Who Needs Robin Hood?

“It’s time to level the playing field.” “The rich need to pay their fair share.” “We have to end tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.” These are some of the stock phrases used by President Obama and his administration to fire up their troops to picket private homes, gin up mobs to protest success and to channel America towards the future they envision. Like a one trick pony or an extremely inept coach the Progressives’ playbook has only one option. It’s a Hail Mary pass they run over and over: class warfare. From Marx to Chavez the collectivists have always played the same card from each according to the ability to each according to their need.

Over a century of propaganda and indoctrination has conditioned most Americans to accept one of the most insidious aspects of class warfare as a natural and respectable feature of our government: progressive taxation. At its core progressive taxation is the quintessential action of the Trojan horse the Progressives have constructed to transform America from a representative republic with a capitalist economy into a centrally planned socialist democratic republic.

The shock troops for this movement which has captured the leadership of both major parties is made up of the Corporations Once Known as the Mainstream Media, unions, crony capitalists, and a conglomeration of front groups and organizations, many of which receive vast amounts of government money. These interest groups constantly agitate for Progressive policies and carry the water for Progressive politicians. They also contribute time, money and resources for the election campaigns of the very Progressive politicians who vote to give them government grants in a circular money laundering scheme which if not illegal is certainly immoral.

Who are these Progressives in America today? They’re the most vocal proponents of the manmade global warming hoax. They serve as willing acolytes for their Nobel Prize winning high priest. After failing to pass their much desired cap-n-trade they are regulating it into existence through the Environmental Protection Agency.

They are also the same ones who after leading the charge against integration, standing in the school house door and attacking peaceful demonstrators with everything from fire hoses to clubs they support every media starved Civil Rights professional who will rant and rave on cue to keep America’s deepest wound festering.

They use Political Correctness to monitor and manage the discussion. Political Correctness is the Progressives’ version of New Speak and the coin of their realm. Many of these verbal add-ons are merely variations and expressions on the over-riding theme of take from the evil rich to help the deserving poor, with a good dose of “We’ve got to do it for the children” thrown in for good measure. Political Correctness is strangling free speech and pushing many into a cone of silence wherein they no longer have the liberty to express their opinions without retaliation on the job or in school.

People who wish to take from the rich and give to the poor never create wealth themselves. They always want to take from one and give to another so they can drain off a living in between exulting in the power to decide who deserves the blessings of their charity. And they always seem to get more than anyone else.

The massive frauds and waste of the Federal government shows where this is headed. As they swallow more of the economy their ineptitude seems to grow in direct proportion to the size of the swag. Take for instance the stimulus slush-fund of 2009. Billed as a way to create jobs this bill spent $278,000 for every job created. In terms of the national debt President Obama is spreading the wealth around at an astounding rate of 3.94 billion dollars per day in deficit spending alone. He has gone beyond taxing the rich and is now taxing the unborn.

Looking back at the battle cry of “Tax the rich” which symbolizes the inequity which is the Progressive tax system some often confuse this with the story of Robin Hood. They say he stole from the rich to give to the poor. They point to Robin and say that is all they want to do, take some of the excess wealth held by the rich and distribute it to the unfortunate.

Unfortunately for them such a translation of the Robin Hood myth turns the story on its head. After returning from a war of choice initiated by an absentee king in the Middle East Robin learned his estate had been taxed away. Finding this level of abuse intolerable he became an outlaw stealing the ill-gotten loot government agents were extorting from the people in the form of taxes and then returned the money to those who had actually earned it.

Wait a minute maybe we do need Robin Hood today!

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College. He is the author of the History of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com View the trailer for Dr. Owens’ latest book @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ypkoS0gGn8 © 2011 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens.