How can this happen?

Been thinking lately about the USA going socialist.

It's funny, when I was in high school and college, one question was about Germany actually voting for Hitler and the nation being run by SS -- the big question was:  Why?

Germany had been a unified nation for less than 100 years, but the states that made up Germany had always been highly cultured and very civilized, placing a lot of value on intellectual and scientific achievement. Nearly all the scientists involved in what was the "new" physics of Max Planck,  Einstein and others, had been trained and worked in Germany. Jews had fled Russia and Poland because the German states had been much more tolerant of religious differences.

So what happened? When the Nazis came to power, the new physics became "Jewish science" and books were burned. About six million Jews were systematically killed, along with another five million people who simply disagreed with da Fuhrer. And this is apart from those millions slaughtered as the Nazis pushed out geographically in search of more elbow room.

I say:  If you seek the answer for how this could happen, look around you.

Watch the buttheads and blockheads that populate the network Sunday morning political shows. Look at the people in the White House. Listen to their specious and impossible arguments and their rosy and patently improbable promises about a Utopian future. They are full of crap. And to the credit of the US population -- most people aren't buying it.

But this is how disaster happens. Marx got this much right: The road to hell is paved with "good" intentions -- or at least those intentions clothed in what some call "good" to make selling points.

They try tirelessly to cut the ties between cause and effect. They say: Your health care will be free! They fail to note that it will cost more than half your income in payroll deductions and income taxes.

They say health care will be available to everyone. They fail to note that there will be long, long waiting lines, with people dying for lack of care before they have the opportunity to even see a doctor.

They say they will reduce the cost of health care. They don't say how and, in fact, they diddle with the numbers to make their case. And everyone knows what they're doing and the "pro" side defends this bullshit anyway, as though it represents truth.

Then consider this:  Not only are they adding 30 million (by their own count) to the waiting lists for health care, but they are also adding something like 117 new government bureaus to regulate this system. WHO THE HELL IS GOING TO PAY FOR THIS?

And it's not only health care. I'm relocating. I called the local electric and gas companies to initiate service at my new address. Both organizations asked for social security number. Neither customer service person could explain what my social security number has to do with my domestic energy needs. I asked one of them: "Why don't we just tattoo it on our arms?"

They'd never heard of that before and thought that might be a good idea.

The pro-socialists slobber over a few letters they've gotten from some unhappy citizens looking for help. Some people will always need help, and usually due to the particular cirumstances of their  uncommon situations So we should destroy American liberty for that?

Like about 15 years ago, a state assemblyman in Illinois proposed banning the promotion of religion on state-run college campuses. Joining with a couple organizations, I testified in Springfield (state capitol) that the proposal was a direct violation of the First Amendment.

The state assemblyman got up at end of the hearing and said his legislation was only in response to the concerns of one of his voters who was worried her son might be seduced by Moonies or someone while he was attending the U of I. So destroy the US Constitution because one neurotic mommy was worried that her son didn't have any common sense. But what's really unforgivable is that the assemblymen was cheerfully willing to do this.

Forget vampires, werewolves, and zombies. It's the stupidity and ignorance of our legislators that's the real horror show. And mostly, they're among the democrats. The Republicans are resisting. And I don't care if they're resisting because they're trying to regain their own power or for whatever reason. The important thing is that they're resisting.

The existence of the US republic depends upon this.