“We’ll Spoon Feed You Socialism Until You’re Communists”
My wife and I visited the Reagan Library yesterday. It was a great experience reliving the events of Reagan’s life from sports announcer on WHO radio, actor playing George Gipp in the film Knute Rockne: All American (1940), and his entry in politics as the president of the Screen Actors Guild that left a bad taste in his mouth because of the way unions were being taken over by socialists and communists.
It was the Gipp character that led to one of the most famous political lines that Reagan used. Gipp is on his death bed, and Rockne is there with him. Here’s the full quotation with a short video following:
“I’ve got to go, Rock. It’s all right. I’m not afraid. Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they’ve got and win just one for the Gipper. I don’t know where I’ll be then, Rock. But I’ll know about it, and I’ll be happy.”
Reagan was not a perfect president, but compared to what we’re seeing today, it’s sad to see how far the GOP has fallen
There was one particular item that caught my attention. It was a statement by Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev:
“We’ll spoon feed you socialism until you’re Communists and don’t even know it! . . . We assist your elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of Socialism, until they suddenly awake to find they have Communism. Maybe not you, but at all events the day will come when your children and your grandchildren will surely live under communism!”
I wasn’t able to get the source for this, but it’s certainly true. Americans weren’t sold socialism; they were fed a steady diet of it in small doses. In time, they built up a tolerance for more socialism.
The majority of Americans are socialists and don’t even know it. Anybody who talks about “taking away their benefits” will be voted out of office. As NEWSWEEK put it, “We’re All Socialists Now.”
All is not lost, but the road to recovery may be a long one. The fight may be long and hard. Now is the time to commit to the battle that lies ahead.