The American Spectator

2. a government or state ruled by an aristocracy, elite, or privileged upper class.

3. government by those considered to be the best or most able people in the state.

4. a governing body composed of those considered to be the best or most able people in the state.

5. any class or group considered to be superior, as through education, ability, wealth, or social prestige.

The current debate for universal health care is a prime example. The plan is for all citizens except the elected class. But even this definition can be too broad as they exempt those that support their agenda and seek to punish any who oppose them. You could say it’s a “Dem-istocracy” since if you are part of the opposition party you are not fit to be part of the process, you are to be demonized for having a differing opinion. After all why should they follow the very rules they set up?
— Luke Williams
Anchorage, Alaska

Your comment that socialism necessarily requires state ownership of the means of production is too narrow. The NSDAP was socialist but left ownership alone. But the owners had no control of their properties making “ownership” meaningless.

Obama is pursuing the NSDAP approach.
— Pat Hegarty

SPEAKING AT THEM
Re: Jeffrey Lord’s The Michael Steele/Haley Barbour Book Flap:

Republican Chairman Michael Steele may have the courage to rebel against the old school Republicans and run the risk of losing it all by stepping into the leadership vacuum of the Tea Party, or reform the GOP to include the Tea Party movement and form a political juggernaut . Steele sums up the discontent that is roiling across the economically scorched American landscape with his comment that the Tea Party “puts in stark relief” the fear and anger Americans feel when they hear the Democrats’ propaganda claiming American prosperity still exists via federal government benevolence.

The Tea Party’s platform seeks to restore representative government and this exerts a powerful effect on a populace that feels ignored and subjected to foreign and domestic policies crafted by neo-conservative President Bush and now socialist President Obama. RNC Steele may pull off a political coup on the White House and Congress if he convinces the American populace he speaks for them and not at them.
— Helen
Fullerton, California

WHO ARE “THEY”
Re: Quin Hillyer’s Laughing at the Left:

I am one of the left and I don’t believe in anything you say lumping everybody you perceive as a liberal under “THEY.”

When you lump people together as you do in your political assassination attempt you make an ass out of yourself. All the Liberals do not believe in all you say under the guise of “THEY.” “They” in some cases may be conservatives. The fact is that the Republican Party is the party responsible for the huge deficit, the wars, and the sad state this country. Clinton was in fact one of the best Presidents we ever had economically speaking.
— Paul