Denver fails the socialism test

November 10, 1:23 AMDenver Community Issues ExaminerRichard Taylor

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"Working People Arise" painting by Valentin A. Serov

. During the recent presidential campaign, the question was asked if Barack Obama is elected, will America become a socialist nation? This issue was discussed on the posts of examiner.com.

Now that Mr. Obama has become the president-elect, have we seen the triumph of the socialist dream?

There must be a way to measure the public's redness. I struggled with developing a methodology and then a song popped into my head. A song I learned many years ago.

In the mid-seventies, I spent a year in Europe. It was a time of labor unrest. It seemed there was a strike of some sort at least once a week. A labor union would call a strike on Tuesday, because it was Tuesday. Maybe Tuesdays thwarted the aspirations of the proletariat. When left-wing labor unions called strikes, there was always a demonstration with red banners and workers with clenched fists who always sang the same song.

The song was "The International." It was written during the Paris Commune (worker revolt) of 1871 and became the anthem of the socialist movement. It was the anthem of the Soviet Union from the October Revolution of 1917 until it was replaced during World War II. It's a catchy piece of music, stirring as anthems should be, and the lyrics, which I never mastered, contains every left-wing cliche. Every good socialist, communist, anarchist and fellow traveler in Europe can sing:

                                                              "Away with all your superstitions
                                                               Servile masses arise, arise
                                                               We'll change henceforth the old tradition
                                                               And spurn the dust to win the prize."

So I had my methodology. If I could get a large number of the wretched of the earth suffering from the unjust ordering of society to sing "The International" on the streets of Denver, it would be proof that America has finally rejected the primacy of capital over labor. On the crowded 16th Street Mall at 5:00pm on Friday as workers finishing their 8 hours of exploitation at the hands of capitalists believing in the supremacy of the profit motive began to hit the street, I began to whistle "The International." Would I inspire the masses in song to welcome the dictatorship of the proletariat?

I whistled as loud as I could, but nobody paid attention. Denverites learned long ago to ignore eccentric behavior on the 16th Street Mall. Next, I went to the light rail station at 16th and Stout where comrades repudiate bourgeois decadence by happily taking the people's transportation and rejecting automobiles built by downtrodden workers who do not own the means of production. Again, in a loud whistle, I waited for the masses to cast off their chains and join in my song. It didn't happen. None of the hundreds waiting for the train seemed to recognize the song and one woman was annoyed that I was whistling too close to her ear.

Undaunted, I tried one more time. On Saturday night, the 16th Street Mall was crowded despite the chilly fall air. I began to whistle again much to the chagrin of my date who thought it rude that I disengaged from our conversation. Karl Marx said, "To each according to his needs," and I had a feeling if I did not stop whistling there would be no according of my needs that night.

So, will Denver and the rest of America become socialist? Americans will need to learn to sing "The International" first and I don't think that's going to happen.