Jay R. Thomas

Conservatives Win Big in New Zealand

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New Zealand Conservatives Make Big Gains 

          With the victory of New Zealand’s center-right National Party earlier this week, conservatives have scored yet another major win in national elections worldwide.  Led by incumbent Prime Minister John Key, the conservatives posted their best showing in 60 years by garnering 48% of the vote.  On the other hand, ‘the biggest loser’ was the Labour Party, which lost significant ground, capturing only 27% of the vote.  This will be the second three year term as Prime Minister for the affable Key who has made improving relations with the United States one of his top priorities. 

Familiar Issues Dominated Election Campaigns 

          While New Zealand has not gone unscathed by the global economic crisis, the impact has been less severe than for some other players on the world stage.  How each of the major parties in New Zealand proposed to deal with this problem could not have been more disparate, mirroring the way conservatives and liberals in the United States are lining up ahead of the 2012 Presidential Elections.  In New Zealand the liberal Labour Party wanted to increase taxes, while the conservative National Party wanted to pay down debt and explore off shore oil drilling.  Sound familiar?  

Adding to Conservative Victories Around the Globe

          In what has been described as a large turnout and a landslide election, New Zealanders chose the practical policies of the National Party in a big way.  Their stunning victory marks yet another gain for conservatives around the globe.  It seems that the socialist gruel offered up by the liberal parties in Europe and elsewhere has been politely declined in favor of the time tested policies of the conservatives.  The recent conservative victories in Sweden and Spain attest to the strength of this movement and it looks like the United States may be positioning itself for the next big upset.

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Is Europe’s Dalliance With Socialism Over?

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Conservatives Win by a Landslide in Spain 

          On Sunday, Spain joined a growing list of European countries that have tossed out their socialist governments in favor of the conservative party.  The landslide victory of the center-right Partido Popular in Spain confirmed what many believe is a trend that will ultimately see the end of socialism on the continent.  Bogged down by 21.5% unemployment under the ruling socialist party, the citizens of Spain apparently had had enough!  With conservative governments now in place in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and even Sweden, many observers believe that Europe’s dalliance (see WOW) with socialism may be at an end.

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Private Property in Cuba?

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A Failed Political System

          As the last bastion of communism in the western hemisphere and one of the few remaining communist nations in the world, Cuba has just abandoned one of this failed political system’s primary tenets.  At the very core of communism, as Marx and Engels originally described it, was the prohibition of private property.  The administration of President Raul Castro announced in Havana on Thursday that beginning November 10, citizens of Cuba will be allowed to buy and sell real estate property.  The news was met with jubilation by Cubans who just last month were granted the right to buy and sell automobiles.

The Mentality of Inertia

          Raul Castro, who took the reins from his ailing older brother Fidel in 2008, has acknowledged that the system of government in Cuba is not working.  In recent decades the country has been sliding into economic decline, just as its former benefactor, the Soviet Union, did more than 20 years ago.  There is something about communism that stifles productivity and dampens the will to work.  And when workers don’t work and producers don’t produce, the economy doesn’t grow.  In response, the somewhat more pragmatic new leaders in Havana have recently taken to exhorting the citizens of Cuba to ‘break the mentality of inertia’.  Fortunately, they are also instituting some tangible (see WOW) reforms.

A Long Way to Go

          In the Ten Planks of his 1848 Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx put the ‘abolition of private property’ in the number one spot, making the latest announcement from Havana all the more remarkable.  Despite the significant reforms under his tenure, the younger Castro insists that Cuba will remain a socialist state.  Marxist theory contends that socialism is a transitional stage on the road to communism.  It is a wonderful thing, then, to see Cuba now going in the reverse direction, which would make socialism just a transitional stage on the road to capitalism for the long suffering Cuban people.

 

                 

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Libya at the Crossroads

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Which Path Will They Choose? 

          Raising concern in Western quarters, Libya’s interim leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil has declared that ‘Islamic Sharia law would be the basic source of legislation’ in the new Libya.  As the National Transitional Council begins to form a new government from the ashes of the Qaddafi dictatorship, it remains to be seen whether Libyans will truly embrace an economic system and a democratic society that promote equality and freedom, in particular, freedom from fear of barbaric punishments like limb amputation and stoning of women.  Replacing one form of terror with another would undermine any advances made thus far by the ‘freedom fighters’ in Libya. 

Seize the Moment 

          We applaud those Libyans who’ve made great sacrifices in their own personal lives to depose a tyrannical dictator and we encourage them to continue their struggle to throw off oppression and reject radical leaders who will now try to steer them off course.  With a rich culture, an educated population and a country blessed with natural resources, Libya is in a good position to set a shining example for other oppressed people throughout the Arab World.  By establishing a free, secular, democratic republic they would not only build a better life for themselves, but might also encourage their neighbors to follow suit.  Let us not forget that Tunisia to the west and Egypt to the east are now at the same busy crossroads. 

The Road Less Traveled 

          The choice, then, is clear for the Libyan people.  They can either join the world of freedom loving people or return to the tyranny of the dark ages.  Unfortunately, either course will require more sacrifice and more suffering.  Returning to the dark ages will insure that the suffering is indefinite.  Taking the path toward freedom will offer a better life for future generations well into the 21st Century.  Our hopes and prayers are with the majority of Libyan people who, just like the rest of us, want only to live in peace, practice their faith, raise their families and pursue happiness.  So, keep your eyes on the prize and choose your leaders carefully!

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