Way back in November, 2002 I wrote an essay on progressive taxation and Communism. Over a year late, and several dollars short, a Brit named Neil tries to make the case that America is "a million miles" from Communism. Neil's argument centers around three premises: democracy would have to be abolished; there would have to be an end to free speech; and private enterprise would have to go.

While he is right that we may be quite a ways off from Communism, I cannot help but notice that we seem to be inching in that direction. Lets just take a look at some of the pillars of Communism and see how we're doing.

These are not steadfast rules, but some of the basic pillars of Communism include: the denial of religion or the existence of God; denial of property rights; denial of firearms rights; denial of freedom of speech; denial of free enterprise and commercialism; elimination of the upper class.

Denial of religion or the existence of God - Religion has been under attack in this country for years, from suing to remove the words "under God" from our Pledge of Allegiance, to the denial of displaying religious symbols in public. In a society where Christmas parties have become "Holiday Events", it's hard to deny that freedom of religion isn't slowly being eroded away. Lately, freedom of religion has become freedom from religion.

Denial of property rights - Eminent domain abuses are definitely on the rise. Local governments have been increasingly citing eminent domain to seize private property from homeowners. Eminent domain is supposed to be reserved to necessary public works like roads or schools, but it has been expanded to include anything that might increase tax revenues. If the government can get more tax money from building a Wal-Mart built on your property than from your measly property taxes, your home could be in jeopardy.

Denial of firearms rights - Do I really need to mention anything here. Actually Second Amendment proponents have had a lot of victories lately, but gun rights are always under fire. Senator Feinstein openly admits that if the votes were there for an outright ban, she would push for one.

Denial of freedom of speech - Need I mention McCain-Feingold? Recently the Supreme Court of the U.S. ruled that Congress could make a law abridging the freedom of speech, despite the fact that the First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law..". Specifically, they said that political issue ads are banned 60 days prior to an election. If banning political speech isn't the nullification of the First Amendment, I don't know what is.

Denial of free enterprise and commercialism - With all the advertising and stadium naming rights, commercialism seems to be doing just fine. However, there are still persistent attacks and demonization of corporate America. Plus, just about every cash strapped governor and every single democrat presidential candidate wants to raise corporate income tax (as if corporations actually paid taxes).

Elimination of the upper class - There are movements in today's society to get rid of socio-economic classes. Success is not just penalized, it's demonized. Not only do high income earners face 40% progressive taxation rates, but then they are accused of not paying "their fair share." When it comes to raising or cutting taxes, upper income earners are said to not "need" the money. (Progressive taxation: From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.) Indeed, each one of our democrat presidential candidates wants to raise taxes on upper income earners and distribute the money to the "less fortunate".

This is by no means comprehensive. I'm sure there are plenty of other tenets which I have failed to mention (like free elections). When you talk to the wacko left, they think that we lost free elections in 2000. When you look at the systematic removal of the majority of voters from the tax rolls, staying in power becomes much easier. You need not dismantle free elections, rather just control more than 50% of the vote. Progressive taxation is but a useful tool for useful fools.

Is America becoming a Communist state? I certainly don't think so. But in some respects, we do appear to be inching in that direction.