CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, March 23, 2015

Metrics and America

W. Edwards Deming (1900-1960), the dean of American management consultants, used to teach, "You can’t manage what you can’t measure." Professor Deming’s lectures to Japanese industrialists set off the Japanese economic miracle of 1950-1960, causing Japan to produce high-quality cars that almost sank Detroit’s automobile industry.

For measurement, it is necessary to have goals. Some readers may have seen the "nine rules for radicals" floating around the Internet which are attributed, inaccurately, to Saul Alinsky (1909-1972). But, over the years, Alinsky’s thoughts have been transmogrified (to change or alter greatly often with grotesque effect) by radicals such as Bill Ayers and others into rules which someone wanting to fundamentally transform America into a Marxist-socialist society might find useful. We report. You measure and decide if any of these goals apply to today’s America.

1.Control healthcare. That gives you control over the people. From "A" through "F," which letter grade would you assign ObamaCare? Please do the same for the remaining eight "goals."

2. Increase the poverty level as much as possible. Poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you distract them, as did the Romans, with bread and circuses.

3. Increase government debt to an unsustainable level. That way you are able to increase taxes just to pay the Interest, and this will produce more poverty and more dependence on big government.

4. Impose gun control. Remove the ability of people to defend themselves from big government. That way you are able to create a police state and maybe even declare Martial Law.

5. By executive action, take control of every aspect of food, housing, income, and the environment. Self-explanatory.

6. Use some kind of one-size-fits-all common-core curriculum to take nation-wide control of what children learn in school. In the process, make sure to denigrate American achievements and emphasize American failures.

7. Remove religion from the public square. And, if possible, from private homes as well. Karl Marx said, "Religion is the opium of the people." So, if Marx is correct, should we be legalizing any green leafy products that act like opiates?

8. Promote class warfare. Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor. This will cause more discontent and make it easier to tax the "haves" and give what they have earned to the "have-nots."

9. Seize control over the Internet. Self-explanatory.

Please check your scores. Are we advancing toward the goal of a Marxist /socialist state? Or, as radicals might say: Are we still stuck in the free-market capitalism of those dead, white guys of 1776?

Finally, here is Alinsky’s actual 11th Rule which those who oppose ObamaCare need to heed: "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. You cannot risk being trapped by the enemy in his sudden agreement with your demand and saying ’You’re right — we don’t know what to do about this issue. Now you tell us.’"

Recent polls suggest the need for a bi-partisan effort to fix the "glitches" in the Democrat-only-passed ObamaCare legislation which few, if any, bothered to read before enactment. The legislation’s co-creator, Professor Jonathan Gruber, says ObamaCare was designed to fool the stupid American voters. As Alinsky advised: Someone needs to propose a constructive alternative.

Nationally syndicated columnist, William Hamilton, is a laureate of the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Oklahoma University Army ROTC Wall of Fame. He was educated at the University of Oklahoma, the George Washington University, the U.S Naval War College, the University of Nebraska, and Harvard University.

©2015. William Hamilton.

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