Why Liberals Have to Lie Part 5; Occupy Wall Street

I write this as a response to the question, In what way am I (conservative) (liberal)?

I still think it's interesting how we use the term Liberal in the US. In England, Liberal is defined as a love of liberty and is based on the dictates of John Locke, Edmund Burke and the US Constitution. And what we call the Liberal party in the US is the Labor Party. Using these labels I think better describes the views of those in the US and explains that there is a difference between Conservatism and Constitutionalists. The Conservative party is represented by the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. The Liberal Party (sometimes called Liberal Conservatism) is based on limited government, self governance and economic individualism. The Labor Party is center left democratic socialist party, that believes in typical socialists policies such as public ownership of key industries, government intervention in the economy, redistribution of wealth, increased rights for workers, the welfare state, publicly-funded healthcare and education. In the US, there has always been such a stigma attached to socialism, that socialists have had to re-name themselves and finally settled on Liberal.

The following are more letters to the editor and responses in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. The first is my response to Amy Goodman’s Liberal rant warning President Obama that if he doesn’t pay attention the Occupy Wall Street group, horrors of horrors, we will return to the policies of the Bush era.

My response printed 10/18/2011: It shouldn't surprise me but it still does. Amy Goodman's article "A new Bush Era or push era," has facts that seems to have been simply been made up in the mind of another liberal. First the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations simply shows that in any big city you can get 1,000-2,000 mush-brained college students to demonstrate against "The Man;" is anyone really surprised by that? But the liberals have had movement envy, ever since the tea party movement took hold of America. Goodman also states that the arrests of 700 demonstrators in New York was "one of the largest mass arrests in U.S. history."

I'm sorry but the statement is laughable. The arrest of 700 people is not a pimple on the butt of an elephant when it comes to mass arrests in the U.S., such as in the race riots across the U.S. in 1965/68: New York, 3,776 arrested; Detroit, 7,200 arrested; Watts 3,438 arrested; and let's not forget the Rodney King riots, 1992, L.A., 11,000 arrested. So I guess you can't blame President Obama for saying whatever sounds good and making up the facts as he goes along; after all, he's a liberal and it's in his blood.

This was printed on the same day

What Occupy Wall Street really wants

Anyone who can't understand what the protesters want changed simply has a different set of values from the rest of us. For example, OWS supporters want a change in the tax code that would help reduce inequality. Conservatives think the income gap is just fine. OWS wants workers to be able to join unions and bargain collectively. Conservatives think union busting is a necessary part of running a business. OWS wants single family foreclosures stopped and worked out so families will not be thrown out. Conservatives think most of those people shouldn't have a house in the first place. OWS wants a return to one man, one vote, everyone with a right to vote, government, not one sold to the highest bidder. Conservatives think our plutocracy is the natural result of creative capitalism. And we could go on. The place from which conservatives view society is so far removed from reality, it's no wonder they have no sense of what should be changed to allow average Americans to live more productive and secure lives. OWS simply wants conservatives to get informed, become aware, quit turning their heads.

Howard F. Sosbee, Scotts Valley

My Response: Howard Sosbee is half right; Conservatives want the tax code simplified, while it still allows 47% who don’t pay any Fed taxes at all. Conservatives simply don’t want it mandatory to join unions and that workers simply have the right to work. The foreclosure debacle is the result of social engineering by Democrats, directing banks to sell mortgages to people that obviously could not afford them. Obama’s reaction was to make it more profitable to banks to foreclose on a house than restructure the loan. The plutocracy is the result of the best government money can buy; lets not forget Obama received more contributions from the fat cat bankers and Wall Street investors for the 2008 election than any other candidate in history; and he’s trying to up that record for the 2012 election. Conservatives know that no matter how compassionate and fair radical redistribution of wealth and socialism look; it always ends very badly. Take a good look at what’s going on in Europe right now.

This was an earlier piece my one of Santa Cruz liberal letter writers; printed 10/13/2011.

Give America a good laugh, Perry

What does Republican presidential wannabe Rick Perry mean when he says President Obama's administration is socialist? The tea party has been using socialist as a derogatory and defamatory catchword since they began their claptrap three years ago. I've never heard any of these populist insurgents say exactly what they mean when they denigrate the president by calling him a socialist. Now, Republican front-runner Rick Perry has latched on to socialist and is parroting the same corny lines as his tea party friends. I know perfectly well what socialist means, and it is not in the context that Perry and the tea party use it. Tell us, Mr. Perry, explain to us, what you mean by the word "socialist" as you relate it to President Obama and his administration. America needs a good laugh.

Ron Lowe, Santa Cruz

My response: Ron Lowe asks a good question; how is President Obama a Socialists. Technically he is a Fascist (or Corporatist), which is a form of socialism (adapted by the German Nazi party but not defined by it). Unlike classic socialism however, fascism allows for the ownership of property, but controls business and the means of production through a corporate structure and regulation. Further like all socialism, the rights of individuals is sacrificed for the rights of the many; referred to as collectivism. ObamaCare is classic socialism; where individual medical plans are done away with, instead you have the creation of one size fits all health plans using government panels to determine the quality of care allowed. President Obama has imposed some 75 major regulations that have cost business and the American people over $40 billion. More troubling is President Obama’s Rule by Regulation where he bye passes congress to implement policies, that constitutionally only the legislature is empowered to do. With fascism expect a government restructuring where labor unions will become an arm of the government and Presidential Czars will control every aspect of your life from what you eat, to how much profit businesses can make. That Mr Lowe is how the President is a socialist.