The Road to Serfdom: Where the Democrats are Heading

" It cannot be said too often — at any rate, it is not being said nearly often enough — that collectivism is not inherently democratic, but, on the contrary, gives to a tyrannical minority such powers as the Spanish Inquisitors never dreamt of." - George Orwell

It's sad that we often need to go miles down a road of destruction before we take into account where that road is leading.  But the fact that Hayek's The Road to Serfdom, has soared to the top of Amazon's best seller's list 66 years after its original publication suggests that is very much true for us.

Democrats are widely supported by people who believe in collectivization - intelligent, educated people who want to see the government play a highly pro-active role in regulating business, the economy, the environment, education, health care, etc.  Generally, they always want the government, i.e. the state to do more, and less educated voters who feel their slice of what they believe to be a static pie, is dependent on government intervention to redistribute to them what someone else has now.  There are also voters who support the Democratic Party more or less as cheerleaders of the second group, hoping that with their vote, the government, rather than private, charitable enterprises, will step in and give those who have little - more.

The preceding paragraph essentially describes the core of the New Deal coalition that has been around for more than 75 years.  Over that era it has helped elect LBJ and the Great Society, Jimmy Carter's era of malaise, and now gives us Barack Obama - the latest of America's intensively left wing Presidents.  In between, we have had centrist Democrat Presidents, Harry Truman, John F Kennedy and Bill Clinton, who gave us tax cuts, balanced budgets and stable economic conditions, even while aiding a liberal social agenda along the way.

i mention Johnson, Carter and Obama together because of the historic effect of these Presidents.  During each of their Presidencies we have moved toward the brink of financial disaster, dramatically increased budget deficits and wakened America's position in foreign affairs immeasurably. 

But there has been a sling shot effect. Following Johnson and Carter - we elected Nixon and Reagan - very different from their predecessors ideologically to say the least.  In other words, each time we have had a President who has followed the ideological prescriptions of the Democratic Party - America has soundly rejected it and elected someone who openly loathed that ideology. 

in doing so, we elected Nixon to turn the tables and win a war.  Sadly, Nixon turned out to be a weak and not very substantive change from Johnson, but Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, brought a tremendous turn around from Jimmy Carter.  He preached a gospel of freedom from government and he meant it!   Well...for the most part. 

But Reagan was just the answer American needed for the malaise of centralized, government control brought to us by Jimmy Carter.  Now, 30 years later, we will again need a change.  This time around, it will be even more critical.  Before Obama even took office, the federal government had overreached so badly we faced the worst financial scenario we've seen since the Great Depression. 

But with the take over of health care, and the clear intent of this administration to regulate and tax any and every human activity in its view, we are heading for a much longer, deeper and worse financial crisis than before.

We can only hope that the sling shot has been pulled back far enough to trigger real change in a new direction soon - away from this continuing drive toward serfdom, but not so far as to snap.