I had to put an administrator verification in because while we welcome any and all right-wing thought, we just have certain standards for what should be said.
So if you think that the comparison of the American left in 2011 is suitably described as 'Marxist' or 'Stalinist', then you're just wearing a shirt that says "I'm with stupid", and an arrow that points up.
Karl Marx had a theory of economic revolution that had some descriptive utility but little prescriptive or economic utility. You will find that there is not a single Marxist on this forum.
Josef Stalin was a mass murderer who killed the middle-class property owners in order to gain favor with the lower classes hatred of 'the boss'. Since the American left is not mass-murdering small businessmen, the comparison to Stalin is well...really fucking stupid. Any comparison to anyone here, or the average wider American leftist is just a signal to the rest of us that you are more or less illiterate and have no comprehension of the history you're appealing to.
This sort of behavior is simian signalling behavior, it works on Free Republic because there is status to be gained by proving which cohort you belong in, proving that you are part of the crew, that you belong. As far as I am concerned it is the intellectual equivalent of Insane Clown Posse lyrics. So unless you can demonstrate that you learned to wipe your own ass, you have no place here.
And the dumber among you will probably think that I hate people from the right in general. Not so, only the idiots. I have been to the Free Republic, I used to have an account there and I spoke to a number of people who had some actually interesting and worthwhile things to say.
So, if you speak in this ghetto trash speak that serves no purpose other than to prove you are 'from the block' so to speak, then you are NOT my intellectual equal, and I will NOT treat you as such.
The rest of you, if you can put two sentences together about economic theory and can make a coherent argument as to what you believe the proper role of the state to be, then I am happy that you are here. I started out thinking the role of government should be small, and have recently come back around to that conclusion. Anyone of sound mind and noble conscience who thinks they have something of value to add to that discussion and has some ideas worth pursuing I would love to hear it.
Meanwhile, if you're interested in my views, I have recently been crafting what I call, "Libertarian Progressivism", the basic concept is that as citizens of this nation we have a responsibility to one another, but it need not be government coercion that provides services. The argument about the 'invisible hand of the market' solving this is ludicrous. My goal is to see those problems solved by proactive solutions coming from the private non-profit sector rather than covered by the government or left to hang waiting for the for-profit sector to solve our needs.