Well, I don’t know about you, but I have seen enough of the current US administration the last few months to come to a conclusion about where the USA is headed: extreme socialism that would make a Canadian and a Briton cringe.  I grew up in Canada and don’t remember seeing the kind of socialism that Caesar Obama is proposing.

First there was the let’s “spread the wealth around” comment during the 2008 election campaign.  Then there came out the subtle details in his plan to raise taxes on the “rich” and to give that money to the lower socioeconomic classes.  It is contrary to the laws of the gospel to forcibly take money from one group and to give it to another.  Even the laws of tithing and fast offering are rooted in the eternal law of agency – you must choose to give.  If you want to help the poor (and you should), you choose to do so.  Only by exercising your agency to give can you qualify for blessings that come from helping the poor.

Second is the tight regulation and control of businesses that the Obama administration is considering.  The latest legislation being considered is granting the federal government the right to take over businesses that are becoming financially unstable.  Well, a basic tenet of socialist Keynesian economics is that the economy must be controlled at the federal level.  Another tenet of Keynesian economics is that the recession can be remedied through excessive government deficit spending and tax increases – this is exactly the Obama administration’s approach to solving our current recession woes.  (BWT, estimated budget totals for 2008-2010 show federal government public debt rising 63%.  Those sorts of numbers make former president Bush look like a miser by comparison.) 

Ok, up to this point I was willing to give Caesar Obama a break.  Sure his economic policies smack of socialism, but at least they did not sound like measures adopted by Hitler and Stalin, right?  Wrong.  

“ALL HAIL HERR OBAMA’S AMERICORPS!”

That’s right, I said Americorps.  During the 2008 campaign Obama called for the formation of a “civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, [and] just as well-funded as the military.”  You may want to go back and re-read that quote just to make sure that the impression it left was not your imagination.  

The first thing I thought of after hearing about Americorps was: It sounds too much like the Hitler Youth Corps and the Nazi Sturmabteilung (SA), aka “brownshirts”.  The SA was an assault detachment that facilitated Hitler’s rise to power during the 1920s and 1930s by bullying and intimidating the opposition.

I can already hear the opposing voices to my views.  “C’mon Dave. You’re crazy to compare Obama’s Americorps to Hitler’s SA!”  Oh, really!?  Then let’s take a look at Dave’s Top Ten List of signs that the Obama administration is speeding toward unmitigated fascistic socialism, shall we?  Last week the Democrat-controlled congress recently approved the following measures regarding Obama’s Americorps: 

#10.  Expand Americorps enrollment from 75,000 to 250,000 people.

#9.   Under the Americorps program, consideration of “a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people [in America].”

#8.   Possibly requiring “all individuals in the United States” to perform Americorps service, including elementary age children.

#7.  Consider designing Americorps so that it “combine[s] the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service.”

#6.  Establishing “campuses” that serve as Americorps “operational headquarters,” complete with “superintendents”.

#5.  Elimination of all age restrictions in order to involve Americans at all stages of life.

#4.  Call for creation of “a permanent cadre” in a “National Community Civilian Corps” (Can you say “SS”?).

#3.  Calls for “youth engagement zones” in which “service learning” is “a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.”  (Can you say 'indoctrination'?)

#2.  Community service learning to be “integrated into the science, technology, engineering and mathematics curricula” at all levels of schooling.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the number 1 sign that the Obama administration is hasting socialism in America . . . !

#1. . . . Consider providing “uniforms” for all Americorps participants!

(Fanfare music playing)

Indeed the Constitution of the United States of America may be hanging from a thread in the near future.