Can it be true?

I'm a talk radio junkie who has listened ad nauseum to big name conservative talk show hosts Sean Hannity, Glen Beck and Michael Savage among others. I also tune in to the late night alternative talkers like George Noory and Rollie James. As a result, I've been bombarded with spin that reveals our current president's talk of "change" as a transformation of our once glorious free market economy and democratic republic to a government controlled socialist state.

When I discuss this with people I know, I am met with one of two basic responses... 1) a nod of the head and an acknowledgment that this could happen, or 2) a befuddled stare as though I have three eyes and speak in alien tongues. A few enlightened souls agree that the change has already taken place and share the fear that it is only going to get worse.

Note that I'm not talking about the economy, specifically. We all know that financial times are tough. No, I'm talking about freedom. Freedom to make independent decisions in life and business. Freedom to choose our paths and fail or prosper based on those choices. I'm talking about the most fundamental rights and freedoms accorded us by the Constitution of the United States of America as drafted by the original founding fathers.

Thomas Jefferson once said, "A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government." The converse of that would be to say that a bad government is one that would regulate the pursuits of industry and take away from labor the bread it has earned (i.e.: tax, tax, tax).

The current spendulus packages of close to two trillion dollars are stocked full of industry regulations, increased taxes and governmental control of private business. One of the first steps was the government buyout of the banks and continues with the bailout of the auto industry among others. What was originally presented to the American people as the primary cause of our current economic downturn... bad mortgage practices and the bursting bubble of home sales... has been generally ignored while millions and billions of dollars are filling pork barrels in every state of this once great Union. There is little to point to in the way of real job creation and long term economic improvement. Instead, there is much to point to regarding governmental control and long term loss of freedom.

Or is it? Have I just been bombarded with radical right wing doom and gloom prophecies? What’s really in these bills? Has anyone actually read them? Is a socialist state in America are real possibly… a right wing dillusion… or are we already there?

I ask that anyone reading this blog provide some feedback to above questions. What do you see on a daily basis that would indicate we’re heading in one direction or another?

Me personally, I think we’re already there.

Prove me wrong.

Yours in solidarity,
Comrade America