Arby was right

In a recent post, Arby commented that students could learn without the political recruitment going on in some public schools. A public school teacher posted a snide comment, "God forbid that any student actually learn anything at a public school, right?" essentially accusing him of saying the opposite of what he just said. That's the problem with Democrats: when they come up with these non sequiturs, I can never tell if they're just trying to change the subject and doing it clumsily, or if they really are so stupid they actually believe what they're saying.

I was tempted to reply with a sarcastic comment of my own, but didn't for two reasons: 1. It's not my blog. Why turn the comments into a flame war when that might not be what the blog owner wants? 2. My mama always said, "Never argue with a fool. People might not know the difference."

Arby let it lie for about two weeks, but it was bothering him, too, so he finally posted a rational response. It showed up in Google Reader, but when I went to comment, "Right on!" it had disappeared from his blog. So, while respecting his wishes on #1, I'll post my comment here. #2 doesn't apply because the commenter doesn't read this blog, and if she does, she can take a flying leap. If that offends you, you deserve to be offended. Now go away.

Essentially Arby's post pointed out (much more tactfully than I would have done, and with supporting data) that while individual public school teachers are talented and caring people, as a group, they don't seem to have time to teach reading, writing, and math, let alone science, history, and civics, but they somehow do find time (as a group) to recruit and train young socialists. With the word socialist, I leave Arby's well-written commentary and head off into my own editorial.

Yes, I said socialists. Look at Obama's agenda, then look at the policies in Europe he is trying to emulate. European politicians adopted socialist policies long ago, and are unashamed to call themselves socialists. But the Democrats know that Americans spent 50 years defending their country from attack by governments that practiced communism, the most virulent form of socialism, and that communism collapsed under its own weight. Communism has been so thoroughly discredited that no one believes in it any more except in Banana Republics and American universities. Yes, China is still Communist in name, but as they become more economically productive, they have had to adopt more and more capitalist policies. They have a draconian view of personal freedom, and they still persecute political and religious dissenters, so they are more nearly fascist.

Most Americans are still vaguely aware that there is some connection between socialism and communism, but the public schools have dumbed enough of them down enough that they only know these words as words. If you take all the principles of socialism and rename them say, "Steve" or "racial equality" or "casual Fridays", most students coming out of the public schools these days can't tell that they're still the same principles. Abraham Lincoln once responded to a question by asking, "Supposing you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?" "Five." was the answer. "No," said Lincoln, "calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."

Socialism is where we're headed because it's what the Demagogues want, and Baby Boomers counting on retiring en masse at 65 will betray their country for anyone who promises to protect their Social Security checks. And they have the votes to do it. (For the next twenty years, we'll have more people leaving the work force than entering it. That's when the real economic fertilizer will hit the fan.)

This is when the Demagogues start wringing their hands and claiming that all this Obama-bashing makes me a racist, and they really should be allowed to decide who does and who doesn't deserve free speech. No, to paraphrase another famous African-American, I voted against him based "not on the color of his skin, but on the content of his character."

Now before the Republicrats* get too smug, they are just as much to blame. The Demagogues have principles, no matter how shoddy and wrong-headed those principles are. The Republicrats don't. They make a big show of playing His Majesty's Loyal Opposition, but the closest thing they have to a principle is to automatically believe whatever the Demagogues believed ten years ago. Quislings.

*Re-public-rats. Double public rats. I like the sound of that.