Last week, I was honored to have authored the highest impact diary for the week entitled, "A Tea Partier Just Called Me A Communist. Watch MY SLAM DUNK Response.". Check it out, in case you missed it.
Basically, a guy named Rod sent me an email and asked "aren't all Democrats communists?"
Rod answered me . . . six times. You can see his responses, and some other good stuff too, after the jump.
For context, my initial response last week in a nutshell was . . .
[A]m I a "communist?"
Damn Skippy. Because the New Deal communists bring prosperity, while the Republican Patriots bring unemployment [and] recession . . .
That was after sharing the following data.
- 3 out of 4 Democratic administrations left office with unemployment at 4% or lower.
- No Republican administration ever left office with unemployment under 5%.
- Of 9 adminstrations since the end of the war, 4 of the best 5 in terms of GDP growth were Democrats.
- The four worst administrations in terms of GDP growth were all Republican
- There were 34 "boom" quarters with GDP growth in excess of 6% before Reagan took office in '81.
- There were 14 since he took office. [So much for the "Reagan Revolution."]
To see the reams of economic data I furnished in detail, you can look at last week's diary, or you can look at a handy dandy PDF brochure I prepared . . . suitable to distribute at your local Democratic Headquarters, union hall, or the bulletin board in the break room at work. Hey, give one to your favorite tea party cult Limbaugh listener.
This image is organized to be read left to right. The actual brochure is designed to be folded. You are welcome to download it and copy as many as you'd like.
Meanwhile, I though you might appreciate seeing some of Rod's responses . . . six of them in total. This is the highlight reel.
Lies, lies and more lies just as you've always been perpetrating, Joe Lyles. Figures don't lie but liars figure and you are among the best figurers around.
I didn't "figure" anything. I just looked them up. But wait . . .
You cite statistics from the BLS, a federal government agency, and one not authorized by The Constitution and therefore illegal. And in any event, such an agency would be highly unlikely to produce statistics that would question government intervention in the first place. That is a conflict of interest so therefore they are suspect
That's right, the government shouldn't even be keeping up with those numbers. Why, if the government were restrained to it's proper function, Rod wouldn't have to be troubled with facts and stuff.
You and your 'progressive' ilk have enslaved us to government. You've forgotten about that tax enacted by FDR in his confiscation of privately
held gold. And how about the phony projects like the dams and roads that he used to 'solve' unemployment and that inspired Hitler and his ideas? Oh sorry if I blaspheme.
I'm not sure what a "phony" project is. I've actually driven over at least three TVA dams . . . so they were definitely built. They supply electric power to residents of the Tennessee Valley to this day. I'm not sure how, but Rod seems to think those dams have groaning under the yoke of Stalinism.
As for the inspiration for Hitler, he's actually got it backward. Eisenhower was impressed with the German autobahn's, leading to our interstate highway system. Maybe that's why Rod says this . . .
Don't forget it has been your progressive society and attitude to improve humanity through government that gave us the eugenics of Margaret Sanger that with a little mutation became the Holocaust of National Socialist Germany, the GULAG of the USSR, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot. And, of course, WWI, WWII, Prohibition and most of the horrors of the 20th century but why worry about details, eh, Joe?
Did you know that Margaret Sanger inspired Hitler to kill 6 million Jews? I didn't either.
Right about now was when I got around to responding.
Rod, what country have you been living in? Seriously. Didn't you tell me that you live over in Ponte Vedra Beach? Seems to me like our New Deal Communist society has been pretty good to you.
Why don't you relax. Go lay on the beach tomorrow, and have a margarita. You can do that in New Deal Communist America.
His response, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth over FDR's abrogation of the gold standard, and Obama's deficits, boils down to this.
Ultimately, I do not care for results. I care about freedom, which no one on your side does. Proseprity results from freedom and has in every single case across the globe in history. And when a society has become economically socialist, it has prospered in the reamining secotrs that have been free. The USA is going under because your policies have prevailed since FDR.
Right . . . don't bother Rod with "results" . . . including his own life living in "communist America." Rod is a doctor, who has done very well for himself living in the "richest, most prosperous nation that ever was." He will tell you that, and 2 minutes later, tell you this about that same country
And yes, I can't see any difference between the Democratic platform and Karl Marx's agenda.
He actually listed the points of the Communist Manifesto . . . something most tea partiers I ask can't do . . . see the video, below.
Check out Rod's analysis of the manifesto.
Finally, below you will find a list from Karl Marx’s Manifiest outlining his blueprint for the communization of a society. You are unlikely to disagree with any but feel free to prove me wrong.
. . .
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes (Taxes on land) .
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax (partial enslavement).
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance (Estate taxes).
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels (RICO Acts & others).
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly (Federal Reserve Board).
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State,(FCC, FAA, Interstate Highway System and others) .
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State (GM today); the bringing into cultivation of waste lands(Federal irrigation projects), and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan (Zoning & land use laws).
8. Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country (Zoning & land use laws).
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &etc, &etc.
See, we all just learned something.
- Property taxes are the same as "abolition of property in land."
- Estate taxes are the same as "abolition of inheritance."
- Presumably sales and income taxes equal the "abolition" of commerce and wages.
- "Emigrants" are the same as "organized crime" targeted by the RICO Acts.
- Improving the soil is "communist."
- Thomas Jefferson, who advocated progressive taxation in a 1785 letter to Madison, was a communist.
- Public schools are communist [and make no mistake, tea partiers like Rod actually believe that.]
At some point you might ask what's the point of this. This guy is obviously unbalanced . . . and has been unbalanced since long before Barack Obama was ever elected. Someone suggested in the comments to my previous diary that I should perhaps temper my ridicule of Rod and those like him.
As a matter of fact, there are literally millions of people just like Rod. You know some of them. They live on your street. They spout this nonsense at work. You might even have one living in the same house as you. They are everywhere, and they spout this nonsense everywhere they go.
The point is not to convince the tea partiers. Rod and his friends can't be convinced. He told you why. He doesn't believe those statistics . . .and anyway, the constitution doesn't authorize keeping them . . . and not only that. Rod says, "I don't care for results . . . "
Convincing Rod isn't the point. It is convincing the people within earshot of Rod. It is telling people who aren't paying as close attention as you are, that Rod is wrong. It is putting a little bit of pressure on Rod, so that he reveals himself to be the kook that he is.
Here is a question for you. Why does Rod exist? And why are there so many people just like him?
The answer is because the Republican Party has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to create this tea party cult. They have done so because they have understood . . . for decades, all the way back to the establishment of the National Review in 1955 . . . that the political struggle is fought in the court of public opinion. Elections are decided at the watercooler, and in the barber shop, and in letters to the editor.
You must fight that battle, and yuo must have ammunition. My little brochure is a small contribution to that effort.
So is my film, MEGA-DITTOS!!! The Tea Party Cult. Watch it, and watch tea partiers like Rod self-destruct right before your eyes.
Here's the lastest 60 second clip.
And if you haven't seen it yet, here's the long version, that has attracted thousands of views. The Obama Diary called it "brilliant!"
Here is the video I mentioned showing a number of tea partiers unable to even tell you what communism is.
One last thing . . .
I want to take the film on tour this summer. I would like to end the tour in Charlotte at the Democratic National Convention, with a screening somewhere. We are raising seed money through kickstarter to get the show on the road.
Here is our Kickstarter page.
If you find this discussion . . .
Or the video clip of tea partiers who don't know what Marxism is . . .
Or the video clip of tea partiers explaining what "tyranny" means . . .
Or the long video clip of questions to tea partiers . . .
Or the brochure with all of the economic charts and data . . .
Or anything else in this diary to be useful, please recommend it.
5:15 PM PT: Rec list . . . again. And again, thank you for your encouragement and support.