Ten Socialist Programs That Everybody Loves (including Rush Lmibaugh)

OMG, the new President Barack Obama will send the United States into the dread history of that horrible “ism” called socialism. Well, my fellow Americans, we (US) love socialism. We need socialism. Anytime, Uncle Sam needs a fix, we build programs based on socialism.

Definition, please. Webster’s Online Dictionary defines socialism as follows:

so·cial·ism
Pronunciation: \ˈsō-shə-ˌli-zəm\
Function: noun
Date: 1837

1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done


Let’s keep it nice and simple and stick with definition #1. From Definition #1, I will list 10 (yes, count ‘em, TEN) BIG programs that all Americans love. Wait, we don’t call these programs socialistic. Uh, psst, they are socialist in nature and by definition.

So, announcing loudly! Here are 10 Socialist Programs That Everybody (Americans, that is) Loves (including neo-conservatives):

1. The United States Interstate Highway System

The Federal Highway Administration states that the National Highway Systems consists of approximately 160,000 miles of approximately 160,000 miles (256,000 kilometers) of roadway important to the nation's economy, defense, and mobility. From Wikipedia,

“The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly called the Interstate Highway System (or simply, the Interstate System), is a network of limited-access highways (also called freeways or expressways) in the United States that is named for President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who championed its creation. The entire system, as of 2006[update], has a total length of 46,876 miles (75,440 km), making it both the largest highway system in the world and the largest public works project in history. The Interstate Highway System is a subsystem of the National Highway System.”
Simply put, I can drive from Wilmington, NC, on the Atlantic Ocean to Seattle, WA, on the Pacific Ocean for FREE. Everybody pays for it…anybody gets to drive on it. Wal-Mart, Amazon, and eBay (in their present forms) would not exit without a free means of delivering the goods to you. Take that, capitalist pig! I am sorry, had to be said.

2. Rural Electrification

Let there be light….in the countryside. If you drive away from the city metropolitan areas, away from the suburbs, and into the countryside with its two-lane road, you will see a common thing: a single line of electric poles heading away from the roadside into the woods. The power line may be only going to a single house or a couple of houses. The concept of sending electric power into the rural areas is known as rural electrication. The power line is subsidized by all of us, yet only a few people reap the benefits. Think about that when you are buying that retirement home in the woods.

3. The TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly impacted by the Great Depression (Wikipedia, again). The TVA was created when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act on May 18, 1933. Socialism struck again and modernized the state’s economy. Franklin D. Roosevelt won the state in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944. Perhaps forgetting who created the TVA, the citizens of TN become wishy-washy in the Presidential elections thereafter.

4. National Immunization

Germs and viruses do not care whether its host (victim) is a Republican, Democrat, or Other. They strike when a biological opportunity is available. That opportunity is YOU and your NEIGHBOR. By forcing school-age children to become immunized and making immunization free, we help prevent terrible diseases and plagues. It is FREE and everybody benefits from it.

5. Libraries

City, County, State, Federal libraries all have free admission. Read the books but please do not fall asleep in the library.

6. The National Weather System

We get our information about the weather from The National Weather System under the auspices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Not the Weather Channel. Why should the citizens of the state of Montana pay for scientific prediction of hurricanes for the state of Florida…because the citizens of the warm state of Florida have to pay for the prediction of blizzards in Montana.

7. The United States Justice System

“You have the right to remain silent…You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be made available to you without charge.” Implicit in this famous phrase is the concept that a person pays for a lawyer (an attorney). However, a judge decides the case. The judge is paid by the State (.i.e. socialism). Imagine, for a moment, a system of laws where the litigants pay the judge for a “fair and impartial” ruling. How much justice can you afford, indeed?

8. Eminent Domain

Not a program of socialism but a concept. Eminent domain is an exercise of the power of government to take private property for public use. Everybody hates the concept, but everybody wants the concept when the power benefits them. Large utilization of land for airports, shopping centers, highways, industry, and subdivisions is not possible without such powers of the government. Someone (perhaps a private citizen) used to owned the land under the Hoover Dam, in the Smoky Mountains, underneath the interstate highways, and around that local mall.

9. The US Census

Did you realized that almost all the information about who we are, what we buy, where we live, and how we live are obtain from data collected by the United States Census Bureau? Those human data collectors will knocking on all our doors in 2010.

10. The Selective Service (i.e. The United States Military)

The Draft. All men between the ages of 18 to 25 years of age are REQUIRED BY LAW to register for the draft or military conscription. We have a voluntary military…for now. When Uncle Sam needs you (brave or otherwise), he has a list. Not only is this a socialist program, the program is a dictatorial, sexist, socialist program. All the men must pay, everybody gains.

The above are just a small number of the programs which have enrich the lives of every American in the past and the present. The programs may not be completely socialist and may need to be more efficient….but check the definition again. They all have a bit of socialism in them.