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The Spectrum of Socialism

By on 1.20.11 @ 6:09AM

The White House’s week of defending Obamacare and honoring China.

 

Sounding like he was mangling a Men’s Wearhouse ad, Senator Chuck Schumer said on Meet the Press last Sunday that he welcomed the House’s debate on Obamacare because “it gives us a second chance to make a first impression.” You are going to like the way you look under Obamacare, says Schumer. He guarantees it.

Meanwhile, the White House, even as it denied that Obamacare represents a governmental takeover of one sixth of the American economy, spent the week honoring Chinese socialists. The White House got back in touch with its inner Mao, whom former White House communications director Anita Dunn had called one of her “favorite political philosophers.” Dunn had extolled Chairman Mao before a group of high school graduates for his dogged commitment to ambitious goals. The lesson contained within his life, according to Dunn, was: “Figure out how to do things that have never been done before.”

Obamacare’s expansion of coverage to tens of millions while claiming to cut health care costs falls into that category and will require Maoist means to pull off, though the last time the Chinese met with Obama press reports indicated that even they harbored doubts about the fiscal prudence of Obamacare. The bankers of China would rather lend to hardheaded capitalists than Alinskyite community organizers. They fear that America’s dysfunctional federal government may one day default on China’s loans.

For Obamacare to deliver on its promise of more coverage at less cost, it would have to adopt the brutal rationing of the Chinese system. Civility expert Paul Krugman let that cat out of the bag last November when he blurted out on This Week with Christiane Amanpour that “death panels and sales taxes” represented the real solution to America’s debt problem. The overseers of Obamacare, Krugman said, would have to stare down the death panel critics and “decide what it’s going to pay for.”

Obama’s coziness with the Chinese is first explained by the federal government’s indebtedness to its bankers. But there is also a hint of admiration in it for China’s brisk statism. Obama too would like to preside over a command-and-control economy and socialized nanny state.

Not that China’s idea of rigid regulation and education corresponds perfectly with liberal America’s ideas. One can’t imagine Obama’s allies at the National Education Association embracing China’s level of educational rigor. They couldn’t even abide Chinese American Amy Chua’s excerpt in the Wall Street Journal on the teaching style of Chinese parents.

According to Chua, “Chinese parents can get away with things that Western parents can’t. Once when I was young — maybe more than once — when I was extremely disrespectful to my mother, my father angrily called me ‘garbage’ in our native Hokkien dialect. It worked really well. I felt terrible and deeply ashamed of what I had done. But it didn’t damage my self-esteem or anything like that. I knew exactly how highly he thought of me. I didn’t actually think I was worthless or feel like a piece of garbage.”

This sounds like a human rights violation that might concern Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who once considered herself a pioneer in the field of children’s rights. The upshot of Chua’s excerpt is that Western parents give their children “self-esteem” without teaching them any skills or forming them in good character, while Chinese parents help their children acquire skills and character without offering any blather about self-esteem. The former parenting style produces delusion in children, she says, while the latter produces “inner confidence.”

Obama frequently talks about the need to intensify American education in order to compete with China. But judging by the liberal elite’s appalled reaction to Chua, such talk is laughably empty. Obama’s America seems intent upon imitating China’s worst qualities while rejecting its best ones.

About the Author

George Neumayr, a contributing editor to The American Spectator, is co-author, with Phyllis Schlafly, of the new book, No Higher Power: Obama’s War on Religious Freedom.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (47) |

Melvin| 1.20.11 @ 7:13AM

The Chinese parental guide is allot like the Japanese without the emotion.
It is dedicated, it is driven, and it is extremely, extremely ruthless. It makes the efficient, and driven Germans look like slackers.
We on the other hand are way too interested in social re-engineering. Like its OK for Trans-genders to wear dresses to work. We here in the United States would debate this issue until people forgot what the intent of the argument originally was, but the Chinese, non issue, non argument, non anything.
I don't know todays young parents have evolved into sniveling scaredy cats when it comes to their children.
My co worker who has three children let out a sigh yesterday because she was extremely tired and getting over a rather nasty cold, and mentioned that she had to take each of her children to each of their, "Events." I made the comment of, "Yea your going home to your second job." She looked at me and rolled her eyes in somber agreement.
As I walked away, I mentioned, "Just say no.""I can't do that." She replied. I said, "Sure ya can, no is an easy word, it just rolls of the tongue, NO, I'm tired today, get your father to take you, or you just won't go to your social event."
My oldest boy is my step son, I hate that title but for my sake of agrument here I will use it. My wife and I have three children, again my oldest being my step son came to me one day and gave me a compliment as a parent. "You know dad, I have to give you credit, I thought you would be easier on my brother and sister but you weren't, you were an asshole to all of us." He further grinned and finished up, "Yea dad, you were an equal opportunity asshole." He realized as a grown man that the world is not all warm and fuzzy and his mother and I raised our kids to survive in it and not live in our basement as thirty year olds.

Bloefeld| 1.20.11 @ 12:01PM

Look to Alberta Canada for the true solution to your educational woes.

Bloefeld

drudge ette obama| 1.20.11 @ 7:32PM

For the price of the $399 California wine served to these drab ensemble during the Chinese State Dinner, a fine Kevlar Helmet could have been bought for a troop in Afghanistan - or the Arizona border, whatever....pass me the lobsta, Babs.

Minuteman | 1.20.11 @ 7:19AM

" The lesson contained within his life, according to Dunn, was: "Figure out how to do things that have never been done before.""

Ah, the totalitarian impulse. Find the final solution to the obstacles to utopia.

Behold these people, currently in power in the White House, with their willingness to exploit lies and death to achieve their objectives, only considering how to do something, never looking at whether that should even be done.

Everything and everybody is an omelet to them. You have to break some eggs.

They magnify their evil until it is is a statistic. They must be resisted. They must be stopped.

David W| 1.20.11 @ 9:08AM

" The lesson contained within his life, according to Dunn, was: "Figure out how to do things that have never been done before.""

Yeah, how to kill millions of innocent people without really trying. How to line the bathtubs of the party elite with gold (if they aren't gold already) while the peasants wash their babies in the open sewers they call rivers and creeks.

It would be nice to be able to do a Clockwork Orange on these liberals - force them to watch movies and see pictures/text of what the Far Seeing Mao (and Pol Pot and others) have really done. Maybe these morons wouldn't be so quick to bow down and lick their boots....

Jacobite| 1.20.11 @ 2:05PM

Utopia is only a pretext for doing what Leftists want to do -- kill millions. If they obtain less-than-total power, they kill by abortion, alienation, atheism, perversion, poverty, rationing healthcare. Where they get into a position to let 'er rip, they simply start killing larger and larger groups of people. Pol Pot is the best example so far, although the Chinese did their best, considering the enormous number of targets.

Frisbee| 1.20.11 @ 3:02PM

Here's a counterexample. This Gosnell guy is a fiscal conservative without any social conservatism.

"Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, made millions of dollars over 30 years performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could, prosecutors said. State regulators ignored complaints about him and failed to inspect his clinic since 1993, but no charges were warranted against them given time limits and existing law, District Attorney Seth Williams said Wednesday.

Gosnell "induced labour, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord," Williams said."

If you're into killing children, being a greedy "capitalist" just makes you worse.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/.....octor.html

Nunya| 1.20.11 @ 4:48PM

Wow. What a puke.

I hope he enjoys his time in Hell.

Tom James| 1.20.11 @ 8:03AM

The Chinese have never adopted socialized medicine. They know it won't work.

Tom in Michigan| 1.20.11 @ 8:05AM

Well, so Krugman has finally come up with "the final solution." How ironic is that? Almost as ironic as the fact that even a DNA-conservative like me thinks the ChiComs are more "conservative" than the Obamaviks. "What a world! What a world!"

davelnaf| 1.20.11 @ 8:17AM

Yes, Obama might admire China’s authoritarian system. Liberals in this country have always looked beyond this country’s shores for inspiration, that is, until the object of their admiration collapsed. But Obama’s alleged soft spot for China might actually be for the Chinese people, as in they are, like himself, people of color. Given his trash talking of the US and serial apologies and numerous other unkind intimations of the inner Obama one could hardly conclude otherwise. These are not the sort of thing a US president does if he esteems this country. Even some conservatives have been tended to be lenient on Obama about this. Most have put it down to the usual learning curve a president begins to ascend once he is office. But two years on, and an unnecessary state dinner, Obama is looking like a slow learner.

Mike| 1.20.11 @ 9:10AM

davelnaf

I must disagree on the concept that the president's attitude towards China and other totalitarian countries is motivated by a caring of the people of said country. As the leader of the "party of the little guy" he has consistently shown he cares for more state power and less liberty for the little guy.

I believe his honoring the Chinese president has more to do with his desire to more like Chinese president and nothing to do with any appreciation of the Chinese people.

Gangland thug leaders always have respect for each other. Obama is just another political camelion thug. Keep your powder dry.

Mike Johnston
SFC USA (RET)

bus| 1.21.11 @ 9:37PM

Maybe the Chinese leader could arrange a visit of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner with the 2010 Noble Peace Prize winner. That might be an interesting conversation.

Dixie Pixie| 1.20.11 @ 8:20AM

If there is any justice in the world, Paul Krugman would be the first involuntary organ donor in the Chinese tradition.

loulou| 1.20.11 @ 11:20AM

The ChiComs harvest the organs of the Falun Gong. Just because they can.

Dixie Pixie| 1.20.11 @ 12:46PM

Greetings LouLou

When you look at the world through the prism of Economics, then everything looks to be a resource, process or product.
Add to that, if the State is the sole authority and avatar of the "People", then a person who transgresses against the "People" owes a debt to the "People" through the State.
From those two premises it naturally follows a Chinese prisoner should pay back his debt to the "People" in body parts.

Paul Krugman is a notorious proponent of both ideas.
And it is true he did his best to push the trillion dollar "Stimulus" scams.
So he certainly owes the American "People" a debt and a rather large one.
It is only fair that he be held to those Socialist ideals as noted above.

Bob Miller| 1.20.11 @ 8:20AM

This short but great book presents a classical Jewish perspective on child-rearing:
http://www.amazon.com/Planting.....1583304029

Louis Jenkins| 1.20.11 @ 10:05AM

"The bankers of China would rather lend to hardheaded capitalists than Alinskyite community organizers."

Perhaps the USA has taken a path that the Chinese dislike. They are hard to understand, because of that translation thing, or because it is a convenient excuse. Money talks, and that's one thing the USA is running out of. The Chinese understand this.

Cro-Magnon| 1.20.11 @ 11:39AM

Forget the liberal elite's reaction to Chua. Look at your very own Ben Stein in today's Spectator article:

"Frankly, I don't think any of this is funny. Screaming at children over their grades, especially to the point of the child's tears, is child abuse, pure and simple. It's not funny and it's not good parenting. It is a crushing, scarring, disastrous experience for the child. It isn't the least bit funny. People who do it belong in prison, not lauded as supermoms."

Next thing you know he's going to advocate higher taxes on the rich.

Francofan| 1.23.11 @ 5:30AM

I don't see why someone who is opposed to Amy Chua's parenting style should necessarily be a supporter of higher taxes. You seem to think that it's either breaking a child's spine or big government. It's not. There is a third option: Raise your kids caringly and lovingly and still believe in limited government. That works.

Cro-Magnon| 1.23.11 @ 10:21AM

Ben Stein has come out for higher taxes on "the rich" in the past. He was as far off the Spectator reservation then as he is now. He wants to send Chinese supermoms to re-education camp.

JP| 1.20.11 @ 12:07PM

The Chinese society is actually a mirror of what many Progressive Capitalists dreamt of 100 years ago (see Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie et als.). To them, labor was mainly a resource that ultimately has only one value and nothing more. Many capitalists found kindered spirits with the early Progressive Movement. Thier shared the same ideas concerning education, eugenics, urban planning, and state control.

China is just the end of the road. Thinkers and pundits today, when they are in a truthful moment, let out that they admire our China can impose from above socially correct things like forced abortions, mandatory family planning, strict zoning and movement laws, and heavy handed censorship, as well as limits to political and speech freedoms. In China, a ruling elite set the laws, plan the economy, and ultimately conrol the lives of 1 billion souls. President Obama sees the future, and for him it works.

John II| 1.20.11 @ 1:48PM

Bingo, so to speak. Thanks, JP. You just saved me the time and trouble of responding in kind, and I have a lot of serious film-viewing to do today.

The Professor came close to wetting his tuxedo in his deference to the titular leader of the world's largest gulag. If you want to know what the Left really wants for America, look to China.

martin j smith| 1.20.11 @ 12:58PM

This issue of China would be a little less significant if only for the money we owe them. And this situation goes back to many Presidents.
Our first step in recovery is to do two things pay our debt and seriously cut all UNNECESSARY SPENDING. Our focus should be developing a plan to not only live within our means but to be responsible the Government of China as a banker.
But we should not admire a government that treats its citizens like things and not human beings.Live within our means,pay our debt but challenge the Chinese way of governing and issues related to Human Rights.

Wayne | 1.20.11 @ 12:58PM

Let Krugman be the first volunteer to die. Its his patriotic duty.

JohnPatrick| 1.20.11 @ 1:53PM

It never ceases to amaze me, the brilliance shown in these comments by many of the writers. Why is the same brilliance not prevalent in gov't?

Ned| 1.20.11 @ 2:09PM

Government is the ultimate committee. The intelligence of a committee is the IQ of the dumbest member of the committee, divided by the number of members. Ergo, government is inherently an enormous coven of maroons.

canuckistani| 1.20.11 @ 5:14PM

Because these writers live in some utopian mental jail cell that fails to recognize the bogeyman in this analysis is us.
If they did not think that, then change would occur.....or are you suggesting malevolent machinations by interested parties?

The one certainty about this comment section is that we know close to zero about China. Our corporations have dumped millions of American jobs in favor of cheap production and lax practices. These aren't bearded marxists that precipitated this, but our unceasing interest in commerce over manifest destiny. Nixon to Reagan to Bush 41 had been prodded pushed and cajoled by Jack Welch, Sam Walton and even Phil Knight to open the doors to China. And here we are blaming the people for their predicament. Where was the leadership then?

The Chinese are interested in one thing only: China, and if giving favorable conditions to foreign manufacturers gets them closer to their goals, then expect more commercial "crack" to be made available.
Writers here claim the high ground when showing disdain for their treatment of personal rights, but do nothing when accepting their 30 pieces of silver for the livelihoods derived from of millions of jobs forever gone from great states and cities here.

The writers here have no solutions, just empty rhetoric.

John II| 1.20.11 @ 6:21PM

"The Chinese are interested in one thing only: China, and if giving favorable conditions to foreign manufacturers gets them closer to their goals, then expect more commercial "crack" to be made available. Writers here claim the high ground when showing disdain for their treatment of personal rights, but do nothing when accepting their 30 pieces of silver for the livelihoods derived from of millions of jobs forever gone from great states and cities here."

That's ridiculous, Nuckie. I've never in my life shown disdain for my treatment of personal rights. And I already have more than 30 pre-1964 Americano quarters in my coin collection. You must brush up on your control of pronoun reference in your disquisitions.

And now back to "Lost Horizon" (1937), a great flick and, as well, the very exemplar of western sentimentality about the east.

Clint| 1.20.11 @ 7:37PM

"The Shanghai Composite Index fell 2.9% to 2677.65, near a four-month low and down 4.6% so far this year. The latest decline leaves China's stocks in solid "bear" territory, down 23% since the post-crisis high in August 2009. Over the same period, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index has risen 27.5%."

Michelle Pierce | 1.20.11 @ 2:11PM

As lead attorney in the Florida - Multi-State Lawsuit case, David Rivkin was the first lawyer to identify the law as unconstitutional. That's it, unconstitutional! He initially said ObamaCare did not pass the smell test and finally the rest of America is waking up!

Ethnic peasant| 1.20.11 @ 3:15PM

I have yet seen a "successful, elite" Chinese woman deigns to marry an "unworthy" Chinese man. Not in the least, talks about the Chinses family life.

martin j smith| 1.20.11 @ 3:58PM

The government may be stupid or, it may be simply screwing as in a Trojan Horse. I am inclined to think the Trojan Horse. What say you ?

Marc Jeric| 1.20.11 @ 6:41PM

Given time, every union will fall into the hands of either the Mafia or the communists (my preference is the Mafia - they can be fought). 45 years ago Johnson allowed the unions of government employees - and inevitably education was destroyed. 45% of teachers "teach" (mainly self-esteem) while 55% "administer, write reports, develop, congregate, lobby, interrelate, enforce political correctness and affirmative action...".

John II| 1.20.11 @ 7:35PM

. . . while 55% "administer, write reports, develop, congregate, lobby, interrelate, enforce political correctness and affirmative action...".

. . . and command salaries much bigger than do those who teach,--and much, MUCH bigger than do those who teach well.

Osamas Pajamas| 1.20.11 @ 11:42PM

STOP CALLING THEM "LIBERALS" AND "PROGRESSIVES!" Do really think that you can defeat the Democrats by calling them by their preferred "camouflage" names? Peel those rotten onions!

What this country needs is a truly LIBERAL president and congress and judiciary! And I forgive the reader for suspecting that this must be some kind of bad joke!

But the Democrats believe in "statism" --- not "liberalism."

They benefit from the imprecise American political terminology ---- we say "the government" here in the USA ---- rather than "the state." And that's a dangerous problem. Famous brands of statism in recent centuries have been Nazism, socialism, fascism, communism, and welfare statism ---- this last is sort of a mix of fascism and socialism.

Liberalism, on the other hand, is a political philosophy of small, cheap government ---- it is a constabulary ---- and the job of a liberal government is to enforce human rights within its own jurisdiction. I speak of the unalienable and perfectly-natural and universally-valid human rights of life, liberty, private property, and the pursuit of personal happiness.

The first article of private property is "the self" and all other rights are derivatives of and flow from these cardinal rights. These rights ---- The Rights of Man ---- are the gift of nature or of nature's god ---- and they belong to all human beings, everywhere.

Show me a Democrat who subscribes to all of the above, without qualifications or weasel words. The words "liberal" and "liberalism" were hijacked by the Democrats and socialists and fascists long ago ---- and it was the mistake of conservatives and libertarians to let them get away with it.

It is long past time that liberalism be reclaimed, defined, and explained by its rightful owners ---- by the champions of freedom, i.e.: not by Democrats.

Well, how about "progressivism?" Whuzzat?! “Cancer” is “progressive,” too. Isn't “progressivism” just another statist cancer? It chews you up, piece by piece, in the name of Da Peepul? Eat Da Rich? Moral cannibalism, anyone? Dictatorship is not "progress!"

Friends of freedom! Friends of peace-through-strength! And friends of prosperity! Declare yourselves to be "liberals," then ---- and kick over the bloody coffee tables --- and overthrow and trounce the Democrats in 2012!

GavInTucson| 1.21.11 @ 12:44AM

Isn't it ironic that the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner is holding a state dinner for the man that imprisoned the 2010 winner?

Christian Louboutin | 6.23.11 @ 6:08AM

Meanwhile, the White House, even as it denied that Obamacare represents a governmental takeover of one sixth of the American economy, spent the week honoring Chinese socialists.

Adidas | 8.11.11 @ 5:06AM

is good

العاب بنات | 4.11.12 @ 2:22PM

thank you

very good

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