America Is Ruled By A True Leftist

For many years conservative commentators have been scaring Americans that the left wing will gain power. In reality, it had seemed unlikely to happen, and deep down even the conservatives didn’t believe it and were scaring people mostly for formality’s sake.

The progressive dreams of electing a truly leftist president were repeatedly crashed against a ballot box surrounded by the wreckage of liberal candidates such as George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis and John Kerry.

Pitiful Jimmy Carter rode along on the wave of Watergate scandal, and during the decisive weeks of the 1976 elections he managed to convince voters that his southern accent and lexicon were proof of his conservative entrails. As soon as people figured him out, he was replaced at the first opportunity with the Republican Reagan. Even some Democrats are more nostalgic about Reagan’s time than Carter’s with its awful inflation and bowing to dictators.

Some people still remember Carter’s advice to Americans to get over that “inordinate fear of communism.” Poor Jimmy came to his senses after the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in 1979, but it was too late, and Americans replaced him with Reagan.

At that time, Bill Clinton looked like a hopeless leftist, but in reality he was a pragmatic centrist who, according to National Review columnist Victor David Hanson, put his own interests above any political ideology. At first Clinton launched into the leftism worshiped by his hapless Hillary; however, the Republican victory of 1994 pushed him back to the center. Two years ago Hillary herself ran for president not under the red flag, but under the banners of “workers and peasants” centrism which she unsuccessfully suggested as an alternative to Barack Obama.

At that time Obama was different. Hanson, whose essay inspired me to write this article, wrote that if Obama had promised voters to give high posts to Marxists like Van Johnson, to “stimulate” the economy with a trillion deficit, to nationalize health care, the automobile industry, student loans and the biggest mortgage companies, to try to grant illegals amnesty, to tax greenhouse emissions, cold-shoulder old allies and court Russia, Iran, Syria and Venezuela — his candidacy would have been buried as far back as the snows of Iowa.

But Obama ran under the banners of artfully whomped up pseudo-centrism. He was elected not only because of this hoax, enthusiastically supported by the centrist mass media, but also due to his opponent’s mediocre campaign, common men being fed up with the Iraq war and the financial crisis that broke out right before the elections. Besides, it was a rare election with a vacant presidential chair.

Finally, Americans like new toys, and that was the first time a black candidate was running for president. On top of that, Obama’s eloquence is a nice change after incoherent Bush whose Volapük even yours truly found exasperating despite having always been his devoted admirer. The press, as speech connoisseurs, was thrilled and forgave the charismatic young black man’s small embarrassments like his friendships with ex-terrorists and black racists who were shouting “God damn America!” from pulpits. Evil tongues now say that this wish has come true.

Obama was irresistible; it’s even strange that he defeated McCain by such a narrow margin. And that’s how America learned what a true left-wing regime looks like — a regime that seriously intends to make it into a different country. It’s not that it hadn’t been moving in that direction already. By 2008, almost 40 percent of Americans were living completely or partially on government handouts that were giving them money taken away from other Americans. The government was swelling, and its debt was growing under any president regardless of party affiliation.

For example, Bush saddled America with huge new expenditures on drugs for seniors. It’s an edifying expense, but most of our senior citizens are already better off than the rest of Americans. In any case, the state treasury couldn’t afford it. Everyone had a finger in the pie, because the temptation of buying the loyalty of some voters with the money of other voters is inseparable from the politicians. But almost no one expected such a tectonic shift; those who did hoped deep down that they would be wrong. But those hopes didn’t come true.

Now America is ruled by a true leftist. The results are already visible. A little over a year has passed, and Americans have started to look at things differently. Even small things. For example, choosing between buying a Ford or a GM has become ideological. Ford didn’t ask for government donations and didn’t go to bed with the state; GM is currently subsidized by Washington. As for me, I’ll never buy a GM car; but if someone gives one to me, I’ll probably take it, but will drive with hatred.

Only very recently was Toyota idolized by environmental groups and has now become a public enemy because its cars are said to scoot randomly and, most importantly, are not made by union members who bought tidbits of GM and Chrysler on the cheap. Contrary to custom, the shareholders, who usually have jus primae noctis for the bankrupt companies’ assets, received only thirty-three cents for a dollar, while the retired union members received fifty cents. If it continues so, beer in the US will be sold only to union members.

Some time ago, if you bought a house that was too expensive with an interest rate that was too high, you were considered irresponsible. In the present context, it’s not your fault; it’s the bank’s fault. You are its victim. If you maxed out your credit cards, you are also a victim of a cunning credit card company, not of your own stupidity and carelessness. It makes no sense to keep money in the bank since the interest is ridiculously low. But it doesn’t cost much to work up a huge debt that you don’t necessarily have to pay back if you know how to successfully play a victim.

Wall Street is avaricious and thievish. It needs to be subdued to the almighty, all-seeing and caring bureaucracy that already exemplarily manages our post service, Amtrak and administering driver’s licenses.

It’s not accurate to say that the state will soon run out of money for pensions and medications for the seniors. The money is fine, and the people who talk about upcoming bankruptcy are the money-bags who don’t want to pay for it. In fact, the money-bags (those whose annual income is $250,000 and above) have enough money to pay for everything. Or to share. Enough of the good life, it’s time to share.

Before Obama, $250,000 didn’t mean a lot; but now it became like Sivash* separating the people from the bloodsuckers. All those who crossed this line have to share with those who are beneath it and deserve handouts from the government just for that reason; that is, from their more well-to-do fellow citizens, because the government doesn’t have its own money.

Once upon a time, the principle “steal the stolen” triumphed in Russia. Under Obama, it’s called “spread the wealth around." The present-day Russian synonym would be “to share.” “Well, he’d better share” — one of my acquaintances in Moscow noted reproachfully, when I complained about how Moscow raiders had seized the fortune of a friend of ours. “One has to share!” is the motto of the new American power.

“Level of unemployment” in the U.S. has become an irrelevant term and doesn’t characterize anyone anymore. The actual situation is much better reflected by the number of work places that have been “saved” thanks to the economic stimulus from the state. The size of the state debt and the budget deficit can bother only neurotics. There are enough wealthy people in the country who can solve these problems once and for all. All we have to do is summon enough courage to make them share.

The idea that countries like France, Great Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Israel and Poland are our natural allies due to the shared Western legacy and mentality are now old, and their leaders are ignored, offended or lectured. The current power let go of even such an un-Western country like India that has flashed back into Moscow’s embraces. For starters, William Churchill’s bust has been removed from the Oval Cabinet in the White House; it probably wasn’t the right place for a colonizer at a Kenyan’s son’s house considering that Kenya used to be a British colony.

After that Obama gave the British Prime Minister a CD from a souvenir shop that cannot be played in the U.K. ** However, Palestinians, Venezuelans and Syrians are a different story. Under the old regime they were simply misunderstood. Now they are being extended a hand of friendship into which they consistently put a stone. “Just dew from the sky” — our commander-in-chief waves off their spit serenely and continues to seek their friendship because his gut tells him that they are of the same kind. Obama sympathizes with the leaders of those regimes just because they were opposed to his predecessor whose ashes he’s still brushing off his shoes.

The participants of anti-government rallies, who just recently were considered patriots, are now seen as racists, homophobes and potential terrorists. Anti-war protests have stopped, and Hollywood is no longer making anti-war movies. Television is no longer making pseudo-documentaries about assassination attempts on the president. The mass media that used to be a watchdog for people’s freedoms have turned into poodles and lapdogs. The Congress passes new laws by new rules that in the past would have caused widespread opposition among the intelligentsia, but now are welcomed by it.

That’s how much America’s changed in just over a year. And this is just the thin edge of the wedge.

*Translator’s note: Sivash is a system of lakes and small bays that separates the Crimean Peninsula from the Russian mainland; in an extended sense it is used to mean a border between two things.

**Translator’s note: Untranslatable Russian word-play.