Destroy All Kulaks!

Anyone who thought a Democratic Congress would stand still for a repeal of the “death tax” in 2010 had to be smoking better stuff that I can ever get hold of. The denial of people's right to determine who shall inherit their hard-earned wealth has been a centerpiece of populist/socialist/Democratic/liberal politics for time immemorial. The notion is, one might grudgingly allow people to keep a small percentage of money they accumulated through hard work and investment... but the idea of allowing them to pass this money on to the undeserving and unworthy – namely, their heirs and children – is simply too horrible to contemplate. The liberal ideal is that all wealth eventually flows back into the black pit called “the government”... and if we can't raise taxes on the living above a certain percentage without risking insurrection, well, we'll simply declare a 100% tax on the dead – at least that is the ideal. Imagine, a world without inherited wealth – where a person might be rich, but a family could never be rich, and every new generation would have to start over from scratch, and share fully in the lot of “the people”. What a fine thing that would be!

Of course, anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that this is just towering hypocrisy, since liberals have never had any problem at all with people, or families, being rich – so long as those people or families were certified liberals. Witness the Kennedys! Or the Heinz/Kerrys! The list of rich liberals in this country is actually longer than the list of rich conservatives – for the simple reason that the Democrats have, for many decades now, been the party of the rich and the poor, whereas the Republicans have been the party of the middle class – you know, those people who are nearing extinction, like the dodo and the brontosaurus. So it's really – contrary to liberal protestations and propaganda – not about money per se at all; it's about “ideas”, and which side one is on. So when it comes to the “death tax” issue we're not dealing with giving everyone an equal chance at the mythical pie so much as doing all we can to beggar the middle class, because they just don't share our "values". The rich don't pay death taxes because they're smart enough (or smart enough to hire people who are smart enough) to shelter their money from the predations of government. It's like Leona Helmsley said about taxes – they are for the “little people” to pay (and I don't think she meant characters out of Irish folklore). The socio-economic bifurcation of America into the masses and the controlling elite received a huge boost with the recent and ongoing economic crisis – but were any of the truly rich wiped out, or even mildly inconvenienced? Hell no! They made out like bandits. Were the poor impacted? Well, no – how can you be any more unemployed than you already were? It was the middle class that paid the price for the endless frat party going on on Wall Street... and it continues to do so. So, to add insult to injury – or as the Gospel says, “even what little they have will be taken away” through the deathless death tax. And liberals everywhere are rejoicing, because the middle class has now slipped off the ropes and is lying in a heap on the canvas, helpless against the blows of the administration and its facilitators. Finally – a solution to the “bourgeoisie question” -- don't attack them physically like the Soviets did, just make certain that they gradually become poorer until they sink into the gray mass of the proletariat.