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NYTimes Suggests Americans Are Increasingly Embracing Socialism — Here’s Why We Aren’t Convinced

Nov. 20, 2012 1:33pm Mytheos Holt

The New York Times, deservedly or not, has a reputation for leaning Left.

Sometimes that leaning turns out to be simply the product of reading the facts correctly, as in the case of polling analyst and election prediction whiz Nate Silver who read the tea leaves and predicted an Obama victory.

Just as often, however, it turns out to be nothing but hot air, as in the case of New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. Such is the case with the paper’s final article on the 2012 election, written by Columbia School of Journalism Professor Thomas Edsall, which practically brims with repressed glee at the thought that a socialist majority is on the horizon for America. The piece is titled, “Is Rush Limbaugh’s Country Gone” and makes use of a number of charts and graphs — nearly all of which are from Left-leaning sources — to argue that America’s next generation, diverse and multicultural as it is, will be exponentially more liberal. The evidence is seemingly quite damning, and even Limbaugh himself has cited the article as proof for his hypothesis that Americans are increasingly voting for Santa Claus over self-reliance.

The problem is that the data cited by the article is far more complicated than its author wants readers to believe, and that in some cases it was collected using questions that were so flatly leading as to render the results meaningless. Some of this data is still salvageable, but the idea that it points to an electorate that will increasingly favor high taxes and high regulation is weak, at best.

Without getting into the numerous unsubstantiated quotes that Edsall uses to prove his argument, all of which mysteriously come from Democratic pollsters, let’s take a look at three of his major sources for arguing that Limbaugh’s “Santa Claus” America is here to stay. Specifically, the three major surveys he cites come from the Pew Research Center, from liberal polling firm Democracy Corps, and from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

For the sake of not running on forever, we will be focusing most of our attention on the data which Edsall draws from the Pew poll. However, it is worth noting that his sources do ideologically skew one direction. Nate Silver of 538 rates Pew as having a slight leftward tilt, but only slight, while PRRI is a relative newcomer (having been founded in 2009) and Democracy Corps is an unabashedly partisan firm whose polls are written as much to set narratives as to detect data.

That’s not to say that partisan polling is always wrong; left-leaning pollsters did get the most accurate results this election cycle. However, putting too much trust in opinion polling from openly partisan sources can lead to confusion. Certainly, one of the leaders of Democracy Corps – James Carville – has fallen into that trap, given that he predicted that Democrats would have a lock on power for 20 years after the 2008 election. Moreover, polling on support for candidates is a far more straightforward process than polling on economic/political attitudes, where the wording of a question can make the difference between support and opposition. These two factors combined are a trap for analysts who want to extrapolate hard truths about the electorate from what is still a soft science.

Edsall not only falls into that trap, but to the extent that his article takes the idea that support for policies he associates with Democrats (infrastructure and education spending) is synonymous with a dramatic shift leftward, he leaps into it. His evidence for skepticism of the GOP mostly focuses on increasing support for raising taxes, even though the PRRI survey itself explicitly states that most voters favor what President Obama has called a “balanced approach” – namely, a mixture of tax increases and spending cuts, though voters are divided on the question of what to cut. The fact that this nuance was completely ignored is deeply problematic.

Minority Opinions

But where Edsall really obfuscates context is in making a specific chart taken from the 2011 Pew survey mentioned above the centerpiece of his analysis. Though to be fair to Edsall, he’s not alone in misreading this chart. This is the chart in question:

Now, to be sure, there is much to be concerned about in this chart. Probably the most alarming statistics are the lopsided favorable ratings blacks give to socialism, and the lopsided negative ratings that Hispanics give to capitalism. These responses indicate that the conservative economic message will almost certainly face hurdles when brought to these communities, though the Hispanic opposition to socialism indicates that they are not sold on the Democratic platform completely, either.

But there is a crucial point that one might miss looking at this chart, which is that these responses may be less ethnically baked in and more the result of socioeconomic conditions. Blacks are, on-average, much poorer than whites. In fact, most ethnic minorities in America are, on-average, poorer than whites. Why does this matter? Because the poorest people surveyed also gave low marks to capitalism, and expressed weak-to-nonexistent opposition to socialism.

As such, claiming that this is a question of entrenched racial attitudes as opposed to simply suspicion of the free market by people who perceive themselves as losing because of it is quite arguably a bridge too far. Sampling distribution is also a concern, though full crosstabs for the survey are unavailable, because if most ethnic minorities surveyed were part of poorer demographics, that could be a correlation worth noting. It is also the case that this survey was taken late last year, at the height of the Occupy Wall Street movement, when opposition to capitalism might have been higher than it is now, in the midst of a weak recovery, because of that movement’s focus on spotlighting the victims of capitalism. To that end, supporters of Occupy Wall Street were included in the survey as a separate category, as readers can see from the chart.

Bottom line: Republicans do have a long way to go in reaching Hispanic and black voters on economic questions. However, the correlation between poverty and opposition to capitalism provides a potential way out, in that a message demonstrating that free enterprise is a rising tide that really does lift all boats (as opposed to 53 percent of them) could be persuasive, especially if backed up by evidence that it works in practice, and a willingness to listen to (and address) the various critiques of the free market that may underlie these groups’ opposition to the system.

Young Voters

However, the one area where Edsall unequivocally overstates his case is in citing the figures on young voters. Specifically, he focuses on the statistics showing that young voters favor socialism over capitalism by a 6 point margin, and disapprove of capitalism by 1 point. This would be alarming, if not for some very important context that suggests the issue here is not so much a hard commitment to socialism, as a confusion as to the meaning of political labels. Moreover, even among the very most liberal, there may be hope for liberty-minded GOP members.

Why? Because the Pew survey includes another chart (which Edsall conveniently forgets to mention) showing that in spite of their seeming aversion to capitalism, young voters and, strangely enough, liberals are very amenable to the word “libertarian”:

Thomas Edsall At The New York Times Is Wrong About Americans and Socialism

This might be the only case in which young people, very liberal voters and Tea Partiers get lumped into the same category, and it speaks to a fundamental confusion about labels and the intersection of different political ideas among many of those concerned. Considering that libertarianism is itself probably the most pro-capitalist ideology of the lot, it therefore seems that while young voters might be skeptical of capitalism on its own, they are very much not skeptical of the ideas of freedom and liberty, and if those can be tied into support for capitalism, there may be inroads to make there.

It is also worth noting that, like their black and Hispanic brethren, young voters are some of the hardest hit by the economic downturn, and suffering economic pain with no experience of success to temper that pain would naturally incline one to be suspicious of the market for putting them through that suffering.

Moreover, when strictly political labels — as opposed to abstract economic labels like “capitalism” and “socialism” — are invoked, the Pew survey shows a more even division among young voters, who don’t so much reject conservatism for liberalism as they look on them with equal amounts of favorability:

Thomas Edsall At The New York Times Is Wrong About Americans and Socialism

In fact, among all voters, “conservative” remains the second most popular label. However, especially among listeners to shows such as the Glenn Beck program, there is a dark side to this fact, as the most popular label – one that attracts 55 percent favorability even among Republicans according to the same study – is “progressive”:

Thomas Edsall At The New York Times Is Wrong About Americans and Socialism

Nevertheless, the picture of Americans painted by the Pew Survey is still more nuanced than Edsall’s triumphalist take would imply. Rather than a rising coalition of hard socialists, the next generation (and the demographic groups where Republicans have the most trouble) appear to be reacting much as one would expect those most hard hit by an economic downturn to react: With suspicion of the market system that made them suffer, and mixed signals on ideology. The GOP still faces messaging hurdles with this group, but the poll numbers produced by Pew suggest that they are eminently persuadable.

Ironically enough, Edsall seems to elide this question of persuadability using the same reasoning as former GOP nominee Mitt Romney:

In broader terms, the political confrontation pits taxpayers, who now form the core of the center-right coalition, against tax consumers who form the core of the center-left. According to the Tax Policy Center, 46.4 percent of all tax filers had no federal income tax liability in 2011 (although most people pay a combination of state, sales, excise, property and other levies). There are clear exceptions to this dichotomy, as many Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries (tax recipients) vote Republican, and many college-educated upper-income citizens of all races and ethnicities (tax payers) vote Democratic. Nonetheless, the overarching division remains, and the battle lines are drawn over how to distribute the costs of the looming fiscal crisis. The outcome of this policy fight will determine whether Limbaugh is correct to fear that his side has “lost the country.”

This is the “47 percent” argument with a few caveats slapped on. And for a triumphal liberal like Edsall, it should be seen more as a siren temptation than as a cause to gloat. After all, we’ve already witnessed one campaign that treated the 47 percent as its theory of the election. It didn’t work for Romney, and alarming polling data aside, it’s dramatically unlikely to work for the Left.

To be sure, there are legitimate arguments that many more in this country are approaching the government with open hands — but the research in Edsell’s piece isn’t the slam dunk he thinks.

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Comments (74)

ObamaForward_OverTheCliff
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 4:12pm
“NYTimes Suggests Americans Are Increasingly Embracing Socialism”

Don’t let the complicit Media fool you. You have no say even though they are trying to make it look like it’s by your choice or acceptance. IT’S BEING DONE ANYWAY BY WASHINGTON DC TRAITORS (yes, ALL of them)!

The Federal AND States governments are ALREADY setting up America for the New World Order takeover. Got a driver’s license? A “smart” driver’s license? “Smart” for who? Not for you:

“NEW WORLD ORDER National ID & Economic System To Be ENFORCED In U.S.A. January 15th 2013″
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFG2Nb2Lj2U

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- Secret Squirrel
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 7:21pm
  .
  I’m not worried about Americans embracing socialism,
  I’m worried about Americans embracing communism.
  Hell, from what I’ve seen, if a communist promises some moron
  a better cell phone, they’ll vote for them.
  “I got me a Putinphone.”
  Our biggest problem is a stupid populace.
  
  Report this comment
- longknifed
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 7:22pm
  Sorry but it is true. Minorities are almost entirely reliant upon government subsidies. whites are becoming reliant too. Only the sword can fix this.
  
  Report this comment
- Wolfgang the Gray
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 10:57pm
  Even the poor in America are rich compared to the third world. I wonder what the entitlement zombies in this country will say when the New World Order starts taking their goodies to give to the rest of the world? “You can’t have that, it’s mine!”
  
  “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” – Ronald Reagan
  
  The Useful Idiot generation decided on 11/06/2012 that they cared more about stuff than freedom. They will suffer with the consequences of their choices. They will be the ones to explain to their children the most wonderful gift that they squandered away for a new stinking cell phone, Liberty.
  
  Report this comment
- maverick4harlot
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 1:26am
  I dont need to nor will I read your ideas of why socialism ISN’T being readily accepted amongst Americans. If you TRULY believe that the largest sect of Americans is not wiling to accept socialism then you are an IDIOT. Something for nothing is the fact amongst todays society. If you disagree you have blinders on. This country has been turned. It has been infiltrated. It is gone. America is DEAD. We are now just like Europe. Paid to do nothing, No self esteeem, no pride, no self sacrifice,.no honor. Collect your check and live and die. Just die soon. Drugs are ok if it helps to end your life sooner. Just dont make us look bad by drugging and driving or we will have to take money from you.
  
  TELL ME I AM WRONG. Please tell me I am wrong. Please? This is what I see. I pray you can teach me that I am wrong. I want to be wrong. I just dont think that I am.
  
  Report this comment
- longknifed
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 3:47am
  mav,
  
  this country is finished. all we can do is pray that these republicans don’t hijack a purist revolution that we axe out ALL forms of welfare from retirement to military-industrial complex payoffs. there is no compromise on that. people need to shed their evangelical government wants or they need to be pushed out of politics because these warfare queens dragged us down even more than the welfare queens.
  
  Report this comment
- G-WHIZ
  Posted on November 21, 2012 at 12:06pm
  The words: “NYT” says it all…..NOT!!
  
  Report this comment
Micmac
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 4:09pm
History shows that when a communist/socialist/dictatorship/religious fanatic type regime overthrows a country there is a purge in the millions. The advantage we have now is communication, to a point. But that can easily be taken away with the recent EOs. Why everyone needs to understand the importance of being HAM operators and having the proper equipment available. No internet, no phones, etc., just back to the basics.
If it happens the cities will go 1st. Ironic, as this is where the greatest desire for assumed freebies/socialism exists. Remember Watts…they burnt down their own building. There is no rationale with these people, just massive ignorance with understand consequences. Think NoBama phones and NoBama money. Over 50% of all blacks, for instance, never finish high school. Do you think these people currently have critical thinking skills? There is no rationalizing with them. We’ve seen the videos.
It’s a lot more complicated than I think the “new” RINO heading Republican party can or will fathom, therefore, still going in the wrong direction on how to communicate properly with theses people will be their hubris. It’s not that the Republicans are old white men, just that are out of step with the changes that have happen with the media (now controlled mostly by the left), don’t understand the under-currents, etc.
It will take a massive reboot and education for the Republicans to succeed.

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turkey13
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:58pm
“The main vice of Capitalism is the uneven distribution of prosperity. The main vice of Socialism is the even distribiutionof misery.” – Winston Churchill

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SocialistSlayer
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:16pm
Yes we are doomed! This chart shows how dumb Americans are and how incredibly dumb Black Americans are ! Really people Socialism will be Americans downfall, you can’t sustain it for the long term but in the meantime enjoy those Free obama cellphones but when it all comes crashing down and when you are diving in the local dumpster for dinner for you and your kids just remember I tried to warn your ignorant A$$ you cannot eat your free cell phone ! Oh and if you try and take my families food – be prepared to pull lead out of your sorry **** !

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- fidel1234
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:25pm
  Love it man good post.
  
  Report this comment
- Larry E
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:42pm
  Amen!!!
  
  Report this comment
- turkey13
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:55pm
  It will almost be nice to have socialism as our government. I don’t think the NY times will be the state paper. These fools don’t realize that a lot of jobs will be done away with. First thing Hugo Chavez did was make a state TV station and a state news paper.
  
  Report this comment
- ThePatriette
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 6:37pm
  Agreed!
  
  Report this comment
HKS
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:16pm
Looks to me like moochers want socialism and workers want capitalism. We already knew that.

“Remember Benghazi”

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hauschild
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:49pm
“Here’s Why We Aren’t Convinced”

Hmmmm…….What remains unconvincing about an essentially self-avowed Marxist, community-organizing POTUS who’s put 4 years of destructive socialist policies into place, one of the largest being the fact that the government has now gained control of 1/6 of the economy???????????????????

Are…you….people…completely….NUTS????

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- hauschild
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:53pm
  I wasn’t clear (above). The fact this joker was re-elected is proof enough for anybody with any inkling for knowing the truth.
  
  This country’s demographics are wildly different. The majority have obviously embraced socialism. To discount this reality is utter insanity.
  
  Report this comment
- doomytram
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:14pm
  We have spent all of our money, and everybody else’s money. We are a Ba-Ffing-na-na Republic and we can’t cut a red Abe Lincoln Cent from our Non Budget. Obozo is turning the District of Corruption into Big, Bigger, Biggest Moscow. Hiring Bureaucrats and building new bureaucrat’s building by the tens of thousands. How many bureaucrats that do nothing but trade emails and stare at each other does it take to borrow a billion dollars? – Answer: Just let Obozo hire 6,666 bureaucrats at a salary of $150,000 Is the sign of the Devil 666 or 6666?
  
  Report this comment
Centralsville
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:38pm
Of course America is becoming more socialist, how else do you explain the 20 trillion dollar debt. I always knew someday the takers would outnumber the rest. Minorities, due to inferior genetics, are unable to compete on an equal basis. Same way with women. It starts with affirmative action where the government “equals” the playing field by putting restrictions on white males and giving freebies to minorities and women. But many white males still rise to the top. You need more restrictions and more government handouts and handups. Pretty soon the government is running everything trying to make everything “equal”. Socialism. With more Mexicans, blacks and women running more and more of the government the government will grow and grow and our freedoms will shrink. It all ends with a completely bankrupt country, not to far into the future. With women running our military it too will become weaker and weaker until we are destroyed from within then destroyed from without. America is in a steep decline and anybody but a complete fool can see it.

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- starman70
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:03pm
  JUST WAITING FOR THE COLLAPSE OF SOCIETY!!! Spurred on by socialist slime like those who inhabit the New York times.
  
  Report this comment
Uechi
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:35pm
Right out of A Christmas Carol “This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.” No doubt about it, ignorance will be are undoing.

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Grace1798
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:33pm
20 Years ago, my dentist told me he sent his lovely daughter to University and she came back a different person. She absolutely hated God and America. It tore his family apart. Do NOT send your kids to these Universities. Even if you are not a Christian, send them to Christian Universities. You’ll keep them a true American if you do.

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- hauschild
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:51pm
  Better yet, DON’T send them to ANY universities.
  
  Report this comment
- SimpleTruths
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:55pm
  Great idea, let’s keep dumbing down Americans so we can only be qualified to the clean the rest of the world’s toilets.
  
  Report this comment
BlackCrow
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:32pm
It is no longer one country. The only way is a separation peaceably or not but it is going to happen. There are too many out here in “flyover country” who will NEVER SUBMIT!

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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:43pm
  shouldnt we try nominating constitutional conservatives before sedeeding?
  
  Report this comment
soybomb315_II
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:29pm
Progressive may be getting his poll numbers because for the last two elections, both parties candidates who accept the term progressive

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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:37pm
  *high*
  
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highcarry
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:26pm
and it is our responsibility to stop this in its tracks. we’ve surely learned we can’t do it through elections. so we must adapt their tactics. the liberals said we need to think more like them. okay. how’s this. boycott any business you know for a fact voted for the liberals. picket these businesses. boycott and picket any union you can find. picket in front of your schools. picket your city offices. they are probably afscme. boycott any business that has union workers. picket colleges and universities. at least the liberal ones. you get the picture. i have a sign in the back of my truck that says i will not live under socialist rule. and i mean it . also we need to demonstrate at all liberal gatherings and rallies of any sort. shout them down. drown out their traitorous voices. we need to get as pi$$ed off as they are. and we need to do it now.their tactics used against them. and don’t be afraid of the cops. just picket them and their union. we need to start standing up and fight or it will be too late. it nearly is.civil disobedience is NOT just for liberals anymore.

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ricckky
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:22pm
The devil rides on the coat tails of the ignorant, misinformed and lazy!!!!! Sound like what America is turning into?

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girlnurse
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:18pm
I didn’t read the entire post because it seems that everything is a label or a poll these days. I know Glenn is against “the collective” then why do we do this to ourselves? I am NOT a collective. You can’t even fit me into a box of any kind and I am glad. They have never asked me for my opinion on one of these polls. Maybe they have a way of grabbing all this data and intelligently putting it together…but I certainly am not interested in participating in this New World Order. When does the whole system crash and burn so we can all get on with rebuilding it??

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The-Monk
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:15pm
That last chart is so messed up it’s unreal.

Socialism and Progressives at opposite ends of the chart???

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Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:08pm
It only show the intelligence level of America is on the way down. As more of America’s older generation die off, the younger, dumber generation take their place.

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- sillyfreshness
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:18pm
  The “chosen people” propagandists at the Jew York Times have their Bolshevism spewing full blast now. They are correct. We are more socialists, just as their plan has gone. Flood the media with positive reports on Obama and flood them with negative stories on Romney. Now that they have their Socialist agenda in full swing. You can thank your “chosen people” for getting the nation to the point we are in now. They are the puppet masters.
  
  Report this comment
- soybomb315_II
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:19pm
  good thing there are some young people ready to take on the challenges and shrink the size of government
  
  Report this comment
- Cavallo
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:20pm
  Idiots make better and easier subjects to rule.
  
  Report this comment
- freeberty
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:26pm
  LOL, the older generations are the ones that implemented all the social, welfare programs we have today.
  Veteran benefits were started by the original OWSers on the White house lawn 80 years ago, Farm subsidies are the oldest, most abused welfare program.
  
  Let me know when you give up your SOCIAL security and medicare. Then maybe you can talk about the younger generation.
  
  Report this comment
- soybomb315_II
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:30pm
  I’m 30 and i would gladly give up all future benefits and still pay dwindling portions into SS/Medicare until it GOES AWAY
  
  Report this comment
- freeberty
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:39pm
  Soy,
  
  I just want to see 1 of these old farts that have stolen so much from their future generations, just give up 1 thing that they have stolen.
  I bet it would be like taking a cell phone back from an Urban Obama supporter.
  
  Parasites
  
  Report this comment
- soybomb315_II
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:45pm
  @Free
  You are exactly right. They expect to be taken care of by government and not their own family. If they have kids – why dont they rely on their kids to help them out when they get old? It’s not my fault they didnt save enough or didnt raise children of good character
  
  Report this comment
- SimpleTruths
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:52pm
  Just as this and other conservative propagandists have proven to be – you’re exactly wrong.
  
  Report this comment
- SimpleTruths
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 3:58pm
  CAVALLO
  By listening to and believing Glenn Beck, you prove your own point.
  
  Report this comment
progressiveslayer
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:07pm
Look no further than Greece to see the failure that is socialism,our colleges and universities have pushed the BS of socialism and communism for fifty or sixty years. We wonder why the idiots think those ideologies are so great they’ve been indoctrinated by socialists and communists and we allowed it. When you run out of other peoples money Greece happens and we’re next and soon.

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Patriot Z
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:06pm
socialis cannot be allowed to come to pass. if it takes a civil war and bloodshed to stop it, then so be it. socialism sells everyone into slavery not just the people who support it. its not a freedom of speech issue. once socialism exists it cannot be just ‘voted’ away. the only way you can remove it is violence. people dont like to hear that, but i challenge them to find a time when a dictatorship of the proletairiet, has been stopped without violence or the complete collapse of the country.

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RLTW
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:06pm
“All mass movements, as one might expect, slip with the greatest of ease down an inclined plane made up of large numbers. Where the many are, there is security; what the many believe must of course be true; what the many want must be worth striving for, and necessary, and therefore good. In the clamour of the many resides the power to snatch wish-fulfillments by force; sweetest of all, however, is that gentle and painless slipping back into the kingdom of childhood, into the paradise of parental care, into happy-go-luckiness and irresponsibility. All the thinking and looking after are done from the top; to all questions there is an answer, and for all needs the necessary provision is made. The infantile dream-state of the mass man is so unrealistic that he never thinks to ask who is paying for this paradise. The balancing of accounts is left to a higher political or social authority, which welcomes the task, for its power is thereby increased; and the more power it has, the weaker and more helpless the individual becomes.

Whenever social conditions of this type develop on a large scale, the road to tyranny lies open and the freedom of the individual turns into spiritual and physical slavery.

The ethical decision of the individual human being no longer counts-what matters is the blind movement of the masses, and the lie thus becomes the operative principle of political action.

CG Jung the undiscovered self.

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Zipit
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 1:55pm
I would say that a good 25% of the people that voted for Huessein can’t even spell socialism, let alone give a reasonable definition of what it is! It therefore is quite unrealistic to assume that any of them are aware of how socialism has, is, and will always fail! Just keep the free stuff coming!

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- normalmom
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:14pm
  You are probably right, they aren’t really informing people these days what it really is. I doubt they would be able to tell you what it has in store for the US. Too many people have started to enjoy getting things for free that they can’t even register in their brain what it will truly become.
  
  Report this comment
Al J Zira
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 1:54pm
I’ll tell you what, if we don’t do something to take back our schools and colleges and teach the true meaning of what America is, what it stands for and the responsibilities we have as citizens, then to laugh at this article would be a big mistake. The pressure to let government take care of everyone and become under-achieving robots is coming from all sides and since parents aren’t around to teach their kids otherwise kids will grow up believing what these cesspool schools espouse.

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- progressiveslayer
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:11pm
  I think it might be too late already because we’ve allowed the indoctrination to go on for far too long. Couple that with the revisionist form of US history taught at the commie mills in public schools and colleges and you get idiots begging the state to be their slave masters and they don’t even realize what they’re doing.
  
  Report this comment
- CatB
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:11pm
  Amen .. .that is why they fight vouchers .. and even home schooling .. if you can’t do home school or have vouchers check around .. a lot of Christian schools have scholarships and payment plans .. or even offer to let you work for your childs education. Don’t send them to the GOVERNMENT INDOCTRINATION centers. I pulled my son out of public schools (it was the same school system I had attended) when I found out what they were teaching (indoctrinating) the children. BEST thing I ever did!
  
  Remember Benghazi.
  
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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:17pm
  which candidate wanted to get rid of department of education?
  
  Report this comment
- progressiveslayer
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:31pm
  SOY Ronald Reagen,he tried in the eighties but congress didn’t help him do it.
  
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- dosdelgados
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 4:49pm
  I stopped teaching in public schools. I couldn’t stand in front of my fourth graders and in good faith give them whatever lesson had been handpicked fr delivery. And in the school system where I worked, there was no room for teacher creativity. Everything, down to the posters and room decorations, were decided at the administrative level. Our lesson plans were practically scripts. We were constantly “evaluated” by higher-ups. My parents put me in Christian schools and I went to a Christian university, so the public school mentality was a shock. I dreaded staff meetings. I lasted two years. Now I teach at a Christian school, but the state is always trying to revoke our accreditation and review our textbook choices. And my children will not be attending public schools.
  
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Grace1798
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 1:52pm
I agree that more Americans are embracing Socialism. Know why I believe this? I’ll tell you. Years ago, I was on a Christian chat and the majority were asking me “What’s wrong with Socialism.” Then, after some research, I found web sites that Glorified the NEW AMERICAN SOCIALISM. Apparently they believe we can have a new socialism where they have full control and NOTHING LIKE HITLER would happen. Talk about idiocy? Here’s the hook, apparently, every one of those persons who stated they wanted this NEW AMERICAN SOCIALISM were either in University or just graduating from University in the good old USA. How can we be surprised folks, when the majority of Universities in USA teach the New Age teachings and that there are not absolutes? Cheesh, they taught this crap to my husband in the 70s, fortunately, I got him saved. But they also taught it WAY BACK in the days that Pat Robertson (and he’s old) attended University. He said they were teaching him that long ago that there are no absolutes. Then we wonder why this nation is in trouble? They’ve lost GOD just like Rome did and Rome fell…..and it was a great fall.

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ginger100
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 1:49pm
Embracing Socialism? Is that the nationalist kind or the communist kind. Both kinds are unAmerican.

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banjarmon
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 1:46pm
The GIVE ME crowd IS and WILL BE the DEATH to a Free America!!!

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- mercenary4freedom
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:17pm
  We’ve got big problems. Now DHS is conveying to illegals that its good to come and get free stuff too. This is not going to end well. We’re going to have a hell of a fight on our hands to regain liberty.
  
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- Cavallo
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:19pm
  Free America is already dead. It only exists as a memory now, or a dream.
  
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- girlnurse
  Posted on November 20, 2012 at 2:27pm
  Next time Obama or one of his Ilk is talking somewhere about our debt here in America reporter needs to say, “Is it true in the welcome packet to new immigrants welfare is advertised?”
  but this wont happen, because THE MEDIA is 1/2 of our problem here in Amerika!
  http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/18/homeland-security-promotes-welfare-to-new-immigrants-in-government-welcome-materials/
  
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WillG
Posted on November 20, 2012 at 1:38pm
Looking forward to the inevitable end to that Rag.

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