Master-debators

I figured I’d watch the second U.S. presidential debates and scribe a few thoughts on the event. The plan was ok, but the execution pretty much failed–I have a low threshold for political mumbo jumbo. Besides, if I wanted two people to simultaneously lie to me, I’d be lobbying for bigamy.

But this cheap cop-out doesn’t square with the fact that the results of the race are going to roost right here in the Commonwealth. Nor does it do justice to the fact that Al Gore is, without doubt, an absolute socialist, in a society so dumbed down and ridden with political correctness that the word “socialist” is not used to describe socialists. That’s no political comment, it’s an economic one; socialism is an economic system, not a political one.

Of course, in the modern United States, as in most of the world, the government is so large and powerful that politics and economics are intertwined and distinctions become blurred quickly.

There’s no doubt that Al Gore aims for the federal government to be the single most powerful force in every Americans life. It will control your retirement, your work life, your children’s educations, your parents’ health care. There is nothing less trivial than a hangnail that Al Gore wouldn’t address with his army of government overlords.

Which isn’t such a big deal, given that, in any society, some people lust after raw power and will seek to become dictators. The big deal comes in when you realize that about half of the American electorate prefers Gore’s brand of democratic socialism to anything remotely resembling the founding principles of that mighty nation.

Economics is, if nothing else, the study of change and of rates of change. And, no doubt about it, America’s outlook has changed over decades, as the effects of government controlled education and the allied agenda of the media’s elite have instilled a love for authority in the populace. A lot of kids emerge from high school unable to read well, and totally unable to do even basic math, but most have a keen appreciation for how important the government is as their shepherd.

America isn’t a society. It’s a herd. Herd animals don’t want independence, they want the comfort of being part of the tended flock.

Meanwhile, the office-ification of the nation continues, which merely enforces the herd instinct. Yuppie dads are no more masculine than their shrewish soccer mom counterparts. The entire middle class cowers in office cubicles by day, and in front of the television by night. Freedom? These people hate it; it scares them. Order, authority, and safety; that’s what they want. They’ve built their lives around it.

And Al Gore can look these people right in the eye and promise them exactly what they want. Every glimpse I get of his slick and arrogant image reinforces that fact that he, like AIDS, is a reflection of a nation’s character–or the lack thereof.

Stephens is an economist with Stephens Corporation, a professional organization in the NMI. His column appears three times a week: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Mr. Stephens can be contacted via the following e-mail address: ed4Saipan@yahoo.com.