Back on Uncle Sam's plantation
Star Parker
Syndicated Columnist
Six years ago I wrote a book called Uncle
Sam's Plantation. I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw
living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of it.
I said in that book that indeed there are two Americas -- a poor America on
socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism.
I talked about government programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF), Job Opportunities and Basic
Skills Training (JOBS), Emergency Assistance to Needy Families
with Children (EANF), Section 8 Housing, and Food Stamps.
A vast sea of perhaps well-intentioned government programs, all initially set
into motion in the 1960s by Democrats, that were going to lift the nation's poor
out of poverty.
A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government
plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched mindsets from "How do I
take care of myself?" to "What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?"
Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created
monstrous moral and spiritual problems -- the kind of problems that are
inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others.
The legacy of American socialism is our blighted inner cities, dysfunctional
inner city schools, and broken black
families.
Through God's grace, I found my way out. It
was then that I understood what freedom meant and how great this country is.
I had the privilege of working on welfare reform in 1996 which was passed by a
Republican controlled Congress.
I thought we were on the road to moving socialism out of our poor black
communities and replacing it with wealth-producing American capitalism.
But, incredibly, we are now going in the opposite direction.
Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich American on
capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like poor America on
socialism.
Uncle Sam has welcomed our banks onto the plantation and they have said, "Thank
you, Suh."
Now, instead of thinking about what creative things need to be done to serve
customers, they are thinking about what they have to tell Massah in order to get
their cash.
There is some kind of irony that this is all happening under our first black
president on the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.
Worse, socialism seems to be the element of our new young president. And maybe
even more troubling, our corporate executives seem happy to move onto the
plantation.
In an op-Ed on the opinion page of the Washington
Post, Mr.Obama is
clear that the goal of his trillion dollar spending plan is much more than short
term economic stimulus.
"This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a
strategy for America 's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as
renewable energy, healthcare, and education."
Perhaps more incredibly, Obama seems to think that government taking over an
economy is a new idea. Or that massive growth in government can take place "with
unprecedented transparency and accountability."
Yes, sir, we heard it from Jimmy Carter when he created the Department of
Energy, the Synfuels Corporation, and the Department of Education.
Or how about the Economic
Opportunity Act of 1964 --
The War on Poverty --
which President Johnson said
"...does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already being done.
It charts a new course. It strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of
poverty."
Trillions of dollars later, black poverty is the same. But black families are
not, with triple the incidence of single-parent homes and out-of-wedlock births.
It's not complicated. Americans can accept Barack
Obama's invitation to move onto the plantation. Or they can choose personal
responsibility and freedom.
Does anyone really need to think about what the choice should be?