Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Our Marxist Left


Will Karl Marx, a man whose ideas should have been interred with his bones, yet win out in the West? The more I watch the left win the communications war and drive this nation ever more to the left, the more I fear so. According to a recent Rasmussen Poll, almost one third of the people polled favored nationalizing the oil industry.
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This is incredibly depressing news. Only a complete fool with no economic sense and no understanding of history could possibly believe that our nation would be better off nationalizing the oil industry in America. Yet, the left's relentless propaganda machine, with its incredible anti-business rhetoric, is clearly making inroads. This today from Rasmussen:

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 29% of voters favor nationalizing the oil industry. Just 47% are opposed and 24% are not sure.

The survey found that a plurality of Democrats (37%) believe the oil industry should be nationalized. Just 32% of voters in Barack Obama’s party disagree with that approach. Republicans oppose nationalizing the oil industry by a 66% to 16% margin. Unaffiliated voters are opposed by a 47% to 33% margin.

Nationalization is the process by which the government assumes complete control of a private industry and its assets. It has been a common practice in totalitarian dictatorships, but as recently as 2001 following the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government nationalized the private airport security industry and moved it under the Transportation Security Administration.

. . . Just 52% of American voters believe that an oil company should be allowed to keep profits from any alternative energy source it discovers [emphasis added]. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say the company should not be allowed to keep such profits while 19% are not sure. Democrats are evenly divided on the question. Republicans by a 4-to-1 margin, and unaffiliated voters by a 2-to-1 margin, say that the companies should be allowed to profit from discoveries that reduce the price of gas and other energy sources.

Thirty-six percent (36%) of voters say that passage of a windfall profits tax on oil companies would lead to higher gas prices. Thirty percent (30%) believe prices would remain about the same and 15% believe a windfall profits tax would lead to lower gas prices. Most liberal say that gas prices would be unchanged or drop.

Seventy-six percent (76%) say that development of new energy sources would do more than higher fuel efficiency standards to bring gas prices down--and keep them down. Just 14% believe higher fuel efficiency standards would be more effective. . .

Read the entire article. H/T Hot Air.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wolf: you are right there is an overarching tendency for many quarter, especially students, to lean to the left. That is why we should deal with the root causes that induce people that the solution can come from the left. Marxism is a myth which can be appealing, but has not been able to deliver what it preaches. I come from a former communist country and I know that after the Politburo has had it share and the party members have scrambled to the leftovers, the people are left with bear subsistence.
However we should not be satisfied with blaming the Politburo, any one who like them, but in a different way, amasses wealth and power should be accountable.
We should all be aware of justice, economic, social and political justice. The abject condition of my neighbor should concern me and I don' need to wait for a revolution to put my acts together. Ours is a great nation that SAVED Europe nations from the Nazi and helped it rebuild its economy. WHY CAN'T WE THINK IN TERMS OF NATION WHEN IT COMES TO OUR COUNTRY? WE MUST HELP THE BIG CORPORATIONS REALIZED THE DEMOCRACY AND PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMPOSITE HARD WORK THAT HAVE HELP THEM BECOME RICH WAS ACHIEVED BECAUSE THEIR COMPATRIOTS, PAID TAXES, BOUGHT GOVERNMENT BONDS, WORKED HARD AND UPHELD THE SYSTEM WITH THEIR VOTES.

GW said...

Thanks for the comment. I agree mostly with all that you have said, with a few caveats. Corporations need to be solely concerned with making an honest profit. I do not expect corporations to be concerned with anything beyond that in a capitalist economy. That said, our government needs to make sure that however much the profit is - and I do not care how large it gets - that it is "honest." For our economy to work at peak efficiency - which, by the way, is the single greatest thing we can do for people at all economic levels of society - the markets must be free of distortion and fraud. That really is the central and only role our government should play in the economy, I believe.

I would direct you to a speech made yesterday by McCain on distortions in the oil market. That was the first time I have heard a politician in either party address the issue without the populist rhetoric and with the measured concern that it needs.
http://wolfhowling.blogspot.com/2008/06/our-marxist-left.html

MathewK said...

"Will Karl Marx, a man whose ideas should have been interred with his bones, yet win out in the West?"

Make no mistake, leftism will never be eradicated, it's like the flu virus, because of man's laziness and yearning to get something for nothing, it will always be around in some form or other.

It'll always be around and it'll always fail, but we'll never stop trying because it is in enough of our natures'.