I've seen many bloggers reference an article on the Washington Post website by Billy Wharton, editor of Socialist magazine, as definitive proof that Obama is not a socialist. These bloggers are idiots.
First, one needs to understand that "socialism" is not some set-in-stone economic system. It's a loose interpretation of many economic theories that share some similarities. Different socialist theories have been bouncing around and evolving for nearly two hundred years. Self-proclaimed socialists, to this day, argue about how their systems should be established. They agree there should be some sort of social intervention, but often oppose each other when determining the degree and methods. The article referenced above simply proves that Obama doesn't practice Mr. Wharton's brand of socialism. That's it.
Now, I'm not going to go all out here and claim that Obama is a full-blown socialist. I don't know that he's not, but I don't think there's enough proof out there to claim that he'd throw out capitalism altogether. There is no denying, though, that Obama has many socialist tendencies. These tendencies validate the "socialist" label that many have stuck to him.
Let's examine that for a second. Let's say, for instance, I had a tendency to set things on fire. Not all the time, mind you. Just once every blue moon. Let's also say I was a fireman. It would be perfectly acceptable to call me an arsonist. It doesn't matter that I put out fires for a living. My firebug tendencies would validate the arsonist label.
I also know vegetarians who eat fish, but still call themselves vegetarians. Point being, we're most often defined for what we do, not what we don't do. You don't get to change the rules just because you don't like them.
And let's face it ... socialism is a "dirty word" here in America. Calling Obama a socialist prompts about the same reaction as calling him a jackass in many contexts. If you say this to someone who likes the guy, their knee-jerk reaction is to defend him, regardless of whether or not the charge is true.
So let's ignore the jackass context and actually examine this for a bit. At a really, really high level (you could easily lecture an entire semester about socialism ... I'm keeping it simple here for the common folk), socialists believe that in a capitalist society, all business owners and boards of directors exploit the hell out of the working class and concentrate all the money and power within their ranks. They believe that capitalism does not provide equal opportunities to its citizenry. Socialists (again, I realize I'm really generalizing here) think that this inequality should be rectified through some sort of intervention. They disagree on how, but generally they believe that all of us should be on roughly the same economic footing (often with the caveat that this be based on how much you contribute to society, but there is much disagreement about how this "level of effort" be determined). They believe that our factories, tools, infrastructure, raw materials, monetary capital, etc, should not be owned by those that created or found them, but rather by the government or the workers themselves. They typically also believe that resources should be allocated equally to all citizens by the government.
Now, let's examine the man to see how he matches up:
(1) He supports a single payer health care system. Period. If you think otherwise, you're wrong. Without mixing words, he has been quoted as saying:
- "If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system"
- "I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There's going to be potentially some transition process. I can envision a decade out, or 15 years out, or 20 years out ..."
- "I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal health care coverage."
(2) Obama believes we should redistribute the wealth in this country. If you think otherwise, you're wrong. During the infamous Joe the Plumber episode, Obama plainly said "When you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody." Again, we'll take him at his word. Taking wealth away from those that have it and spreading it around to those that don't is a socialist idea. Bottom line.
(3) Obama has often associated himself with socialists and communists. This is a sticky topic, I know, because it doesn't necessarily speak directly to his beliefs. In my simplistic, common sense view of the world, however, a person typically surrounds himself with like-minded people. For instance, I'm not a racist so I don't surround myself with racist people. Do I know some? Sure. But I don't actively seek them out, surround myself with them, or look to them for advice. So that it doesn't appear I'm trying to equate being socialist with being a racist, I'll use religion as an example. I'd argue that if you were, say, a Christian, you wouldn't surround yourself with people of a polar opposite belief. You'd likely have many more Christians in your inner circle than atheists. So let's look at who he surrounds himself with:
- In his book "Dreams From My Father ...", he says "... I chose my friends carefully ... the Marxist professors" when referring to his time at Occidental College.
- In the same book, he spoke of the "socialist conferences I (he) sometimes attended at Cooper Union."
- His mother was described by her friends as being a "communist sympathizer."
- Frank Marshall Davis, an admitted member of the Communist Party USA, was an important influence on Obama when he was a teen.
- Obama's half-brother and best man, Abongo Obama, has been identified as Marxist.
- Alice Palmer (who traveled to the Soviet Union to attend the 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) personally picked Obama to succeed her in the Illinois Senate.
- Obama was endorsed by the Communist Party USA for President.
- Obama endorsed self-described socialist Bernie Sanders for U.S. Senate.
- Obama's former church in Chicago, Trinity United Church of Christ, preaches black liberation theology, which encourages using Marxism to combat poverty.
- Obama often worked with the Democratic Socialists in Chicago and was endorsed by them.
- The band (The Decemberists) that Obama chose to open his Oregon rally is named after a communist revolution and often opens shows by playing the Soviet National Anthem.
- Obama has close ties to Bill Ayers (co-founder of Weather Underground, a communist revolutionary group and terrorist organization).
- After being elected President, Obama appointed Van Jones, a self-described communist, as his special adviser on green jobs, enterprise, and innovation.
(4) I won't go deep into all of the bank bailouts and such here because, in many cases, Obama is supposedly handing out loans to these companies and expecting repayment. Some have paid the money back, some never will. In many cases, the government is trying to control these companies (salaries, etc) even though, technically, it has no controlling interest. Regardless, from a purely socialist standpoint, the most glaring example is the 60% ownership the US Treasury has in General Motors. In other word, our government now owns one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world. This is an example of socialism.
So bottom line, whether you prefer to call Obama a socialist, or socialist-like, or socialist-lite, there's no denying that he has socialist leanings. There's no denying that he's a socialist. If you don't agree, you're wrong, you have no common sense, and you're a mouth breathing idiot. If you don't agree, your entire argument hinges on completely ignoring what the man himself has told us, which is just stupid. No one is going to advocate complete government control of businesses and complete redistribution of wealth overnight. This will occur over a long period of time, by slowly taking over "troubled" businesses. By implementing a single payer health care program. By taxing and penalizing wealthy Americans and spending the money on programs that benefit the poor. Obama has been doing and advocating these very things since he took office. He is taking this country in a terrifying direction and we need to put the brakes on in the 2010 midterms.
As a segue into things to come, I'll leave you with this great quote. If this doesn't wake you up and sound the alarms, nothing will.
