Act I in the Theater of the Grand Inquisition of Socialism

"Torquemada" Pelosi Fans Flames of Class Warfare

One might expect to hear Madame Congresswoman Pelosi screaming, "Repent!  Repent your capitalism and accept socialism as your savior!"  Her dogmatic passion for the big government solutions embedded in the Paulson plan and her flaming rhetoric set up the quickening of the financial crisis through the failure of the vote yesterday.  In the rush to speed track a plan that Republicans and economists were suggesting had serious flaws, all doors of opportunity for competing ideas was shut off and opponents of the weak loan guarantee and securities purchase scheme were branded by Pelosi as "unpatriotic" heretics.

I believe the message Americans were sending to their elected representatives was as follows:

'Give us back our meritocracy.  Bailouts, rescue plans, guarantees, for which we all pay, but to which we did not all contribute, are not in the long-term interest of our economy and our nation.  The foundation of our country is the idea that each person, each entity, must evolve to succeed by experiencing the consequences of failure and the rewards of success.  Let us have our way of life back.'

I will wait and see how this epic battle between the capitalist ideas of Smith and Mill and socialism concludes.  I will pray for the preservation of a system that protects the opportunities and rights of individuals to economic choice, even if it means that we have to endure a period of hardship in the road back to equilibrium.