A Specter Haunts the American Spirit

A specter is haunting America, it’s the connotation of Communism, the older brother of Socialism. Here in America, socialistic rhetoric plagues the minds of those who feel capitalism has fail, and equality hasn’t been achieved. The conspirators that we dismissed as crack-pot believers that the world is going to burn, but those shadows have been cast upon by the radiance of truth.

When reading a New York Times article quoting President Sarkozy of France, and Germany’s Chancellor Merkel, that the “Anglo-Saxon model” has proven inadequate, and praising the “the protective power of the state,” this causes the hair on my arms to stand at attention. They are giving merit to the Socialist ideology that has laid dormant in Europe for decades, and now the sleeping giant has awoken.

The socialist agenda has been in American politics since the early 1900s, with the Socialist Party of America, but changed to become Progressivism. The Progressive Party was founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, which charted America on a new course known as the Progressive Era. These Progressives campaigned for economic, social, political, and moral reforms. Notable Progressives were Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Thomas Edison, Elihu Root (Secretary of War for McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.), William Howard Taft, Andrew Carnegie, W.E.B. Dubois, Henry Ford, and Louis Brandeis, who were the most influential people of the 20^th Century.

The 20^th Century saw a change in trading policy. Early Republicans believed in protectionism with enacting high tariffs, but early Progressives such as Wilson, believed in trade liberalization. This would lead America towards the precipice of globalization. The ultimate goal was to expose to the world what would happen if capitalism was unchecked, and to economically reform third world countries, through global agencies like IMF and World Bank with their structural adjustment policies. But first, America had to be the example. To establish a central bank, Wilson passed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, to centralize America’s banking system. By having an independent entity, far from government control, controlling U.S.’s monetary policy, would put into the hands of an elite class, the ability to control America’s direction.

The idea of nations coming together in a peaceful manner as a community was the brainchild of Woodrow Wilson, but in fact outlined by Immanuel Kant’s Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch. The results of Wilson’s involvement with the Treaty of Versailles, which set Germany toward the path of Fascism, helped him establish the League of Nations in 1919. The League of Nations failed, but it would take World War II, to revive the concept of nations coming together as a peaceful community. Out of the ashes of WWII, the United Nations was born in 1945.

What early Progressive’s followed was the Fabian Society’s Socialist idea of “gradual incremental change” through reforms rather than revolution. These Fabian’s understood that revolution never accomplishes the end goal of world Communism, but with reforms here and there, by slowly bringing about reforms, citizens would then be blinded to the agenda, and change would go unnoticed. Total Communism can only be achieved if all nations experienced the hardship of capitalism, so that all the “workers in the world will unite.” The question though is, how can all nations experience Capitalism? Well the answers are American imperialism in the name of spreading democracy, and economic purposes by colonialism. This expansion led to overthrowing countries such as Hawaii by President McKinley, who was succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt, the leader of the Progressive Movement. Imperialism, according to Communism, is the end stage of Capitalism, and the dawn of Socialism.

There is no country on the face of the world that capitalism hasn’t reached. Today, we’ve became so interdependent, that it’s impossible for any one nation to pull out of the world economy because nations are forced to trade for commodities they don’t already produce. Just take a look at our nation for instance. We outsource some of our manufacturing sector. We trade for products and goods outside our country because some believe those jobs are below us, and also to exploit countries for cheap labor for our own benefit as consumers.

Multinationals force developing countries to focus on monoculture, which coerce them to trade for commodities, they don’t have. The U.S. gives developing countries loans at high interest rates either directly or through the IMF or World Bank, which they are unable to pay back, and attaching stipulations such as opening up their country for trade, and forcing them to emulate our economy through structural adjustment practices, whereby creating dependent countries. We’ve seen increased hostilities in Latin America, and parts of African because of these actions. In these countries, poverty has increased, and it was Aristotle who said that, “poverty is the parent of crime and revolution.”

Change has come to America, and quick change requires captivating personalities. This rapid change has come under the veil of false promises, a charming and charismatic personality, and a personality so persuasive that followers are caught up in the hypnotic sound of their voices. These personalities are Presidents F.D.R. and Barak Obama. These two personalities are important linchpins in persuading Americans that reforms need to be achieved, and important legislation for social change be enacted to save America from economic disaster.  Both Presidents came into power in the midst of severe economic downturn. Is it coincidence that first, we had two major economic disasters in the aftermath of the Federal Reserve Act, and secondly, that these Democrats succeed Republicans, and both have a quest to change America?

The purpose of my article is to attempt to connect the dots on a complex series of events that, in my opinion, has been the type of change that Progressives wanted since the early 1900’s. That is the demise of U.S. sovereignty, by having our great empire  lead the world toward the Utopian society of equality, through the conscience of the Green Movement and veil of climate change, by provoking mankind to think globally. Even current legislation is attempting to socialize and bring together American’s as a whole (Universal Health care for example), by killing the idea of individuality. We have NAFTA and the EU, in using trade as a way to bring together countries. Equality has never been achieved in the long history of mankind, and no system has been able to achieve this feat. So really, what is the end game? Will their goal be achieved? I’m optimistic about our future, but sitting idle by, and getting caught up in our little lives because we’re too busy to care, allows Progressives to face little resistance. It’s time to lead, follow, and if you’re one of those types of Americans who takes freedoms for granted, get out of the way.

The Fed: A Dangerous and Reckless Agent

A couple weeks ago, on November 19, 2009, the Paul-Grayson Audit the Fed Amendment, or H.R. 1207, passed the House Financial Services Committee with a vote of 43-26. One notable nay vote, Barney Frank, is an amendment to Frank’s “Financial Stability Improvement Act of 2009 (H.R. 3996),” calling for a comprehensive audit of the Federal Reserve.

Fellow Libertarian, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, wants to complete a full audit of the Federal Reserve, which hasn’t been executed in the 96-year history of the Fed. Paul and Grayson successfully added the amendment 69B to Franks H.R. 3996. Congressman Paul, is an advocate and vocal supporter of auditing the Fed, and the leading crusader in pursuing the demise of the Federal Reserve.

Since its inception in 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, the Fed has placed the United States at monetary insecurity with its unsound monetary policies. The Federal Reserve System, the central banking system, is an independent entity within the government, not owned by the federal government either. Its primary function is to control our nation’s currency and monetary policy by maintaining stability of the financial system.

The enactment of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was a response to the 1907 Bankers Panic, in which the New York Stock Exchange fell 50 percent from its previous year. As panic ensued, the economic recession caused numerous runs on the bank and trust companies. The answer to address the financial issues was a central banking system. The Federal Reserve Act, as the Christian Science Monitor observes, was “merely a plan to allow 12 new banks to do what other banks were prevented from doing themselves, namely, establish branch networks and issue currency backed by commercial assets.”

Essentially what this Act did was grant monopolistic privileges to these banks, by allowing them to tamper with the nation’s monetary policy without oversight. According to Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, Congress has the power “To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof…and fix the Standards of Weights and Measure.” Congress’s constitutional duties is to print and regulate our currency by controlling the printing press that the Federal Reserve was given power to do, by a Congress that decided to give up their responsibility.

Since then we’ve lived through the Great Depression and numerous economic downturns since the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which every economic downturn could be traced to the Fed’s unsound monetary policy. Some scholars claim that the Fed’s monetary policy caused the Depression to become the Great Depression. The fact is, a uncheck, unaudited Federal Reserve, separate from the U.S. government, and lacking transparency, has placed our monetary policy on the fast track to devaluing our dollar. A devalued dollar, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s website, could “aggravate inflation. If this happens, the government may have to raise interest rates to control inflation, but at the cost of slower economic growth.”

Congressman Paul’s amendment to Barney Frank’s bill is the right step forward, towards Congress taking charge of an out of control Federal Reserve, by taking a look into their books and auditing their gold reserves. As his bill journeys through Congress, and hopefully passes the legislature, and is signed into law and not vetoed by President Obama, could push us towards reclaiming our monetary policy. As Thomas Jefferson observes about central banking, “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the Government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.”