Modern Communism in America

UNITED STATES - America's economy is going down the toilet, the Federal Reserve, the White House and Congress are bailing out investment banks to the tune of $700 billion and meanwhile every day Americans are starting to question the success of capitalism in the United States.

Is America becoming Communist?

Just looking at the bailout by itself... that is Communist Socialism in action. Using government money to support national banks/companies, and in this case effectively buying out those banks so that they are now partially owned by the US government.

In just the last three days presidential candidate John McCain has been pushing the issue of Communism in America, trying to paint his opponent Barack Obama as Red. This despite the fact that McCain ALSO was in favour of the bank bailout.

This is not the first time Republicans have tried to paint Democrats as being pro-Communist... the tactic has been used for decades. The idea that American liberals have been fomenting communist revolution for decades is a theme often pushed by right-wing pundits. Best-selling right-wing books, such as Bill O'Reilly's Culture Warrior and Ann Coulter's Treason, repeatedly define American liberalism as a covert form of communism.

John McCain's logic is because Barack Obama wants to create a Canadian or French style of health care. Is Canada communist? No. Is France? No. But they have two of the best health care systems in the world. Shouldn't America aspire to have a better health care system? Right now the USA is hovering just above Cuba in terms of quality. Is that the best America can do? Slightly better than Cuba?

But here's the silly thing. The bank bailout was George W. Bush's idea. Its therefore a Republican idea, because we all know Bush isn't the brains in the White House.

So apparently the pot is calling the kettle black. Or in this case Red.

The only reason we're having a bailout in the first place is because George W. Bush has been asleep at the economic wheel during his entire presidency. He has followed a philosophy of ZERO government intervention and when the markets went sour due to the credit crisis his solution is to just throw money at the problem.

So is America becoming Communist? No. A real Communist state would have been controlling everything (or trying to control everything) in the financial markets from the start. Whats happening now is the result of White House and Federal Reserve incompetence.

There's an old mantra that says "Don't attribute to malice that which can easily be explained by stupidity."

Is free market Capitalism failing? Is Bush corrupt and/or a communist? No and no again, the economy is just having a rough time because the leadership in America is incompetent.

Lastly, using a solution like a bailout is also rather incompetent. It shows a complete lack of imagination and it will serve to make things worse. Will investment banks learn their lesson? No.

What we need is a REAL solution that will bolster the American economy, and one possible solution would be to cut back on all the Asian imports flooding the American market.