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Serfdom’s shackles are on the horizon; Robert Steffes; Beaver County Times; March 6, 2011.
For a little more background, a Post-Gazette letter indicates Mr. Steffes believes the only scientists who don’t believe humans are causing global warming are those who work for the energy industry. In another letter, Mr. Steffes tried to get us to sign a petition so Bob Edwards could keep his job at NPR. According to Mr. Steffes, “Mr. Edwards’ calm baritone stands alone in the sea of slime that has become commercial talk radio.” I could be completely off base, but I suspect Mr. Steffes really meant “conservative talk radio.” In one letter from Mr. Steffes, he sang the praises of a woman on a crusade against electronic voting machines and offered to send her a check. I wonder if he ever followed through.
Other Steffes letters I critiqued were entitled “Sisters of St. Joseph serve body and soul,” “Be wary of totalitarianism,” “Congressional frauds,” “History lesson,” “The time to develop clean energy is now,” “State budget is too generous on drilling,” “Health care effort gets powerful voice,”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Thursday’s editorial (‘Back in time: The U.S. is reverting to pre-Great Depression economy and society’), was a spot-on analysis of our deepening civic crisis.
“How to explain why the wealthy and the right seek to upend the social compact forged after World War II?”
[RWC] Lefties like to treat “the wealthy” and “the right” as synonyms. You see, lefties like to ignore their own millionaires. I get a kick out of folks who would like us to believe Democrats are poor and Republicans are rich. Of the top 10 wealthiest members of the House, five are Democrats [including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) at #6] and five are Republicans. Of the top 10 wealthiest members of the Senate, the top six are Democrats and the remaining four are Republicans. Democrats were seven of the top 10 until Edward Kennedy (MA) died in 2009. Perhaps being wealthy is bad only if you’re a Republican.
“Warren Buffett, the capitalist ‘Sage of Omaha,’ knows why. He was quoted in the New York Times as saying, ‘There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.’”
[RWC] Mr. Buffett allegedly made this comment in 2006, but I suspect Mr. Steffes read it in a recent AFL-CIO Executive Council statement. If you take the time to read the 1,598-word statement, you’ll find it’s all about politics and says not one word about what we’re told is labor union management’s purpose, serving as employees’ agent in negotiations with employers.
I get a kick out of lefties who allege “class warfare” by their opposition when a major leftist tactic is to divide people into grievance/victim groups along lines of age, education, ethnicity, income, religion, sex, skin color, wealth, et cetera and then pit them against each other by making group-specific promises to each group.
“Despite his immense fortune, Buffett thinks this war on the rest of us is a very bad idea, both for our democracy and our economy.
“History teaches that those who thirst for power will remorselessly pursue it unless checked by popular opposition. Accepting this reality is the first step in mounting a successful defense of freedoms won at such cost by our parents and grandparents. They learned that people standing together are the most powerful force on earth. The shackles of serfdom await us should we today forget that lesson.”
[RWC] In case you missed it, after all this Mr. Steffes didn’t provide one example of class warfare by the right.
The idea people are on the right to gain power is a novel idea, unless you’re talking about the power gained by individual liberty. The last time I checked, it was those on the left implementing policies (Obamacare, Medicare, Socialist Security, etc.) to concentrate power in government at the expense of individual freedom.
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