McCain and Obama and American Socialism: It’s The Economy, Comrade!

Scrap any political party affiliation: both presidential nominees unveiled socialist agendas at last night’s presidential debate. 

This is what it has come to. 

John McCain spoke about federal bailouts for all distressed mortgages – under the banner of stabilizing U.S. housing prices and of saving the economy.  Under this plan, the government would pick up roughly 4,500,000 mortgages and allow the delinquent homeowners to continue living on the property.    

I can no longer calculate these projected costs in dollars – nor can I stop my spinning head.  I am no longer sure that it matters.

Barack Obama leached leftism at every opportunity – most visibly with his class-based discriminatory tax policy and his state-controlled healthcare proposals.  We were told that his tax plan is fair and that his healthcare program is progressive. 

The central reason cited for the suggestion on state ownership is the current state of the U.S. economy – scaring the population enough to get the population to buy into state control of private assets.  That is the game. 

I am not an economist, but I have seen similar themes from other regimes.

Now, when Bill Clinton ran for office, his success was based on his ability to parallel his opponent’s poor direction with the poor direction of the overall economy.  It’s The Economy, Stupid became his populist platform.  But here we are now with candidates from two competing parties who have fallen remarkably in line with a lone solution: state ownership is the silver bullet.  It’s The Economy, Comrade!

Except this time around, the voting public is the losing opponent.  The collective dupe in this is that we are not economists – and we don’t understand why it is that we should be in opposition.   

So, where is American academia?  I have not seen their solutions.  Where is Harvard and Yale and Wharton and Duke – all of those brand name institutions that demand the highest compensation for the privilege of their respective association? 

Maybe they are mere vapid openings in our cerebral landscape.  But nothing has come from them.  Not a word.  Not an equation.

Where are the economists and the thought leaders and the think tanks? 

This election has come down to the dismemberment of Darwinism – Joe Six-Packs opening their beers and celebrating their shortcomings.