"European style Socialism": As if that's a bad thing.

"I can see November from my house" That is my girl Sarah's new rallying cry, and she unveiled it for her fans in Denver a couple of nights ago. This was in between calling for an "Awakening of America."( BTW, can someone tell me just what the hell that means? Awaken from what?) You go girl. She was joined by Dennis Prager at the University of Denver. Prager, like Palin, is another wingnut, however, unlike Palin, he actually reads a book now and then.

"Let's stop and consider how ironic it is, though, that just as the Europeans are forced by market realities - this is reality - to dismantle their socialist welfare states, we're being marched towards that state, the European style socialism,"

These have been the buzz words among the wingnuts of late: "European style Socialism." It's everywhere. On their blogs; on their networks; their newspapers; their radio programs; you name it. It seems that every right wing pol is crying a river over the evils of "European style Socialism", and the beige man in the people's house who is taking us there.

Read what this blogger says:

"Obama wants to undo the American Dream and turn us into a European economy, where all benefits flow from the government, rather than individual effort. You can call it “socialism,” or “big government,” or “spreading the wealth,” or whatever else suits you, but the outcome will be the same: People will be locked into government induced poverty in perpetuity, the middle class will become slack, the economy will enter into stagflation, unemployment will rise, and service in every area of American life will fall as people lose their incentive (because they’ve lost the ability) to rise upwards and join in the American Dream."

Now I guarantee you that the poor schmuck who wrote that paragraph probably is living a very middle class existence. He probably has a household income of $75,000.00, to $100,000.00 per year, pays a mortgage, has kids who are in -or soon to be in college, and has almost as much debts as he does assets. In other words, your typical A-merry-can. Yet his dumb ass thinks that he is living some kind of a damn dream.

Unlike Sarah Palin,- who thanks to him and others like him, is now worth millions, because she has learned how to pimp people like him into believing that the average A-merry-can can achieve that dream- he, more than likely, will not achieve the A-merry-can dream. (No wonder she rolls with nine personal bodyguards. I would too if I knew I was running such a scam on ordinary folks.) Unless, of course, you consider the stress of working a 9-5 with three weeks vacation a year a dream. I know I don't.

What I consider a dream-like society is one where hard work will be rewarded. One where the size of a man's pocketbook doesn't make him better than the next guy. It doesn't allow him to buy politicians in order to influence them into making laws to help him make more money. It doesn't allow lobbyist to lobby on behalf of weapons that cause death and destruction because of some archaic language in a document the society holds dear. It doesn't spend billions and billions of dollars to promote some form of mythical exceptionalism by force or clandestine measures.

When Sarah Palin and other idiots like her rant and rave about the dangers of "European style Socialism," I wonder who they think it is a danger to? Certainly not people who will be able to get health care without having to take out a second mortgage on their homes. Certainly not the poor single mother of two who has to clean old people's shit every night to earn $9 an hour. Certainly not the primary bread winner in a home whose spouse just got laid off, (because the company they were working for downsized to make a few people enjoy the dream even more) and who now has to work two jobs just to make ends meet.

And for my altar call, I will leave you with the words of Brian Hines, a man who gets it:

"Driving back to Salem from Portland today, a single glance across the median of I-5 gave me a vision of how much better this country could be if we became more Euro-socialist (I prefer the term, " communitarian").

A car had stopped in the break-down lane. Next to it was a pickup with a seal on the door. I'm pretty sure it was one of the vehicles that helps drivers who are out of gas, or otherwise need assistance.

A government vehicle.

With that glance, a warm feeling of Wouldn't it be great if this act of governmental kindness extended across our whole society? rolled over me.

If people who needed health care were guaranteed they'd get it.If losing your job didn't entail the risk of being tossed out onto the streets.

If getting a good college education was available to all, poor and rich alike.

If public transportation made it possible to get around without private cars.
Whenever friends come back from Europe, they extol the way of life there. The United States is horribly backward in so many ways, compared to the rest of the industrialized world.
I'm ready for some European style socialism. So are a majority of Americans, given the results of the past few elections. We're tried of unfettered individualism and irresponsible capitalism.

Bring it on, President Obama. "

And the godless progressives said amen!