Nixon's China

The other day, my Dad (may God bring peace to his soul) made
the connection to Nixon visiting China and first opening up that
door, to the current republican moves towards nationalizing the
banks and investment houses in the country and putting them under
Federal Government control. I myself had made the observation that
this new ownership, called “socialism of risk” by the mainstream
media, is really tantamount to adopting the communist system first
delineated and predicted by Karl Marx.

Prior to Nixon’s visit, communist China was considered to be far
distant, another world, their politics anathema, their people, culture
and goods unapproachable and completely foreign to our needs and
wants. We were fighting a consuming war with one of their satellites.
It would have been completely unthinkable for any Democratic Party
president or congressman or other public official to make any overture
whatever of recognition, friendship, cooperation or respect. President
Nixon by first opening the door, began a drip of trade, which then
became a trickle, a stream, and finally a torrent of goods coming to
America. Ambitious, hard-working immigrants also came and studied
to fill a hefty percentage of engineer, doctor, computer, and other
scientific positions in our economy, greatly aiding the continuing
advancement of the United States. Capital flowed the other way,
stimulating an economic expansion which is benefitting an enormous
volume of humanity, providing opportunities for huge numbers of people
who otherwise would have had only abject poverty to look forward to.

My Dad’s point was that the recent assumption of new powers and
controls by the Federal Government into the money industry may have
a similar unintended, unanticipated outcome. It is becoming more
obvious every day that the coming election will not only sweep a
Democrat into the White House with the largest victory since the days
of FDR, but a thorough house-cleaning and senate-cleaning will also
be taking place at the same time. There is also a strong possibility that
several of the current republican-chosen Supreme court justices,
including Stevens, 88, Ginsberg, 75, Scalia, 72 and Kennedy, 72 will
retire and be replaced by nominees of the Democratic White House.
Obviously a great number of new faces will be coming to positions of
power and influence in Washington’s cabinet offices and military brass.

And while the Bush administration has opened this door, so very
late in its tenure, it will be all these new, progressive brains who have
this stunning opportunity to write the rules and regulations and
conventions about how these vast new powers are going to be
applied.

Considering the travesty and devastation that the current crop of
bankers and Wall Street executives have made of the US economy,
this becomes an incredibly appealing opportunity. I can’t wait to see
how this unfolds.