Do we want to be socialists?

An important question voters in the upcoming presidential election should ask themselves is: Do I want the United States to become a socialistic country? What do the world's statist systems have to offer? We see either failure and misery or statis and lethargy. At the extreme end of the group we see that North Korea is turning into a sub-standard society where subjects live with famine as a normal way of life and must eat grass to stay alive. Castro's Cuba is imploding and the old Communist in his dotage is now renouncing his communist catastrophe. Hugo Chavez's Venezuela proves that even an oil rich-rich exporter can destroy itself with self-imposed socialism. The list of individual failed socialistic countries is too long to include in this letter.

India progressed only when it adopted free markets. Corporations do not outsource 1-800 numbers to socialistic paradises. There is no need to review the Soviet collapse or the change in China from a peasant to a wealth-building capitalist society.

The trend of the world (even after the meltdown of September 2008) is away from statism, except in the United States. That statement isn't meant to be a slur or to be taken lightly, but reflects actual events. The Obama administration has taken over large sectors of the auto industry and some segments of the banking and insurance industry. The college student loan program has been federalized. It is a sure thing that Obama would like to take us down the path that leads to a Greece, even as the world is racing from it.

If the Obama administration has its way, it will hike income taxes and take off the caps on income subject to Social Security payroll taxes (which will be the largest tax increase in history) - all in Obama's effort to redistribute income from the top to the bottom brackets.

The percentage of GDP that is government-run will markedly increase; the trillion-plus annual deficits will force higher taxation to pay for redistributive payouts and entitlements-or inflate the currency to erode saved capital. The U.N. is worshipped and reported to. Allies are now neutrals, and enemies are courted. We seek to prove that we are not "exceptional," but simply one among many - a kind of socialistic approach to foreign policy where all nations are the same.

If we are to avoid the fate of the Europeans, after decades of socialistic decay, it is a time for conservative principle, not preemptive surrender. We should all hope that Republicans running for election learn that they work for us, and keep this in mind.

If nothing else, we must oppose whatever President Obama wants, if for no reason other than that he wants it. He does not play fair, and he does not, in any way, have America's interest at heart.

The writer lives in Pawleys Island.