Are We All Communists Now?

Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev once said, "We can't expect the American people to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have communism."

Of course, as some communists like to point out, the Soviet Union was never really communist.  It never made it past the “dictatorship of the proletariat’ stage that communist advocates claimed was necessary to reach true communism.  But according to Lenin, this dictatorship would need to be implemented by that elite part of the proletariat, the Communist Party.  And the party would need to be “guided” by the party elite, that is, one dictator, or a very small oligarchy of dictators.  All of this is necessary because even the proletariat does not know what is good for it.

So how are we doing in regard to Comrade Khrushchev’s prognostication?  This little news item comes to mind in this context:

Boeing Corporation decided to build a new assembly plant in Charleston, South Carolina, in order to produce the 787 Dreamliner. The NLRB (which is responsible investigating unfair labor practices) got wind of the decision and last month filed a complaint against Boeing, alleging that the company decided to build the plant in South Carolina out of retaliation for union strikes at its Washington state facilities.

So now it appears you might not be allowed to build a new production facility where you want it.  You must build it where the State (caps on purpose) wants it.  Before the “New Deal” that would never have been an issue.  And we have come a long way – in the wrong direction – since then.

“Until they awaken one day to find that they have communism . . .”  Old Nikita was a bit vague.  What he should have said (and probably really meant) was, “until the awaken one day to find themselves under a dictatorship of the party elite.”  We arrived there a long time ago.