America finds itself facing a National divide as we approach the 2010 elections.  States across America will decide once again who will be elected to lead their respective states, and the nation as a whole, into the future.

 

The divide is one of a philosophical nature. The question facing every voting American is whether the nation will lean further left towards socialism (a nice word for communism) or will the pendulum swing back towards the Founders’ intent that American citizens remain free.

There are many who voted for President Obama who have now admittedly realized that the current President may in fact threaten the very freedoms that America was founded upon. 

Most recently, he proposed to the world that America will step back from our nuclear arms position.  While some believe this will bring world peace, others realize how incredibly valuable this will make America to foreign threats.  

Then there is the whole issue of illegal immigration that infuriates Americans who are natural citizens and truly angers those immigrants who came to America legally. Most American immigrants are intent on assimilating into American culture.  They learn and speak the English language as they work and give back to the America that they love.

Illegal immigrants on the other hand, have a much different view of America. They are looking to reap the benefits of America’s charity. That is, they work for cash avoid paying taxes in many cases and rely on our hospitals to provide health care while sending their cash back to their homeland.  They use America and give nothing back.  There is no desire to assimilate to American culture.

While in Idaho, I spoke at length with a Vietnamese American (Bac) who came to America to flee the communism that he had seen and heard of in his home land.  He operates an oriental (Chinese) restaurant and works 17 hours a day.  I asked why he works such long hours. He replied, “Because I can. I love America”. In his home land, everything was controlled by the government.  In America, what I earn is mine he said.

Bac told a story passed down from his great grandfather revealing that just after WWII, the government of his home land took all of the land, property and anything of wealth from those who were business owners and wealthy. 

He explained that his great grandfather once had lots of land and farmed rice very successfully with the help of many farm workers.  One day, the government informed his great grandfather that they were taking all of his land except a half acre (where he could live) and they were taking all of his stock of ten thousand pounds of rice. They left him 100 pounds and took the remaining inventory to be distributed to the impoverished.

The following year, all of his farm workers were unemployed; the land that once produced thousands of pounds of rice now sat idle.  The farm workers and everyone in the surrounding area were now reduced to poverty to be taken care of and fed by the state.

Not long after that, Bac told of a day when the government gathered up all of the the business owners who were once wealthy, tied their hands behind their backs, tied them all together in a train and walked them through the streets of the city. As they were paraded through the streets the impoverished, threw stones and rocks at the heads of the wealthy until the streets were covered in blood and they fell dead in the streets at the hands of the people whom many once worked for them.

Is America heading in this direction?  I can only rely on what I have seen as I have served in the Maryland legislature.  There is clearly animosity towards the wealthy and the business owners in Maryland. The state continues to tax and burden business operating within the state to the point that there is no incentive to stay.  America has not yet reached the point of confiscating the assets of the wealthy but could it happen?

Bac believes that America is filled with individuals who came to flee the oppression of communism and as result believes that America will not denigrate to a complete redistribution of wealth.  I am not sure that I agree.  We are headed in a direction that clearly smells and looks like socialism to me.

The question remains, will Americans resist the tilt towards socialism or will we rush full speed ahead as the Oboma administration redefines the Founders intent for American citizens?  I believe the November elections will reveal the future of America.

Constitutionally yours,

Delegate Don Dwyer, Jr.

Member, Maryland General Assembly