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Thread: It ain't new my friends

  1. #1
    Join Date
    10-22-01
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    It ain't new my friends

    From my morning reading:

    In Michigan, Republican Ryan Kelley, who is running for governor, has openly attacked the idea of democracy. “Socialism—it starts with democracy,” he said. “That’s the ticket for the left. They want to push this idea of democracy, which turns into socialism, which turns into communism in every instance.” Kelley’s distinction between “democracy” and a “constitutional republic” is drawn from the John Birch Society in the 1960s, which used that distinction to oppose the idea of one person, one vote, that supported Black voting.

    In turn, the Birchers drew from the arguments of white supremacists during Reconstruction after the Civil War, who warned that Black voters would elect leaders who promised them roads, and schools, and hospitals. These benefits would cost tax dollars that in the postwar South would have to be paid largely by white landowners. Thus, white voters insisted, Black voting would lead to a redistribution of wealth; by 1871, they insisted it was essentially “socialism.”

    That context explains Kelley’s insistence that “we truly are losing our country to the radical left.”
    I'm a bit reluctant to share this but once upon a time I was marginal member of the John Birch Society.

    I should add that kelley is a known insurrectionist.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  2. #2
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    "Redistribution of wealth," in one sense, is the backbone of capitalism...The anticipation of that redistribution is what makes capitalism (only possible in a democracy) so successful in a free society......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  3. #3
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    I would argue that with you Ben. First capitalism is an economic system and not unique to a democracy. China is communistic capitalism.

    Ultimately, the grossest redistribution of wealth is played out in Russia with the 100 richest oligarchs accounting for 35% of all the wealth in Russia. That’s the biggest portion of a nation’s wealth owned by 100 people of any country in the world.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  4. #4
    Join Date
    10-23-01
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    17,114
    Lot of nutburghers in Michigan. Far far right militia heaven. The Yupe is home to a lot of these. Weird state. Almost schizophrenic - the lower part of the state is not like that at all.

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