I Want Your Money

Two versions of the American dream now stand in sharp contrast. One views the money you earned as yours and best allocated by you. It champions the traditional American dream, which has played out millions of times through generations of Americans, of improving one’s lot in life and the entrepreneurial spirit of daring to dream and to build big. The other believes that the federal government, using taxpayers’ money, should play a major role in leveling out the nation’s wealth to guarantee outcomes to all, regardless of effort. How America chooses between these two views of the role of government, at this crucial juncture, will have everything to do with the future we and our children and our children’s children will enjoy.

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Agenda: Grinding America Down

Agenda: Grinding America Down, a documentary by Curtis Bowers, Black Hat Films 2010, 93 minutes, $18.

 When Curtis Bowers snuck into a meeting of committed Communists at the University of California, Berkeley in 1992, he left thinking that their elaborate plans to destroy America from within weren’t very realistic.

 Fifteen years later, newly appointed Idaho state legislator Bowers recalled that experience and realized how drastically American culture had changed since then. He was astonished at how closely those changes aligned with the goals laid out in that 1992 meeting.

 Those goals included infiltrating the media, education, and even churches with Communist propaganda. Attendees also described how they would use the then-inconsequential environmental movement to burden businesses with red tape and regulations.

 Bowers started a firestorm in his district when he wrote to the editor of his local newspaper about his observations. The story was featured in the news, people protested at the capitol, and the newspaper printed more than 40 responses to his letter. Those strong reactions led Bowers to spend the next two years reading hundreds of books, articles and speeches about Communist plans.

Agenda is the culmination of that research. Viewers learn that 1.5 billion people live in openly Communist countries today. Communists are still quite active in the United States, too, though most have dropped that unpopular label.

 The documentary explains the origins of Communism, and its relationship to Socialism. It also names the many modern “progressive” groups spawned by the Communist Party USA. The film notes that 20% of Congressional members are part of the ideologically sympathetic Congressional Progressive Caucus.

 Bowers decided to call the film Agenda because he wanted to differentiate his research findings from conspiracy theories. The difference, he says, is that the people and organizations he highlights have outlined their plans in readily accessible books, speeches and articles, and have executed most of their plans right out in the open. For example, Summit Ministries founder David Noebel invites viewers to read Marxist William Z. Foster’s book, Toward Soviet America. If they do, they will find that public schools have implemented nearly every item Foster wanted.

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