Obama and Marx: A crash course

"A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of Communism."

With those words, Karl Marx launched a revolution with "The Communist Manifesto." Interestingly, the opening of his essay, cowritten with Friedrich Engels, begins with the assertion that the European powers are using the "branding reproach of Communism" to label their opponents. Marx then says, "It is high time the communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the spectre of Communism with a Manifesto of the party itself."

If Marx were alive today and living in San Francisco, perhaps he would have instead written this: "A spectre is haunting Democratic politics - the spectre of socialism." Certainly, the "branding reproach of socialism" is now publicly acknowledged to have been used against the Democratic Party, and against its standard bearer, Barack Obama. It is high time for Obama and his allies to publicly assert their political and economic philosophy. If it is socialism, say so. If it is not, please explain why.

This, of course, is made immediately relevant by Obama's famous comment to Joe the Plumber that, "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." In particular he was talking about his tax plan, which is a plan for redistribution of wealth from top to bottom.

This is a matter of fact. When Obama tells you that his tax plan will benefit 95 percent of taxpayers, he is misstating the truth. The fact is that 30 to 40 percent of Americans, the poorest among us, already don't pay any taxes. But what Obama's plan will do is allow them to sign up for a variety of tax credits, so the government will send them a check for a couple thousand dollars or more every year. Where does the money come from to make those payments? From Americans who do pay taxes. It literally is redistribution of wealth. Instead of using taxes to pay for the necessities of infrastructure and defense that they were intended for, the government as envisioned by Obama will be "spreading the wealth around."

The question is whether Americans care. And if they don't, why not?

Ask yourself, why did we spend 50 years after World War II fighting a Cold War to eliminate communism if we actually believe in it? Is this nation actually prepared to admit we were wrong, and Karl Marx was right? Marx's credo, "From each according to his ability; to each according to his need," has a nice ring. It can easily be seen as an institutionalized form of Christian charity -Êproviding for the less able, or the less advantaged. But look at the results of communism and socialism in Europe, and you will quickly conclude that any philosophical niceties are vastly outweighed by the political realities.

When you look at Marx's list of goals for communism in chapter two of "The Communist Manifesto" (www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm), you can see that socialism has already made great advances in the United States. But in particular pay attention to No. 2 - "A heavy progressive or graduated income tax."

In this regard, Obama has outdone Marx himself. A progressive tax just puts a greater share of the burden on the rich. We already have long since had such a tax. But now Obama wants to find a way to hand out money to the poor. Is it any wonder that he is ahead in the polls?

As Ben Franklin reputedly said, "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."

n Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake and writes a weekly column. E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com