What Is America?

With President Obama's massive $1.5 trillion health care plan hogging up the news cycle, the Republicans and everyone else are asking: "Is this a socialist bill?"

The answer to that one is easy: Yes, it is.

Raping the pocketbooks of the rich to give to the poor? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's socialism. The tougher question is this: What is America?

Here's the One Thing: America is in a transition period — only no one knows what we are transitioning into.

Are we capitalist? Are we socialist? Are we communist? Are we an oligarchy?

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I think it's pretty safe to say we are not a capitalist country anymore. I believe we have un-pegged from capitalism.

Capitalism, by definition, is "an economic system based on a free market, open competition, profit-motive and private ownership of the means of production." The "abandoning the free market system in order to save it" comes to mind.

Are we socialist? Socialism is "any various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy."

Just the definition alone of socialism should tell you it won't work and it should also tell you that we are definitely closer to socialism than capitalism.

Bailouts to "control" the recession; printing money to "control" our debt; government health care to "control" the high cost of health care; cap-and-trade to "control" the amount of CO2 we put into the air — that's pretty far from capitalism, but I don't' think socialism is quite right either.

Communism: Marxist theory is that no country can truly be communist if they weren't first truly capitalist. If they are capitalist first then some people get rich and others can pit the rest against the evil rich people. Good thing no one here in America resents those evil rich people. No "millionaire taxes" happening here!

But don't panic — yet. Communism also is based on "the holding of all property in common. Actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state." We aren't quite there — although, we are on the slippery slope. I mean the United States government owns almost 56 percent of every home mortgage in America (through Fannie and Freddie) and Barack Obama will be there for you if you default.

Here's one that will impress your geeky political friends: oligarchy. That's a form of government in which all power is vested in a few people or in a dominant class or clique. That would never happen to us: Bush, Clinton, Bush, Hillary Clinton.

Last up: fascism — "a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc. and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism."

We'd never silence the voices of dissent — like with the Fairness Doctrine — that would never happen. And the people who've taken bailout cash — I'm sure they are completely impartial now.

We are heading down a dangerous path and not just because we are essentially changing our system of government. It's because we have no idea what we are changing to.

There's no transparency, no matter how many times Barack Obama says it. We don't know what they are doing.

— Watch "Glenn Beck" weekdays at 5 p.m. ET on FOX News Channel