THE LEFT AND THE RIGHT
"Socialism" is the gradual takeover of all businesses by the government.
"Communism" is when the government confiscates all property from everyone, especially from "capitalists", that is, from businessmen.
The Communist Manifesto says "The first step in the revolution" is "to win the battle of democracy" and to use the voting power of the workers to gradually, "by degrees", take away from businessmen the ownership of all their businesses, and "to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state".
So "socialism" is the gradual democratic accomplishment of the communist objective.
President Obama has partially taken over the banking industry and the auto industry. And with the passage of Obamacare, he has gone a very long way toward taking over the health care industry, which is one sixth of the U.S. economy. Therefore, it is evident that President Obama is a socialist.
"Liberty", as envisioned by the Founding Fathers, is when the government is as small as possible. The Constitution was written with the intention of severely limiting the size and power of the federal government.
So "liberty" and "socialism" are opposites. Socialists work toward bigger government and less freedom. Advocates of liberty work toward smaller government and more freedom.
The "Left" works toward socialism -- bigger government and less freedom. The "Right" works toward liberty -- smaller government and more freedom.
The Democratic Party is on the Left. The Republican Party is on the Right.
The problem is that the Republicans often compromise with the Democrats, whereas the Democrats seldom compromise with the Republicans. As a result, the government gets bigger and bigger, and liberty gets less and less.
This trend toward ever bigger government and less freedom has been going on since the Civil War. The Civil War was the first great leap toward bigger government in the history of America. Each war has been a leap toward bigger government. The Depression of the 1930's was a leap toward bigger government. The present economic crisis is a leap toward bigger government. The establishment of the Federal Reserve System, America's Central Bank, was itself a great leap toward bigger government. There were no Great Depressions before the Federal Reserve.
What is needed is to restore the ideal of the Founding Fathers, to reverse the trend of the last 150 years, and to undo the damage.
So it is not enough to vote for a Republican. You have to know who is a principled supporter of liberty, who will not compromise with the advance of socialism, the increase of government, and the decrease of liberty. You need to vote for someone who is dedicated to reversing the advance of socialism, drastically reducing the size of government, and restoring liberty in full as envisioned by the Founding Fathers.
When men with principles are in control, government is used to restrain wrongdoing. When men without principles are in control, government becomes tyranny.
Therefore you need to support and vote for people on the Right. But you need to support and vote for strongly principled people on the Right who will not compromise with the Left, and who will work vigorously to reverse the tide of socialism which threatens us, to drastically reduce the size, power, and income of government, and to restore the liberty which our Founding Fathers gave us.
Democrats think that only they care for the poor and elderly, but this is not so. Similarly, some parents are very nurturing and "give" in the way of high pocket money and gadgets and fancy stuff to their kids, but they don't encourage their kids to "earn it themselves". This is important. We get better people when we insist that they "earn it themselves". Not only does this provide self-respect, but it also makes people with drive who want to produce and live well by their own hard work. It is much better to be surrounded by those people, rather than by those who sit back lazily and expect to be fed and cared for, and to get health benefits, without earning it themselves.
Those parents who encourage their kids to earn it themselves, without giving them lots of toys and gifts, get better kids and better adults, never needing bailouts or help from the government.
This is the Republican attitude. This is the real caring and loving attitude. This is the attitude which can build, maintain, and restore a nation of free men.