A story was told in the USSR about how Joseph Stalin used a bird to demonstrate political control to his underlings.  It goes like this:

Stalin was meeting with two young comrades and instructing them on the use of power.  For this, he had three birds brought into the meeting room.  Stalin said, "Each of you take a bird.  Now imagine that the bird in your hand is the people.  How would you control them?"  Pyotr went first.  He took the bird and closed his hand so tightly around the bird that he crushed the poor thing to death.  "Too crude," said Stalin with a scowl.

Next was Ivan's turn.  Trying not to repeat Pyotr's mishap, Ivan was careful to hold his bird loosely – so loosely, in fact, that the bird wiggled out of his grasp and flew off.  Stalin frowned again.

Taking the third bird, Stalin held it and slowly and methodically pull out one feather after another until the bird was completely naked and shivering in his hand.  As Pyotr and Ivan looked upon the hapless creature, Stalin said to them, "See, the bird is now grateful for the warmth of my hand.  That is the lesson."

Is this not the approach the Democratic Party takes to the middle class?  The Democrats dare not crush it.  If they did, they themselves would starve – who else in America provides the food, the health services, the utilities, the first responders, the transportation needs, and the defense of the country but the middle class?  It isn't Ivy Leaguers.  And it sure isn't the Democratic constituency of immigrants who have been flooding in. 

Nor do the Democrats try to hold the middle class too loosely, lest it escape their grasp.  If that were to happen, the Democratic Party, as it is now constructed, would be obsolete overnight.  An independent, free-flying citizenry is a nightmare for Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the rest of their party with no exception that comes to mind.

Instead, the Democrats have taken the third way by mimicking Stalin.  Step by step, they endeavor to slowly pluck the feathers of independence from the American people.  Every Democratic policy and initiative is geared to make Americans dependent on government.  Sometimes this is done via loose requirements for welfare programs.  Other times, it's employment in a make-work government job.  Other times, Democrats, under the banner of "social justice," work to crush private initiative through high taxes and suffocating regulations. 

As events from the Obama era show, the Democrats are not adverse to using – even at times illegally – the power of government to cow Americans into, if not outright obedience, then at least silence.  This too is a form of dependency – depending on government not to harass or punish you as long as you comply with its wishes.

Yes, by all means fair and foul, the Democratic Party intends to make you and yours dependent on government.  So many citizens are stripped bare of every feather they were born with.  And sadly, these naked birds don't seem to fret.  The warmth of the government hand comforts them.  They wouldn't leave it for anything and are downright indignant to any suggestion that they try.

A cynical person might think the Democrats sat at the knee of Josef Stalin and learned well the lessons of political control.  In any event, despite of the success the Democrats have had to date, they still haven't crossed the finish line.  Why not?  It seems too many of us still have not only our feathers, but also sharp beaks and talons.