Time For a Socialist Pit Stop

Once upon a time, a 1970s underpants model mated with Lou Ferrigno and their offspring became governor of Texas.

Rick Perry says the Obama administration is "hell-bent on taking America towards a socialist country." Oh really? Are we going to be Sweden?

Let me tell you, Rick, if Obama was a Socialist, I'd notice and I'd be applauding. After 8 years of Bush's corporate Socialism masquerading as conservatism, a little genuine Socialism would work wonders for America. We could get the middle class back in the game, claw back some of those tax cuts and reinstate the societal norm of one person working one job to own a house and support a family. In short, we'd be back to that Socialist utopia we enjoyed under the... err... Eisenhower administration when the top tax rate was 88% and unemployment was under 3%.

I'm not suggesting we go Socialist full-time - I'd rather not dine on beets and black bread before heading back for a 20 hour shift at the tractor factory - I'm just saying we could sure use some big government intervention round about now. Then we could hand our newly invigorated America back to the freemarket and give corporate interests and dodgy bankers another decade or so to run it into the ground again. Fix, break, and repeat.

Rick Perry may be a dumbass. But he has smarts enough to know that accusations of Socialism work with the base because the base has no clue what Socialism actually is. But the reality is that most otherwise conservative democratic governments around the world embrace Socialist ideas to varying degrees. Even America does (i.e., public education, public transport, Medicare, Social Security, etc.) but we pretend it's evil.