WHO REALLY WON THE COLD WAR?

I was a child in the 1970's and 80's, and as such, was taught about the horrors of socialism and communism.  I remember seeing the news reports of bread lines and depravation in the USSR and we were taught that the Cold War was being waged to keep such atrocities from our own shores. 

One of the catch-phrases of my youth was 'Better dead than red'.  If someone said they were a socialist or communist, they were shunned as anti-American.  And rightly so, in my opinion, because socialism and communism are the polar opposites of what America stands for.  When I was a child, they stood for depravation, oppression and despair.

It is amazing the difference 20 years and a new generation makes.  Nowadays, our children are being taught that communism is a good thing.  They are being taught that it's all about the community and utopian society - it is a kinder, gentler communism these days.  The Cold War is not taught.  The depravations are not taught.  Our children don't hear about the millions who risked and often lost their lives to escape the iron fist.

The heroes of today's college students are Che Guevara, a cold-blooded killer, and Chairman Mao, a man who slaughtered literally millions of his own countrymen.   Slaughter in the name of 'social justice' is apparently okay these days.  Not to mention Che is now celebrated as a 'freedom fighter', which is ironic in the extreme, since Cubans have been fleeing his brand of  'freedom' for decades.

They talk about the 'fairness' of socialism - and even communism - everyone is equal, financially and materially.  If you can't do for yourself, others will do for you.  The 'what's yours is mine' theory of governance.  Capitalism, on the other hand, is the evil machine of greedy corporations. out to enslave us all.  Personally, I'll take capitalist slavery over socialist any day - at least there are flatscreen tvs, luxury items galore and all the food you can buy under capitalism....

But, as my generation knows, the reality of socialism and communism is far from fair.  You can already see the pattern emerging in our own country - the ranks of the poor are swelling, as are the ranks of the rich ruling class.  The middle class is being taxed into extinction; those taxes benefit the political elites, who then allow a small amount to trickle down to the peons in the welfare class in order to buy votes, keeping the powerful elites in office. 

A quick study of the former Soviet Union shows that the masses were at the mercy of the political elites, relying on them to dole out, at their discretion, such basic necessities as bread and even toilet paper.  The elites, on the other hand, were obscenely rich, wanted for nothing, waited in no lines, and answered to no one.  It was a case study in mass victimization, and it is headed our way.

It is no longer 'creeping socialism' - it is full steam ahead for the socialists in power today.  They have taken over our banks, private companies, car companies, media, transportation - we can't even get a college loan for our kids without going through the government.  Don't even get me started on health care - they will be regulating the food we are allowed to eat, how much we are allowed to weigh, the treatments we will be allowed to receive, and they will even come into our homes and tell us how to raise our children.

We must begin to educate our children to the horrors of socialism and communism while we can.  Our schools refuse to do it, and so we must take it upon ourselves.  The indoctrination of our youth is not just in what they are being taught, it's what they are NOT being taught, too.  I'm not just talking about the horrors of socialism/communism, but the wonders of America, the things that make this country great - our history, our exceptionalism are not being taught either, and should be.  Civic pride is not a sin.

It's a shame we won the Cold War, because in winning, we really lost.

WHO REALLY WON THE COLD WAR?