Published on: Monday, October 24, 2011

By Brian J. Karem

There’s something about the tram in the Dirksen building in downtown D.C. that always seems to attract the strangest people.

Recently, in the bowels of that building, a wonderful U.S. senator, who shall remain nameless, got on the tram with his erstwhile entourage and began pontificating about the problem with his greatest enemies. We’re not talking about the Taliban, nor terrorists and not even the Chinese or the North Koreans.

We’re talking about the (shudder) Democrats.

According to the wonderful senator, the problem with the democrats boils down to the fact that they are all, to a man, a bunch of creeping socialists who want to “destroy the rugged individualism that built this country.”

I just want to know what rugged individualism the good senator is talking about.

Rugged individualism is a fine thing for a hermit, but certainly didn’t build this nation. History doesn’t even consider such folly for a second.

We are the United States…meaning we came together as a group to defeat the British and build this country.

As for socialism, there are several definitions for the word, but I believe the senator was saying that democrats want a system in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.

Well the federal government doesn’t yet own the means of production, but certainly controls production of a variety of goods. Truth is, we have social medicine, social welfare and some governmental control of the means of production. Though our government doesn't control those things very well.

Putting aside whether or not that is a good thing for a second, it is something voted on and passed through congress by democrats and republicans alike.

But back to the “rugged individualist” who believes that by enhancing an individual, all boats will rise as we pull each other up by our boot straps.

Nonsense. That’s a variation of Ronald Reagan’s “trickle down” theory which even George Bush called “Voodoo Economics."

When I interviewed James Carville for Playboy magazine, he mused how many of those who fancied themselves as "rugged individualists" had ever taken a federal student loan, or used federal highways, or otherwise used the federal government as they pulled themselves up by their boot straps.

It's not just that we are dealing with hypocrites, it is that being a "rugged individualist" is also contrary to everything we’re taught in school and church. We’re taught we’re part of something bigger than ourselves, that discipline and team play helps us win ballgames and helps in the office. How often do we criticize the “loose cannon” on the deck who “isn’t a team player?”

How about the comedian Bill Hicks who said: “we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively."

Too deep for you? Okay science fiction. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

Okay, too silly?

How about a hot dose of reality: United we stand. Divided we fall.

That’s from the revolution and is also the state motto of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

United as a group, paying attention to group needs is how we have established a society that enables the individual to exist and thrive. If we forget this and begin putting ourselves ahead of the needs of our nation, we lose everything.

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.” Is that socialism?

Then John Kennedy I guess was a socialist. Moses and those socialist commandments probably ought to go, as well as Jesus and his socialist notions of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and just about everyone else who has been a great individual in this country was a socialist. The people who built the pyramids must have been socialists too. Those guys who built the interstate system and the rockets which put astronauts on the moon? Socialism. No doubt.

Working together to achieve common goals is not a sin. Having a governing body attend to the management of those resources - a government we all vote on to represent us, is not a sin. It’s a virtue.

It is a virtue we don't have today.

If you think I’m wrong, go downtown and listen to our congressmen as they argue and bicker and fail to accomplish anything. Anyone who thinks the democratic or republican party wish to work together to manage our resources to further the common good is worse than delusional. They’re insane.

There's more socialism in social media than there is cooperation among the power elite in Washington D.C. - and the question is where does that leave us?

It certainly doesn't leave us a bunch of rugged individuals building our own cars, our own homes, making our own clothes and growing our own food.

It does, however, leave our large nation screaming for leaders who recognize how to get things done.

By the way, anyone seen them in a social setting these days? We'll take a few please, and pass the rest around. I'm sure there are others who'd like a few.