion of that.”
The Denver Post described Trump’s farm bailouts as a “socialist endeavor.” Going further the Post said of the farm bailouts plus other efforts to influence free markets, e.g., the coal industry, “You would be hard-pressed to find better recent examples of the U.S. government trying to exert influence, if not outright control, over the means of production, both domestically and abroad.”
But the most pervasive socialist move may be the Federal Reserve Bank nationalization of government and corporate bond markets in response to Trump’s demand to keep interest rates low.
“’Nationalisation’ of bond markets helps calm nerves,” reported the Financial Times. “The Fed and other central banks effectively ‘nationalized’ the market for government and corporate bonds, strategists at Bank of America said in a note to clients in mid-July, helping lead to ‘irrationally’ high stock prices," reported Axios.com. “Free market enterprise no longer exists,” Scott Minerd, chief investment officer of Guggenheim Partners, told Axios. "The Fed by essence of what it's doing has taken control of the market."
The American Conservative publication last year warned of America’s drift “to the silly socialism of the 21st (century).” Now that drift has become a plunge, a major shift its Republican instigators choose to ignore.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites” – Matthew 23:13 et al.
Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.
28 comments:
it is almost as if we live in an illusionary two party state run by a secretive cabal of globalists who have no regard for the citizenry they view as chattel for their debt and consumption financed military industrial complex.
And nobody cares as long as they can watch sportball in UHD and eat rich food and drink lots of alcohol.
Trump doesn’t have any principles. He is a die hard anti government terrorist sympathizer one day and will host a law and order rally the next day. He goes from complaining about the coronavirus relief to wanting to make it huge the next. Shifty Don as I call him has destroyed his party. There will be long term consequences for his desperate cries for attention. It’s pathetic.
GOP also ignores its plunge into big-spending. As a solid R I detest the big-government and big-spending party we have become. What separates us from the D’s is what we choose to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on.
The Savings and Loan bailout, TARP, QE, et al, were government support for the markets but the politics behind all that free money to the rich keep preaching 'free markets.'
Anyone who takes an honest look behind the curtain will find that Konservative Kapitalism is just wealthy side of the double edged sword.
I’d prefer moral socialism to godless libertarianism. - Republican
This is the first column I have read by Crawford in over a year. Now I remember why I stopped reading him. Geez Louise! This is a poorly reasoned as Sid's stuff.
I'll not deny the Republican's have caved for political expediency. But this column is poorly developed. Don't give up your day job Bill.
What an idiot
I really don’t think Trump views his actions as socialism, he sees them as bribery and his only hope of staying out of prison by buying another election. There’s a reason he wants to overturn the foreign corrupt practices act - he has seen the benefits of cheating and has determined it is the only way someone of his limited mental capacity can win.
9:10 am and 9:25 am How on earth can giving examples of the very sort of actions the GOP has described as " socialism" and their GOP's be poorly thought out or idiotic?
Is it because
Bill Crawford didn't include entirety the GOP's willingness to accumulate massive debt or their sudden love of Executive Orders?
It's way past time for a nation full of college educated people to realize that neither party represent anything but the interest of a select few either economically or politically (or both) well positioned bosses who use the national reserve as their own private piggy bank. We all exist only to protect their interest. Pay taxes or go to war, only to make sure that the ultra wealthy are protected. So why not socialism? In the meantime we can continue to fight each other as if we're really going to change something.
Jeez.
I would describe Republicans as anti-democracy and anti-poor more than socialist. Sure they are hypocrites for supporting payments to the rich and bribes for their corporate donors, but their efforts to vilify democrats as communists to their violence-prone and poorly educated base along with their unwillingness to accept the election results of the people is far more serious and likely treasonous in my opinion. The founding fathers are rolling in their graves.
There's one good thing about this election. When it's over millions of people will realize how ridiculous our democracy has become. Maybe then we can begin to make REAL change.
If you want to see how the GOP has shifted toward big government and cronyism, just look at Mississippi for the last several terms. How much money have we gifted to private corporations? Or, take a look at the bond bill every year. Its a big party, with your money.
GOP picks winners and losers. Conservatism used to mean small government and free markets.
Look at the concerted effort to thwart the will of the people who want to allow dying cancer patients an inexpensive way to relieve pain. Nope, we need to trust big pharma said comrade Bryant.
Check the size of the general fund budget for Mississippi each year over the last 20 years. Look at how many state buildings our "small government" conservatives have constructed.
So many of you suffering from TDS speak as if this is all Donald Trump's fault. He is merely a symptom of the collapsing republic, not the cause.
And the collapse of the republic was destined the moment we accepted the false god of egalitarianism.
Fascism is the merging of government and corporations. It isn't socialism. It isn't specifically Nazism (which was nationalist socialism) and it began with the New Deal and WWII defense spending. President Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex. He didn't mention the Agricultural Industry Complex or the Pharmaceutical Industry Complex because food security and healthcare are too important to endanger. And he would have not the slightest clue about the eventual partnership of Amazon, Facebook and (then) brand new CIA. Or that a Navy Pilot who would later be CIA Director, VPOTUS, and eventually POTUS, would transform the intelligence agency into.
You Wouldn't have to worry about Republicans being in power after January for the next decade, America has awoken.
Electing the current president, insures that people will vote and nobody in their right mind wants to go through the mess we have had over the last four years again, no even people in his party. By a 12 point margin people favor the challenger, it grows daily and a landslide is in sight, spilling over to the Senate.
As Americans in 2020 we have more of everything, an easier life style, with virtually no restraints on what we can and cannot do, and everyone who has made a comment on this is doing nothing but bitching. So to all you conspiracy theorists, regardless of conspiracy, please, just shut the hell up.
“If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - What would you tell him?"
I…don't know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?"
To shrug.”
" This is the first column I have read by Crawford in over a year. Now I remember why I stopped reading him. Geez Louise! This is a poorly reasoned as Sid's stuff.
I'll not deny the Republican's have caved for political expediency. But this column is poorly developed. Don't give up your day job Bill."
My first thoughts as well . . . yet again.
From what I've heard, Prevagen does work.
Seems Crawford may not be familiar with it.
2:14, quit drinking the 1952 koolaid
“If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - What would you tell him?"
I…don't know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?"
To shrug.”
Xena, Warrior Princess and her cute lil' sidekick Gabby saved Atlas in season three.
Zeus was pissed . . . but Prometheus, Diana and Athena were happy.
Yeah, that show always interchanged Greek and Roman Gods . . . but Gabby always was hot when she was running around in a toga and diamond studded flip flops.
2:12 is right. We don't want job creation, low unemployment for minorities, and higher incomes. These last four years have been terrible.
The words conservative, free markets and capitalism should never ever be used again while referring the US of A.
It is beyond hilarious listening to Republicans use these terms…and all of the leftists on CNBC pretending that capitalism and free markets actually still exist…while they argue back and forth about how much more “stimulus is required,” and what the Fed should do with its next interest rate manipulation.
The PPP SCAM of handing out $100’s of thousands and even millions of dollars to rich people that own businesses that were actually prospering due to the Wuhan virus…and did not need the tax payer gifted money…is proof beyond any doubt that we are in the vote buying phase of this so-called Republic. Funny things is, nobody’s even complaining about this moral crime; including Bill Crawford.
However, only the biased making $$$ off of commie Chinese products made with child labor (NBA, Kaepernick, Apple, etc.) or a complete fool would compare bringing jobs back to America, to socialism.
The most shocking part of this and other Bill Crawford writings…is his quoting of Scripture.
Those supporting the party that believes in late term abortion and infanticide…need not quote Scripture to anyone.
Those supporting the party that has run cities so far into the ground that innocent children are dying from stray bullets while doing nothing more than living inside of their homes…need not quote Scripture to anyone.
Those supporting the party that kowtows to marxist leftist BLMers and the fascist group calling themselves Antifa…need not quote Scripture to anyone.
Those supporting the free speech filth that comes from Hollywood and other entertainers while at the same exact time trying to silence speech from those who oppose their views…need not quote Scripture to anyone.
Maybe the next time hypocrite Bill Crawford, or any other Democrat for that matter, decides to lecture someone else on Christianity…he or they should just read John 8.7 instead.
P. S. 12:35, poorly educated base? Why don’t we require every member of the House of Representatives submit to an IQ test and see which party has the “poorly educated base?”
As phrases go, the coolest one in the entire article is 'The magic of the invisible hand', supposedly stated by a Jap. That's certainly food for thought. Reminds me of the Amos 'n Andy clip describing a first time meeting: "I shook his hand and his other one was in my pocket"...or something like that.
What's pathetic is the thought process of folks like 8:19. It's not that the President doesn't have principles, it's just that his differ from your own. Lots of folks share his principles while lots of others don't.
And while you're accusing him of destroying the party, you overlook that fact that yours no longer exists.
Bill Crawford’s home town used to have about 3,000 workers at Peavy Electronics who built all sorts of audio equipment and instruments. Now the company barely has 100 there at the administrative office, and the products are made in China while the hometown of the company decomposes neighborhood by neighborhood. And we wonder why people in middle America are compelled to vote for Trump? I get the idealist arguments for free trade, but they only work when nations reciprocate. Otherwise, one nation gets long term benefits while the other only short term, fleeting gains.
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