Marxism

8 Conservative Glossary Items #4

The ever wise Victoria Jackson, arguably the most talented cast member in the storied history of Saturday Night Live, nailed our President to the wall with this insightful analysis on the Sean Hannity Show about a month ago.

Well, I've never been involved in politics. 'Cuz it's just neh neh neh, neh neh neh. But all of a sudden it was, it was: Oh, Hillary Clinton is a socialist, she wants to socialize medicine. Well, I'll have to vote against her. And then all of a sudden a communist appears! Out of nowhere! And that's when I started to get involved. So I did research. Uh, black liberation theology, his church, is Marxist. And his professors are Marxist. Redistribute the wealth --

Basically, Marxism is an ideology developed by Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels. Is is communism. Marxists believe that capitalism divides society into two groups, the workers and the owners. This is called alienation. Marx believed that the workers, the proletariat, would rise united out of the ruins of capitalism. Ultimately, Marxism wasn't very practical and other communists would modify the principles in their quest for revolution.

There is no denying the appeal of Marxist thought to many, even today, but ultimately it's sort of a joke. Marxists sit around and lament that a true Marxist state has never arisen. In other words, Marxism isn't a failure because nobody ever really got it right. This, in point of fact, sounds a lot like conservatives who have the same pity party whenever anyone claims we are witnessing the failure of conservatism. In other words, we should pretend that George Bush wasn't the realization of their wet dreams and the results of his administration weren't the inevitable consequences of a bankrupt ideology.

So, is Ms. Jackson right about President Obama? Well, one thing she should consider is that communists do not simply appear out of nowhere. Neither do capitalists. Is she seeing ghosts?

Anyway, it would be an obvious mistake to look to a kook like Jackson for anything insightful, but accusations of Marxism have come from such "respected" figures as Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Jim Cramer. Yet, can anyone look at any legislation either passed or proposed by the Obama legislation and truly say that he is attempting to eliminate the "owner" class? Is Obama looking for the government to take permanent ownership of our industries? Can we consider anyone "serious" if they actually believe this tripe?

Obama is doing what good progressives have done for a long time in this country's history. He's taking the economic system that offers the most freedom, capitalism, and he's attempting to smooth out the rough edges so that everyone benefits from the system. You can still start your own business and make yourself rich. He has done and will do nothing to eliminate entrepreneurship. He's just looking to narrow the gap a bit. Anyone who thinks otherwise is ... well ... stupid.

Previous Entries in this Series (An Introduction, Communism, Bolsheviks, Maoism)