Obama, Socialism And The Unlearned Lessons Of Castro's Revolution

Personally I have never subscribed to the view that socialists/progressives are afflicted by some kind of mental illness; I have always put their blind obedience to a failed ideology down to immaturity, delayed adolescence or a lack of normal intellectual abilities. Judging by the fact that they are surrounded by a mountainous amount of incontrovertible evidence, I may have to reassess my attitude.

Even historical facts fail to convince supposedly intelligent people that the continuous, abject failure of their socialist/progressive ideology is an aberration and a stain on humanity.

It's almost as if the blood soaked historical disasters of Russia, China, and Eastern Europe never happened; they ignore the fact the one of the biggest state controlled disasters in history was perpetrated by the National Socialist German Workers Party, who's core belief was that the state was supreme and all individuals are subservient to it.

Socialist/progressives have the ability to turn a blind eye to the disasters that surround them in todays world. From North Korea in the far east to Zimbabwe in southern Africa, socialism is wreaking its own peculiar form of devastation on countless millions of people but still they promote its deadly virtues.

As one of the privileged few who get to spend time in both Great Britain and America, I am in a unique position of being able to watch the disaster which ruined my own country slowly unfold in the United States. Experience dictates that average American citizens are an insular people who do not pay particular attention to events in far away countries, including those of Europe.

They will be mainly unaware of the economic disaster unfolding in France as their socialist/progressive President imposes the usual "tax the productive sector" and "expand the unproductive sector" economic policy, as if it's unique and has never been done before.

They will be unaware that the socialist/progressive policies of tax and spend has ruined the economies of Greece, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

They will also be unaware that the government of Cyprus, in good socialist fashion, over leveraged itself and spent the country into oblivion. This resulted in the politicians seizing money from private bank accounts in order to get themselves out of the trouble their ideology had caused.

There are socialist disasters closer to the American homeland such as Bolivia and Venezuela where socialist/progressive inefficiency has managed to engineer a shortage of everything, including toilet paper. If these disasters are too far away then just ninety miles or so off their eastern coast lies Cuba.

The fundamental decency of the ordinary American was used against them by a well oiled political machine, together with a compliant agenda driven media, when they were seduced into electing one of the biggest phony's in the history of politics. (Tony Blair being the biggest).

Barack Obama is the ultimate manufactured, machine politician, he has no history and no experience in the real world of business, industry or wealth creation. From what little there is known of his history one can gather that he has no experience outside of Marxist professors and radical racial politics. According to some reports he spent so much time with his bong, he has no experience outside of cloud nine.

Barry O. is a socialist/progressive of the old school and he is ignoring the lessons of history that has reduced a Caribbean Island just ninety miles off its shores into an impoverished, starving, blood soaked tyranny. The plight of the thousands of bedraggled people risking their lives in rickety boats to flee this socialist hell hole is obviously lost on him.

At this point I will ask indulgence and share an anecdote.

In my teenage days, before I grew up, I was a fully paid up member of the brain dead hard left and I made the mistake of extolling the virtues of the Castro regime, Che Guavara et al, at a social gathering. A quiet English gentleman, who was not going to let my views go unchallenged, proceeded to enlighten the gathered company with the benefit of his perception of the Castro revolution.

He related the story (which I cannot verify), that prior to revolution, sugar was the main cash crop and the biggest revenue earner for the government. Plantation workers were paid by how much they produced. This practice was widespread in Great Britain and was known as piece work.

One worker, Alberto was married with six kids and lived in a small cabin on a plantation. He would arrive at work and cut cane at his leisure taking a mid morning break, an afternoon siesta, a mid afternoon break and stopped off at the cantina on his way home. He was happy with his lot in life and earned 250 Pesos per day.

Another worker, Mario, married with two kids, lived in a cabin that he had extended himself. He sent his older kid to school in the hope he would have a better life. Mario would arrive at work early and cut cane continuously, taking only a small water break when necessary and enough time to eat his burrito for lunch. He would work until sundown and go straight home. Mario was not happy with his lot in life and was prepared to do what he could to improve it. His efforts earned him 1000 Pesos per day.

After the revolution, Castro nationalized the sugar industry and in line with his ideology he made everyone equal by paying a salary of 500 Pesos per day. Alberto was overjoyed and praised the revolution; Mario was not so impressed and reduced his efforts compatible with to those of Alberto.

The sugar industry went into a downward spiral, government revenues collapsed and Castro was unable to finance his welfare state. The story goes that Castro was unable to understand the reason why, after making everyone equal, his revenues had collapsed and his revolution had stalled.

He summoned a meeting of his politburo and demanded an explanation, his fellow revolutionaries knew the reason but none had the courage to tell him for fear of being shot for counter revolutionary sentiments.

To the relief of the politburo, the Russians, seeing an opportunity to have a client state just ninety miles from the USA, came to the rescue, bailed them out and the rest is history.

The gentleman's quiet explanation and delivery held the company spellbound ,making my revolutionary zeal appear unreasoned drivel, driven by a juvenile adherence to ideology instead of facts.

Barry O continues to repeat the very same mistakes that were made by Cuba's Castro, North Korea's Kim Jong Un, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, France's  Francois Hollande and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, among others.

Learning nothing from Castro's Cuba, he has taken over one sixth of the entire American economy by nationalizing healthcare, he has indicated that his signature legislation this coming year will be erasing income inequality and being of a dictatorial disposition he has stated quite openly that if Congress refuses to ratify what he does, he will rule by presidential decree.

The American people can look forward to high taxes and a wrecked economy coupled with a more dictatorial regime as economic failure stalls his construction of a socialist welfare state.

The American dream is dying before our very eyes and will be dead and buried in the near future unless this socialist throwback is stopped.

Either he is blinded by his ideology to the point where he cannot envisage any other political system or he is incapable of learning the lessons that has resulted in devastation for a whole island people just ninety miles off his eastern shore.

When the consequences of Barry O's ignorance of history translate into shortages, power cuts and empty shelves, the American people should learn from the people of Venezuela and in addition to stocking up on food and ammunition, they should stock up on toilet paper as well.

P.S. Please note that the peso figures are nominal due to the fact that the story was told many years ago, and I cannot remember the exact numbers today.