Finding North Without a Compass

1. Higher taxes affecting everyone. Maybe not income tax on income less than $250,000 but unlimited FICA on all earned income; plus certainly on capital gains; dividends; and on both small and big businesses. Big businesses may be able to cope by raising prices for all of us, since big business doesn’t pay taxes, they collect them from customers. Small business, on the other hand, in a much more competitive environment, normally can’t add the added tax load to their pricing, and their already minimal profit margins may disappear along with their entire small business.

2. The ban on drilling for oil in the US and offshore will be reinstated, again raising the price of a gallon of gas to its past high and beyond, delighting the dedicated environmentalists who want to substitute alternate fuel development at the expense of airplane. automobile, truck, farm equipment, etc. usage, thereby increasing everyone’s cost of living by a substantial amount – not to mention the billions of dollars of taxpayer investment in alternate fuel development

3. The opening of the flood gates on "abortion on demand," now held back by moral values and certain restrictions on trimester and partial birth abortions. Abortions will be anytime, anywhere, for anybody rather than Bill Clinton’s approach of "safe, legal and rare."

4. Minimum wage limits will continually be increased, resulting in lost job opportunities for the economically and educationally disadvantaged. No longer will these classes be able to enter the work force at a low level and work their way up over the years, substituting know-how and experience for education -- thereby creating a permanent underclass.

5. Military forces will be withdrawn from Iraq before the mission is complete – and with victory in sight to help stabilize the middle east with a reasonably democratic republic. Terrorists will grow bolder with a major attack on the US all but a certainty. More South American countries will succumb to the Chavez doctrine as the US refuses to support them through trade and military support agreements. Israel is doomed as an entity as a pacifist US will refuse military support for their defense, preferring talk to action. The US position as a world power will slowly attenuate, both militarily and economically.

6. Socialized medicine will arrive with universal coverage of all Americans (and maybe illegal aliens as well). Those who have worked hard and diligently all their life to provide adequate medical protection for their family and loved ones will find that those who didn’t, receive exactly the same medical coverage. The Canadian and British experience will be duplicated with extended time to see a physician and an even longer time to receive specialized care. A shortage of doctors will occur, as few will want to practice medicine under socialized medicine conditions.

7. Unions will grow in power and influence as the requirement for a secret ballot to determine representation will be eliminated, leading to overt worker coercion to sign a non-secret representation card in front of a union representative. With this increase in power, unions will affect elections through their access to increasing union dues and affect legislation through their election influence. Whether the secret ballot will disappear from regular elections is a next step, only time will tell, but the slippery slope will have been established.

8. Freedom of speech will be attenuated through legislation establishing a "fairness doctrine" requiring all points of view to be given equal time. Conservative radio talkers will be "fairnessed" out of business leaving the liberal print and TV media in command of what Americans read, hear and see. The Voter ID requirement to vote will be a "dead duck" with concomitant stacking of the voter rolls to insure single party control for the foreseeable future.

9. Education vouchers for school choice will go the way of the DODO bird, confining minority and low income family children to a substandard education and sentencing them to a life on the government dole and the necessity to vote the party line or risk losing that dole. Teacher unions and university faculty will consider it their duty to brainwash their pupils to conform to a liberal line.

Make no mistake, creeping socialism is the ultimate goal, inflicted step by step so as not to arouse the masses as to the true nature of the liberal agenda until one day Americans will awaken with their freedoms curtailed and an all-powerful federal government calling all the shots. The eight traits that made America great as published by John Painter in "Eight American Cultural Traits" of Independence, Hard Work, Inventiveness, Personal Ambition, Risk Taking, Commitment, Skepticism, and Honesty will be but a memory. Mr. Painter concludes "Our unique cultural identity has helped propel our nation as the single biggest force for peace and prosperity in the world. More than just our political system, our philosophy, or our economic structure, our culture has made the American engine the most powerful in history. We must ensure that this fuel remains pure!"