A Neoconservative/Right-Wing Socialistic/Communistic Debacle?

All right...I can here the hard-line Right-Wing/Neocons amongst us saying, "How can you use the words Neoconservative/Right-Wing and Socialistic/Communistic Debacle in the same sentence?". Be patient and you'll see!

First lets look at the word Socialism. Wikipedia defines it as such:

Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to control by the community for the purposes of increasing social and economic equality and cooperation. This control may be either direct-exercised through popular collectives such as workers' councils-or indirect-exercised on behalf of the people by the state. As an economic system, socialism is often characterized by state or community ownership of the means of production. (Wikipedia)

Lets now look at how Webster's online dictionary defines Communism:

Communism is sometimes also used to mean, particularly in capitalist nations, a totalitarian regime run by the Communist Party where central planning is employed as a means of production and distribution. Because totalitarian regimes of this nature have often committed human rights abuses of varying degrees, some regard this idea of Communism as a dangerous ideology, similar to Fascism or Nazism. (Webster's)

And now lets look at how a Neocon/Right-Winger would describe both:

An evil system of governmental control. This governmental control is all encompassing and determines every aspect of a citizens life and liberty. Stripping them of all self determination and freedom making them an automaton of the national bureaucracy. (Interpreted by Deez)

Just to be clear, lets also define what a Right-Winger is:

A more obscure strand of right wing thought, often associated with the original right wing from the times of monarchy, supports the preservation of wealth and power in the hands that have traditionally held them, social stability, and national solidarity and ambition. In politics, right-wing, the political right, and the right are terms used in the spectrum of Left-Right Politics, and much like the opposite appellation of Left-wing, it has a broad variety of definitions: the same name can, in politics, sometimes mean different things. However, it is generally used to refer to the segments of the political spectrum often associated with any of several strains of conservatism, American conservatism, monarchism, fascism, right-libertarianism, anarcho-capitalism, reactionism, traditionalism, nazism, royalism, some forms of populism, the Religious Right, nationalism, militarism, producerism, nativism, realism or simply the opposite of left-wing politics. (Wikipedia)

I think we can all agree that the above definitions are fairly accurate. So, now that we know the definitions provided above, lets take a look at the American prison system. Does the American prison system meet the above definitions of Communistic or Socialistic? I truly feel that it does and to prove my assertion lets take a closer look at what happens to a person who has found his/herself unlucky enough to be incarcerated.

That newly incarcerated person has been publicly humiliated and shamed. They have their name removed and replaced with a number in order to facilitate equality and anonymity amongst the new population they are immersed in. The removal of their name also serves a couple of other purposes for the State, it dehumanizes the inmate and facilitates the States efforts for orderly identification. They are told what to do every minute of everyday. They are forced to work for little pay. They are subject to abuse from their peers and their superiors. The State controls the means of production and the product of inmate labor is for the State and the State alone. While they are in the prison system they learn how to be recidivated at a more professional level. Thereby, facilitating the State system of re-incarceration again and again and again. Every shred of their previous identity has been removed and replaced by an identity the State provides. The State decides who gets medical treatment and who does not. The State determines what punishment an inmate will receive while a person is incarcerated. The State determines who can talk to them, who can visit them and who can write to them. In short the State controls every aspect of an inmates life.

I think I have proved my point when I say that the prison system in America is Socialistic/Communistic in nature. So, how do I pin the problem in the Americas prison system on Neocon/Right-Wingers? Well, here ya go!

Wikipedia describes the Right-Wing/Neocon stance on crime in the following manner:

"In politics, law and order refers to a political platform which supports a strict criminal justice system, especially in relation to violent crime and property crime, through harsher criminal penalties. These penalties may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, and in some countries, capital punishment.

Supporters of "law and order" argue that effective deterrence combined with incarceration is the most effective means of crime prevention. Opponents of law and order argue that a system of harsh criminal punishment is ultimately ineffective because it does not address underlying or systemic causes of crime.

"Law and order" is a recurring theme in political campaigns around the world. Candidates may exaggerate or even manufacture a problem with law and order, or characterize their opponents as "weak" on the issue, in order to generate public support. The expression also sometimes carries the implication of arbitrary or unnecessary law enforcement, or excessive use of police powers." (Wikipedia)

Why is locking more and more people up for longer stretches of time for crimes, the Neocon/Right-Wingers feel is important, a problem? Well lets look at this for a minute. I'll start with some examples in my home State of Ohio and then I'll move on to a national scale.

The largest bureaucracy in the State of Ohio is the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections with an annual budget, as of the year 2005, of $1,599,851,177.00.The next largest bureaucracy in the State of Ohio is the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation . The BWC budget for fiscal years 2008 and 2009 is $328.9 million and $329.2 million respectively. We spend more in Ohio to incarcerate people than in any other State of Ohio Government bureaucracy, including primary and secondary education.(Ohio.gov)

This pattern is being repeated all over our country thanks in large part to the Neocon/Right-Wingers unthinking stance on law and order and their out of sight out of mind mentality.

"The nationwide inmate population today is about 2.1 million people. In California, even as we meet, this State alone keeps over 160,000 persons behind bars. In countries such as England, Italy, France and Germany, the incarceration rate is about 1 in 1,000 persons. In the United States it is about 1 in 143... Nationwide, more than 40% of the prison population consists of African-American inmates. About 10% of African-American men in their mid-to-late 20s are behind bars. In some cities more than 50% of young African-American men are under the supervision of the criminal justice system ...The cost of housing, feeding and caring for the inmate population in the United States is over 40 billion dollars per year. In the State of California alone, the cost of maintaining each inmate in the correctional system is about $26,000 per year.

...When it costs so much more to incarcerate a prisoner than to educate a child, we should take special care to ensure that we are not incarcerating too many persons for too long. It requires one with more expertise in the area than I possess to offer a complete analysis, but it does seem justified to say this: Our resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences too long.

In the federal system the sentencing guidelines are responsible in part for the increase in prison terms. In my view the guidelines were, and are, necessary. Before they were in place, a wide disparity existed among the sentences given by different judges, and even among sentences given by a single judge. As my colleague Justice Breyer has pointed out, however, the compromise that led to the guidelines led also to an increase in the length of prison terms. We should revisit this compromise. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines should be revised downward."(Anthony M. Kennedy Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States August 9, 2003)

We as a nation incarcerate more people than any other nation in the world and the Right-Wing folk amongst us see no problem with this. Liberals (who are labeled as the true socialist/communist), however, see building more prisons a entirely ineffective and illogical solution to crime, while conservatives view it as the clear answer.

That's how I place this "Communistic/Socialistic Debacle" squarely in the lap of the Neocon/Right-Wing idiots who have been running this country for so long. Let's see if we can change things for the better and actually elect leaders that will spend the time and resources on education, job building, infrastructure, and less on incarceration and war. Our nation is sick people and we need some solid leadership to correct our course before we are too far gone as a nation to recover. In short, save ourselves from the Fascist Pigs A.K.A. Republicans.

This article is dedicated to Jim Clayton and Slasher both AC contributors and brilliant Right-Wing minds of our time. Thanks for placing your order, now please drive through.