Socialism, bribery and the death of the republic

The day I wrote this column, I had a conversation with a local businessman who told me, in all earnestness, “I have a hard time finding employees who want to work.”

When you get through laughing, consider this:

Rasmussen Reports just published a survey that found that 46 percent of Americans support a proposal to have the government guarantee a job that includes health benefits for every citizen.

Rasmussen, of course, did not ask the respondents whether they thought the workers should actually be required to work in their shiny new made-up jobs, but you already know what the answer would be.

Democrats are already plotting how to capture the presidency in 2020 by promising guaranteed employment. Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator from Vermont, is well-known for his penchant for free stuff, including college education, but now he’s being joined by N.J. Sen. Cory Booker and N.Y. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in throwing other people’s money at voters in hopes they will repay the largess with support at the ballot box.

After the huge success of Obamacare [sarcasm alert], it’s no wonder that Democrats want to adopt a second plank of socialism as they endeavor to convert the United States into a soviet socialist republic.

Oddly enough, the Democrats seem to have no grasp of the collapse of communism at the end of the last century. So far as Bernie and his band of Merry Pranksters are concerned, the dictatorship of the proletariat has just moved from Russia to Venezuela.

Yeah, THAT Venezuela — the one where inflation is estimated to be nearing 100,000 percent annually. If money being worthless is the same thing as “free money,” then Bernie has reason to celebrate the Venezuelan socialist miracle. The Venezuelan people “celebrated” this year, too — by using their banknotes called Bolivars as confetti during baseball games.

Let’s face it, everywhere that communism has been tried, it has failed, but that doesn’t stop some folks from insisting that “OUR communism” will be different. No, it won’t; it will just lead to the collapse of “OUR country.”

Giving money away has two purposes — charity and bribery. In the case of giving away money for political purposes, it is bribery in the form of charity. And when the money runs out, it is the beginning of revolution.

Or as a quote attributed to Ben Franklin famously put it: “When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake. He can be reached at fmiele@dailyinterlake.com.