Taking the Socialist Road - Take 2

A terse Press Release announcing an $85 billion "loan" to American Insurance Group (AIG) from the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve on September 16, 2008, marks an historic date in American economic history. In Hank Paulson, Socialist we get this from Slate,

"There is a term in political philosophy to describe a government takeover of a critical industry: That term is socialism. The government is telling us that capital and credit markets cannot, for several reasons, solve the current crisis on their own—only the federal government and its massive taxpayer base have the authority and the resources to solve it. That is state socialism: the philosophy preached by the founders of the Second International, by the radical wing of the American labor movement, through the formation of the Soviet Union and its satellites, and now by Henry Paulson.

Floyd Norris (NYT Chief Financial Correspondent) calls it Socialism, 21st Century Style and wonders out loud, "Can you imagine what conservatives would say if a liberal Democrat had moved to nationalize major financial companies?"

Well there is no need to imagine what the "conservatives" are saying about the Mother of All Bailouts...

Michelle Malkin is stuck in the Sarah Palin groove, and may thus be dethroned as Queen of the Pitbulls on the Right Wing anyway.

The Powerline Bloggers have a longish definition of socialism but just can't spit it out.

The Instapundit points to Fabius Maximus, who is able to spit it out:

Paulson Leads Us Across the Rubicon : The government’s solutions to our financial crisis is creeping nationalization, as becomes more obvious wth every new step. This is history in the making, a major change in America.’s economic system — biggest since the New Deal — taking place with little public debate or consideration of the long-term effects.

Welcome to our new socialist paradise! Fabius gleefully puts it too. But the interview of Bill Moyers with Morgenson and Norris of the New York Times is a real keeper.

Am still getting over the supernal irony of all this amidst growing discomfiture worldwide. Well at least China is firmly on the Capitalist Road...or is it?