Posted on 10/02/2008 6:51:51 AM PDT by Hillary'sMoralVoid
It was no surprise that my son plans to vote for Obama. He's been veering left throughout his college years. We had a rather heated discussion about Obama on the phone. I told him that Obama was a socialist. His response was "maybe a little socialism won't hurt". Here is my written response.
Dear Son,
When we discussed Barack Obama and I said he was a socialist, I remember that you responded that "maybe a little socialism won't hurt."
We are now in the midst of an economic crisis of global proportions, the results of which will impact much of your life and perhaps even your children's lives.
This is the result of a "little socialism". Community activists, like Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson, with the help of groups like ACORN, pressured banks into giving favorable loans to minorities in blighted areas of urban America. The banks did one of two things, they either closed the targeted branch, or complied and lost money.
This pattern continued through the 1990s and became more and more insideous. Loan amounts were increased, qualification standards were relaxed, down payments were eliminated. Things became so loose that even illegal immigrants were receiving loans with little down payment or proof of income.
This was done in the name of social engineering, trying to increase minority home ownership to people who clearly couldn't afford it. In short, govenment making decisions that market should make, in short, socialism.
The "CEO's" of Freddie Mac and Fannie May received higher bonuses the more loans they gave, so they had a financial incentive to make more loans. Two execs, Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, raked in over $100M in personal bonuses between them. They were fired for cooking the books and overstating financial health of their organizations, a'la Enron. They both are now advisors to the Obama campaign.
Over the years, the Republicans have called for more regulation and oversight of Fannie/Freddie, Bush pushed for it over ten times. McCain co-authored legislation to that effect. The Democrats were incredibly protective, fighting off any oversight, despite all the warning signs of problems.
Perhaps it was the contributions. Obama is the top recipient of Fannie/Freddie political contributions in the last three years, with the top recipients being overwhlemingly democrats.
Since controlling congress the democrats have covered for the abuses, and have tried to deflect blame to the banks involved with the loans. It's quite remarkable that they would cite greed of the banking industry for getting involved in high-risk, low-profit loans. In fact, the banks became involved out of political correctness as well as some political coercion and cronyism. One of the early banks in the sub-prime mess was Bear-Stearns, one of the first to fail.
I know that you were delighted to see Ken Lay of Enron go to jail and so was I. The cost of the Fannie/Freddie scandal is already over ten times that of Enron, just for the United States, and is likely to end out costing us more than double that. Mom and I have lost a lot of our retirement savings because of this scandal.
Now we have a bailout plan that doesn't fix the core problem of sub-prime loans. A criminal investigation is underway from the U. S. Attorney's office on Freddie and Fannie. How far will that go with the democrats in control? (If you like conspiracy theories, there are many who think that former New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer was set up in the callgirl scandal because he was getting too close to too many important people in Washington.)
So why am I so fearful of socialism? Why did I make a career of fighting it? How much can a little socialism hurt?
Love, Dad
Very good. May I borrow it to send to MY 20 year-old clueless son?
great letter
Yes, Dad, we already HAVE a “little” socialism. Most kids don’t know it when they see it since they’ve grown up in it.
I believe that our educational system has been the greatest ally collectivism ever had. Our population has no clue about freedom or self-government. In fact, they've been taught to hate individualism.
Great letter. Hope you get through.
Please do!!!!!
Yep...I’m sure there were many German citizens in years gone by who thought that a little nazism can’t hurt.
I should send it to my clueless 78 year old uncle.
Great letter. We should all e-mail it to friends who are undecided or voting for Obama.
Socialism is grand, until you run out of other peoples money to spend. Then you are totally scr*wed.
If Obama and his little bit of socialism do get elected and his spending and tax plans go into effect, you're on your own for college. I'll be too busy paying for free health insurance for everyone and supporting the unproductive members of society that I just won't have the money necessary to turn you into another stupid, non-critical thinking liberal Democrat.
Love,
Dad
Maybe if Obama wins we all join the welfare rank and draw from the bowl
Then we start a barter system! Cashless!
I may just have to move.....I couldnt stand listening to his preaching for 8 years....God help us.
bookmark
Very good, I’m passing it along!
I certainly hope that you make your kid work during college for at least his spending money. Too few upper middle class kids work in HS or College and that doesn’t help.
So if you are paying his beer money..I suggest you cut it off and tell him that you are giving it to someone who needs it more than he does in the interest of fairness.
Actually, I would probably cut off all financial support..in a socialist state he would need to beg the govt for college money.
“I believe that our educational system has been the greatest ally collectivism ever had.”
One of the most important parts of the Communist Manifesto
requires the control of the media and the education system for propaganda distribution and control...
Well when he graduates and starts looking for a job you can tell him that he should find one of those “green collar” jobs that the messiah has been pitching to the American public. And when he can’t find one tell him if he needs work he can always join the peace corp. I mean what college graduate wants a nice apartment, a nice car, new clotes and an active social life (all things that cost money) when they can just have “a little socialism”-it won’t hurt.
Our population has no clue about freedom or self-government.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You just packed an entire essay on what is wrong with America into one sentence. Of course it really doesn’t apply to the entire population but it seems that way sometimes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.