Thank you for such a thorough article on these concerns. I am also a homeschool mom and a research writer.

I recently wrote a blog on this issue on my own site and found a person named “TellerID” to have endless time to post comments after comments refuting every single point I stated to the point of making me want to read the story “The Emperor’s New Clothes”over again, since it seems AKA and his followers think if you repeat an untrue over and over it becomes truth.

“TellerID” from my feedgit on my site located him in (surprise of all surprise) IL!

I wonder where “Kaleokualoha” is located.

I also seem to note that these “people” don’t use their own name and have no online identity/website/twitter/facebook/blog connected with their “Name”.

In all of my heart I believe they are paid AKA operatives charged with hounding any blog, website, or writer who dares to question the validity/eligibility of facts pertaining to AKA.

I feel like I am listening to a broken record or a programmed robot that can only respond from the written approved answers… no questioning or thinking allowed.

So I encourage you to keep being one of many observers seeking justice and truth.

Lindy

RESPONSE: Parentage is irrelevant according to the top legal dictionary:

“Natural born citizen. Persons who are born within the jurisdiction of a national government, i.e. in its territorial limits, or those born of citizens temporarily residing abroad.” — Black’s Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition

LYNN ALSO WROTE: As for Kaleokualoha, your argument is seriously flawed in that you assume someone cannot be a Marxist until Marxism is totally and completely implemented. In that you err egregiously. Obama is a Marxist;

RESPONSE: Someone cannot be a Marxist unless they support collectivization, which is the basis of Marxism. Implementation is irrelevant.

As for Kaleokualoha, your argument is seriously flawed in that you assume someone cannot be a Marxist until Marxism is totally and completely implemented. In that you err egregiously. Obama is a Marxist; that is his ideology as has been shown quite bluntly by his being an admitted disciple of self-avowed Marxist, Saul Alinsky, plus his association with known Marxists like William and Ayres, Bernadine Dohrn. Now, if you can’t figure out the difference between a Marxist and Marxism, then that’s your problem.

According to dictionary.com, socialism is “a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole. In Marxist theory, it is the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles.”

Please note that it is a stage FOLLOWING capitalism. Marxist socialism and capitalism are mutually exclusive. Capitalism has many forms in a mixed economy, with public (collective) ownership of various enterprises based upon economic conditions. Limited public ownership does not comprise Marxist socialism, which requires complete public ownership.

Every advocate of greater government economic control might be called a “socialist,” but none are true socialists unless they advocate the complete elimination of private enterprise, which means the replacement of capitalism with collectivism. True (laissez-faire) capitalism means zero government control of private enterprise, which is economic anarchy. Neither of these extremes works in the long run. Every successful economy is a mixed economy, existing somewhere on a spectrum between both extremes. Every successful economy is part capitalist and part socialist. They all contain a mix of private and public ownership, and they all have some government control of private enterprise. The only relevant question is “WHERE on this spectrum can we achieve the greatest success?”

Both laissez faire capitalism and true communism are artificial constructs, as impossible to sustain as cold fusion. Every successful society requires private enterprise regulated by public policy, regardless of Ayn Rand’s fantasies. Extremists on either fringe are equally delusional. In some ways regulation is a necessary evil like body fat: too much or too little are both lethal. The normal tendency is to add layers with age. The challenge is to find the level that will produce the optimum outcome, all things considered.

Unless someone advocates the complete replacement of capitalism with collectivism, they do not truly advocate socialism or communism. To accuse them of either, when they have not explicitly advocated as much themselves, suggests either unfamiliarity with mixed economies or intellectual dishonesty. Even George W. Bush and John McCain were accused of advocating socialism based upon their support of 2008 bailout legislation.

The bottom line is simple. If you consider any variation of a mixed economy, including ANY public ownership or regulation of industry to be “socialism,” then the United States and ALL other economies are “socialist.” The debate is over, because by that definition we have been “socialist” since the 18th century. If you only consider complete collectivism to be “socialism,” according to Marxist theory, then no successful economy is actually “socialist.” The closest to a Marxist socialist economy is the economic basket case, North Korea. If you consider socialism to occur at some other point on the spectrum between unregulated capitalism and Marxist socialism, then any such point would be arbitrary.

To accuse a mixed economy advocate of being a socialist, or communist suggests that you believe that ANY degree of government regulation qualifies as “socialism,” or you believe that any regulation beyond an indefinite “trigger point” qualifies as “socialism,”, and that YOU get to set the trigger point. The “trigger point” explanation reminds me of the egocentric explorer who says that anyone who explores farther into dangerous territory is a fool, but anyone who doesn’t explore as far as he does is a coward. His arrogance presumes that his own boundaries are common standards.

Marxist “socialism,” in contrast to European “democratic socialism,” requires collective ownership of the means of production in lieu of capitalism. That is the death of private enterprise. We may or may not be on a path to collectivism, just as a dating couple may or may not be on a path to pregnancy. Traveling on a path in any direction does not imply any specific goal. For example, traveling on Interstate 10 does not imply that either coast is the goal.

“Direction” is one thing. “Goal” is another. All mixed economies exist at some point in the spectrum between the fatal terminuses of unregulated capitalism and true socialism. In history, socialism/communism was reversed and capitalism reappeared as people recognized the lethal consequences of such extremes. Russia, China and other communist nations now recognize the virtue of mixed economies. They learned the hard way.

I await empirical evidence, instead of specious speculation, that Obama wants to eliminate capitalism by moving to that extreme. To say Obama advocates the goal of socialism, based upon his movement on the spectrum instead of being based on his explicit advocacy, is to create a straw man. It is intellectually dishonest and unworthy of serious debate.

“Natural born citizen. Persons who are born within the jurisdiction of a national government, i.e. in its territorial limits, or those born of citizens temporarily residing abroad.” — Black’s Law Dictionary, Sixth Edition