Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Dryrot

My father fought against Communism. I dedicated my career to the same fight. I thought we had won the war with the collapse of the Soviet Empire, but I was wrong.

Socialism, the redheaded stepchild of Communism has been quietly making inroads in the United States, rotting us from the inside when our attention was turned outwards.

It has infiltrated our governments, churches, and schools captivating low information citizens with a utopian pipe dream. Sure, there is plenty wrong with capitalism but just look at any socialist state and compare it with what we have in the USA. When it comes to raising the standard of living free enterprise leaves socialism in a cloud of dust. However, the more people have the more they want and when they see the rich enjoying all that affluence, they want some of the same action. I guess it’s a part of human nature.

Socialism is an easy sell for our politicians. The idea of taking from the rich and giving to the poor has a definite appeal to the low information voters.” It worked for Robin Hood why not for everybody? The more we demand the more it costs and as the price goes up for all the unnecessary extravagance, so do wages and gradually our workers get priced out of the world market. Our grandchildren will inherit a huge debt and only a small fraction of the legacy we inherited from our forefathers and squandered on our watch. There is a saying, protect me from my friends, I can protect myself from my enemies. Well, the enemy is us and that insatiable appetite for all the “… good things in life."

As the Unions have poisoned the workplace, not with just demands for higher wages but with a cultural conflict between management and labor, jobs have gone overseas. It isn’t just the cost of labor that is causing this but the socially toxic climate in our factories and workplace. For example:

When I got out of the military I went back to tech school to learn how to maintain my old farm equipment. While attending MidState Technical College the class visited a John Deere Factory. One of the innovations the company wanted to show visitors was the process they used for team building engines. A team of ten technicians would build an engine from start to finish. The idea was that it would give the workers a better sense of accomplishment, building the whole thing, than by simply attaching the same component, day in and day out, on the assembly line.

As we sat around where this team engine building process was taking place, a middle manager was explaining how the concept worked. Repeatedly, he was heckled by the workers who made derisive comments about what he was trying to tell us. As I watched this happening it became clear to me how this guy was going to vote when he was one day in a position to influence moving the plant to china. Sure economics would play a part but deep down he'd remember the way he was treated by the labor force and closing down the factory would represent a form of payback. What goes around comes around. Now I’m not a hardcore capitalist, or a champion of management in the workplace. There’s a reason why unions gained a foothold and it was because of management abuses. However, what happened was that unions helped kill the goose that laid the golden egg. Even if someone hates the taste of goose there are alternatives to crapping in the rice bowl. There is always the alternative to seek employment elsewhere.

In our churches I have seen the rise of liberalism, which in many cases has brought with it improvements. However, it has also brought a huge down side. Whether the church admits it or not they don’t like veterans and while they might pay some lip service to the sacrifices on Veterans Day, deep down many feel the sacrifices were unnecessary. Make love not war was once a popular credo. There is the popular notion in the Methodist Church that peace is a state of nature that is achievable if men would only refuse to bear arms. I know it sounds stupid but it forms the core of a naïve belief and panders to those who are terrified by the possible loss of loved ones. There are worse things than dying in a war and one of them is living in a socialist state.

In state and federal governments is the same attitude. They keep hiring more people, offering them greater incentive packages, and retirement plans. If they can’t afford it they borrow the money and kick the can down the road.

In our schools the same socialist thinking is being foisted off on our young. The real hero’s of Vietnam, in the liberal mindset, were the protestors. They see nothing wrong in refusing to serve our country. Ministers are taught how to encourage... "the following of conscience." In sports it is now being advocated to quit keeping score at athletic events and declaring everyone the winner at the end of a game and providing a trophy to all the players at the end of a season. If this sounds absurd, then take note.

This might sound like a whole lot of "woe is me" and the same old “sky is falling” dribble but it’s more than that. This country is on the decline and it’s a damn shame. While American men and women stand bravely facing threats from abroad, our historical values are being eviserated and tossed out the back door. We have a president who changes laws to suit his fancy and views the Constitution as an abstract document that has reached the end of its service life. The bill is coming due. It’s a shame that our children and grand children are going to have to pay the piper.