It should be no surprise why Obama is attacking WFTV's newswoman Barbara West

By Joseph Pecar

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen[1] once said, "Socialism and Communism are the same plant, just in different stages of development." The last century saw failed socialistic states scrambling to privatize their way back to more capitalistic systems, while failed communist countries slaughtered 100 million dissenting human beings to force their own and neighboring citizens to accept the "from each according to his ability to each according to his need" mantra.

Unless Obama wants to claim that his "desire to spread the wealth" and the fact that he thinks "spreading the wealth is a good idea" are not intrinsically "socialistic," then WFTV's Barbara West's questions are totally appropriate — since as Sheen points out, Marx's mantra applies equally to the core philosophies and policies of either socialism or communism.

Notice that the central objectives of the "change" and the "transformation" Obama seeks, can only happen if he does, in fact, "take from each citizen according to his ability and give to each according to his need." Has anyone heard him say he was going to use his own wealth, or that he plans to use his super negotiation powers with foreign governments to get them to volunteer mailing checks to those in need? Can it be that Obama is so naïve that he believes he can obtain the wealth needed to fund his "transformation" by simply ordering the Government to print money?

More pointedly, each day it is becoming clearer that the "transformation" Obama seeks is the antithesis of the ideals and policies espoused by John F. Kennedy in his Inauguration Address on January 20, 1961, which he so eloquently expressed as "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. In a blatant, reprehensible, despicable act of pandering, Obama promises, if elected, a government so large that our Country "will do for you" — practically everything. Do you have a problem paying for college, for health care, for retirement, for anything? Don't worry, when Obama is running the government, he will take care of you. Obama's advice to us is essentially, "Ask not what your country can do for you, demand it."

The reason why Biden, and the Obama campaign, have taken such umbrage with Barbara West's questions, is precisely because when asked the way she asked them, the perception left with too many voters changed from "Oh boy, Obamas going to give me something for nothing" to the obvious conclusion that he cannot do that unless he "transforms" our beloved Country from the "freest," the most productive democratic capitalistic nation in history, to one in which the central government is so large and powerful that bureaucrats dictate not only "from whom the wealth should be taken and to whom it should be given," but would similarly be able to limit and regulate individual and private sector freedom, stymie real productivity growth, and materially impact every US citizen's inalienable rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Do you want a simple test to determine what kind of a country Obama and Biden envision when they advocate "sharing the wealth" by "taking from each according to his ability and giving to each according to his need"? When you hear that mantra proposed, what country first comes to your mind when you hear it? Beyond the spin, beyond the nuances, it's clear — whether they admit it or not — the models they want to base our "transformed" country on are the unsustainable socialistic nanny states in Europe, and the even worse and more dangerous the remaining vestiges of communist governments.

Is not one of the major tenets of the US Constitution the mandate to limit the power of the federal Government over the people? When Obama shrieks out that we need to "change" he always says that we need a change from the failed policies of the last eight years. He never explicitly explains what he wants to "change to."

What he really means — and does his best to hide — is that what he wants to do is to make alterations to and corrections of what he feels are deficiencies in our Constitution, in our judicial Courts and to substitute socialism/communism for our proven free market capitalistic system. What he seeks to "change" is the document and the form of government that has made this United States the wealthiest, the most powerful — militarily and economically — and the freest country mankind has ever fashioned — a Country in which our poorest citizens enjoy a much higher standard of living than the middle and upper classes in most other lands.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no other country that has even come close to excelling in all of the above categories! Do we really want to change that? Is that really the "change" any thinking, patriotic American wants?

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© Joseph Pecar