INTO DARKNESS

It's hard to keep up with all of President Trump's tweets and verbal rants. A few days ago he was blasting away at John McCain, saying the late senator destroyed the Republican dream of "repeal and replace" of Obamacare. Elsewhere, he was marking the twilight of that bane of hard-working folks all over the world: socialism.

But if he really meant to replace Obamacare, wouldn't that entail some version of healthcare augmented for low-income folks? And couldn't that government-assisted system be labeled a variety of socialism?

In fact, we may never know. Congress could never come up with the details of a replacement. We just know it was supposed to be "great" and even cheaper than Obamacare, according to Trump.

But then, the man does exaggerate from time to time.

I presume Trump's comments about socialism (recently and in the State of the Union) are meant to undercut the progressive Democratic dream of extending Medicare to all Americans, a notion promulgated by a larger and larger fraction of presidential hopefuls.

If Trump is reelected, expect that evil chunk of socialism to descend into the welcoming darkness. And that may not be all. Perhaps we will see a further erosion of bedrock socialistic practices, like the building of roads and bridges, the creation of mandatory schooling, and so forth. All the stuff governments (federal, state, and local) do for the people without a lot of input from folks (just a money-grab of income).

All of that (and more) would disappear in a truly laissez-faire economy, of the sort doted on by hardcore capitalists.

The good news for Trump, now that socialism is dropping below the horizon, nobody will expect him to act to fix the nation's crumbling infrastructure. It was supposed to be next on the list (after repeal and replace and tax breaks for the rich), but he got bogged down in the border "emergency."

Also, he seems to be waiting for the Mueller Report to define the rest of his term.

But what of socialism on a cosmic scale? Sorry to say, but truly independent citizens might also have to give up any hope of heaven. Why should God reward folks just for doing their duty to the Supreme Being?

Far as I can see, the Afterlife is a socialist boondoggle.

Perform God's work as best you can, then drift off into darkness. Stop trying to "get stuff" out of the universe! Nobody said this life would be a day at the beach.

(After Global Warming gets through with us, we'll probably have to abandon the notion that spending a day at the beach could ever be a good thing.)