Maggie's Farm

In continental Europe "conservative" is a term which described nationalistic cum ethnic hierarchical societies under a divinely acknowledged monarchy. Needless to say, conservatives in today's Europe are about as common as live dinosaurs. The Reagan-Thatcher style of classical liberal conservatism (individual freedom, small-limited government, private property, free markets) in Europe is confined to Eastern Europe as a reaction to its recent experience with communism. For modern conservatism to gain any power in Europe would require a epic societal transformation, i.e. the utter and inexcusable failure of the socialist general welfare model. Even then there are, unfortunately, other government models, which the world has had the misfortune to see before, that would probably be more likely choices for Plan B.

It seems to me Congress and the O - although he personally may be a clueless as he seems - definitely know what the heck they are doing. What they are doing is peeling the layers of the onion of private sector participation in the economy. As Rahm Emanuel said, "you never want a serious crisis to go to waste." That sentence can only mean one thing, he and the other radical leftists of the administration have been given a unique opportunity to expand government control. And they're on course to realize their dreams. Democrat constituencies have been funded (porkulus), the private U.S. auto industry has been "unionized," the quasi public FRB and Wall Street finance corporations have been bought off. The focus is now on nationalizing health care and energy. Frankly, once market discipline is removed from these sectors, what else is there left to do? Real estate? Even the O and his crew know that building household equity, or savings, from rising market values is gone for decades. Answer then: ensure a permanent electoral majority by gun control, limitations on free speech, and vote and campaign contribution fraud. Voila! We then live in Venezuela.