Playing by the Rules

By John Summer

The World According to Baseball Cards

When I was a kid in the 1950s, we all collected baseball cards. This was before we even had a major league team here in California. You would buy a Topps bubble gum pack that contained some cards… throw away the crummy cardboard gum… and hope you would get a Mickey Mantle, a Ted Williams, or a Pee Wee Reese.

But you would usually get a Gus Triandos, Vic Wertz, or an Alvin Dark.

Not that there’s anything wrong with those guys. They were big leaguers and good players. But they didn’t make the coolness grade with us kids, so it might end up being clothes-pinned to our Schwinn bicycle-wheel spokes to sound like a motorcycle.

In any case, we would trade those cards back and forth trying to make a deal that would complete a team or a run of particular players or … just for the sake of doing it.

We were doing commerce. Or free trade. Or …. Capitalism.

We just called it “making a deal.” It was fun. It was natural.

And you would make your deal based on what was fair both ways. If you were an honest kid, you didn’t want to screw another kid who maybe didn’t know what he or she had. You would try to be fair…. And make sure everyone was happy with “the deal.”

That’s the way we did it.

Otherwise, you would become known as a “cheater.” And nobody wanted to be known as a cheater. You would lose all your friends. You would be a pariah, even though we didn’t know what that word meant. Just a cheater.

So, we had our own means of managing our relationships. Do good… and good comes to you. Kind of like the Golden Rule: “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.”

Basic Judeo-Christian principle stuff. You didn’t have to be told what was fair.

We just knew it.

Staying Busy Minding Our Own Businesses

We didn’t ask for anything special. We lived our lives and went about our business and did deals. Back and forth. I’ll trade you my jack-knife for your Revell battleship model. And in the case of girls, perhaps a Chatty Kathy for a Hula Hoop.

Doing deals. Creating relationships. Learning about what it takes to move forward and figure out how life works as we grew to maturity and beyond.

We had paper routes; we sold greeting cards and Girl Scout Cookies and Boy’s Life magazines.

We learned through doing. And doing it on our own… or we would ask someone to help us.

We relied on each other.

No government to depend upon except to protect us from the enemy outside. Back then it was the communists. And our government secured our freedom from communism so that we could do our thing without having to worry about someone else taking it away.

That’s it.

How We Got Here

So, what the hell is going on these days in California and beyond? Where did we go wrong? How did we get this movement to promote the government taking care of all our needs and this DSA socialism crap that is really communism in socialist’s clothing?

The communism we fought against when I was a kid.

Well, I have my own ideas. I think it really began with a guy named Lyndon Johnson. He was President after John F. Kennedy was assassinated for being “consequential.” Kennedy asked what you could “do for your country,” not vice versa.

President Kennedy fought against segregation and the mob and…. communism. If you know your history, then you know that he prevented the Russians from planting missiles in nearby communist Cuba, run by its evil new dictator, Fidel Castro. And look how great that “wonderful” country has done since then. They all want to defect to America. And if they fail, they’ll be jailed or shot. Great country. Like Iran.

But then along came Johnson. I won’t get into all the various theories on who was behind President Kennedy’s assassination…. I’ve studied them all. I interviewed Warren Commission member and future President, Gerald Ford. He had his theory. I have my own thoughts. But….

So, here’s Johnson. And what this guy does is create something called “The Great Society” and “The War on Poverty.”

“Promote” versus “Provide

What the “war on poverty” was … and is… was the beginning of the modern era of socialism in America, following FDR’s rampant government-run social programs. FDR’s were well-intended, perhaps, but nevertheless a huge leap in the destruction of self-determination. But we were stuck with it. Social Security. Food stamps. Minimum wage. But at least there were work requirements for much of it.

Then Johnson, a shrewd Southern Democrat, took it to a new level by putting it on addictive steroids. He reportedly said (in private) that if you gave the (racist name) just enough to make them happy…. then they will vote Democrat for a hundred years. I’m paraphrasing here… but that was the intent. And what followed was, and is, the current social welfare system that has damaged generations of minorities ever since.

It wasn’t about compassion. It was about enslaving people once again. This time to the government and capturing their votes.

Government dependence. Not independence. The “country doing for you.”

The loss of what it meant to be a fulfilled person.

The Preamble to the Constitution specifically says “promote” the general welfare. Not “provide” it.

But here we are.

Now what?

Well, first we must teach people what communism is (I don’t grace the term with a capital letter). And what socialism is. They’re both the same ugly thing. “We’ll take care of you.” “Free stuff.” “Fairness.”

But all the free stuff comes with a price. Your self-respect.

The Making of a Great Deal

Unfortunately, the teaching part is where we’ve failed our younger generation. In fact, what they are being taught in our esteemed universities and social media these days is just the opposite. Our “esteemed” universities are now the repositories for communists and the very source of the pollution invading our young people’s minds.

And what they do… is destroy what it means to be human. At least the way God planned it.

Government is their God.

But back to the issue of commerce. Free trade. Capitalism.

I have a deal for you.

Let’s start by getting rid of some of the useless playing cards that perpetuate the failed government-influenced socialism/communism these days in California and beyond.

I’ll trade you a thousand inept Xavier Becerras for one Steve Hilton. And I’ll throw in another thousand corrupt Rob Bontas for one Michael Gates… Oh, and a million bungling Salud Carbajals for one Bob Smith.

The rest go into my bicycle spokes.

Then vote them all out in November.

Reclaim California’s Golden Era of self-determination, pioneer spirit, and robust creativity that once was the envy of the world.

Now that’s a great “deal.”

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