I have been trying to figure out just what part of the Obama agenda is the socialist part….I have written many times trying to explain to my readers why Obama is NOT a socialist and why the US is NOT moving to socialism…..I have been asking for someone, anyone to explain the accusation to me for the point is missed the target with me….well my wait has been long but now it is over…I received an email from a guy (I think it is a guy) that gave me my much sought after reason/s…..
This below are the points that according to American conservatives are the reasons that Obama and his policies are socialistic:
- The United States is institutionally a nation of oppression.
- Leftist Liberal politicians are needed to “correct” the United States. The United States must also be controlled by the United Nations.
- All post-9/11/2001 national security measures taken by the U.S. government while Bush was President were disguised attacks on our liberties.
- Virtually all American foreign military actions are immoral and thinly disguised attempts at imperialistic world domination.
- We must have mass immigration made easy and totally open borders. Illegal aliens must also be given social welfare benefits.
- We need a vast expansion of social welfare programs–which will be paid for by ever-increasing taxes, especially on “the rich” who all earn “too much” and pay “too little” but which won’t be limited to just them.
- Terrorists who hate the United States and those who aid and abet them must be given equal legal rights as if they are U.S. citizens.
- The U.S. needs to drastically reduce its military spending and probably shrink its military.
- The death penalty is absolutely never justified and must be abolished
- The U.S. needs government-controlled socialized medicine under which all adults will be forced to buy health insurance.
- We need radical environmentalism, the agenda of which is “not clean air and clean water, [but] rather…the demolition of technological/industrial civilization,” as Michael Berliner explains.
- We must always give preferences in education and business to all people who are not white males regardless of any proven performance or probable ability.
- Homosexual cohabitation and “marriage” are exactly the same thing.
- Taxpayers must be forced to pay for abortions, even if they are personally opposed to abortions or don’t believe in the type of abortion they are paying for such as partial-birth.
- We must have strict citizen gun-control laws. The 2nd Amendment referred only to militias (National Guardsmen), not private citizens.
There they are and I would like to discuss these with anyone that agrees with the list….personally, I do not see any thing that is at all accurate….and before I am called an Obama apologist I would like to point to the fact that I have criticized Obama heavily on many issues….if in doubt just go to my search and find out for yourself….
I would like to put this whole tap dance about socialism to bed…..we do not need a new RED SCARE….we have been there and done that….it is time for us to move on and find REAL solutions for REAL problems……
To Be Continued……..Next Post Will Be “A Dyslexic Socialist!?!”
I am afraid that I’m ambivalent about this whole subject…
I do most definitely believe (in theory at least) in a degree of social welfare (or some sort of TEMPORARY safety net for people) and yet the problem (as we know to our cost in the UK) is that, not only are what one might regard as normal “decent social behaviour” for governments the thin end of a VERY LONG AND FAT wedge as soon as they are applied by a less than right wing government, but the fact is that ANY administration that leans even slightly towards Socialism will automatically have a love of my pet hate, bureaucracy. Additionally, such administrations are also naturally hell bent on the people becoming as dependent on the State as possible – that’s largely because for some strange reason they really do believe they can “do it better” and they “know what’s best” for the population … like fuck they do!
Socialism IS insidious. It creeps up on us all and the more the State does, the more the people expect and the more they become dependent – and the more they become dependent, the more they expect… and so on and on. As a result, EVERY item on the list above amounts to an ultimate direction a Socialist government will take when it becomes more extreme and a State dependent populace will ALWAYS vote for a more and more left wing administration unless something happens to shock them at exactly the right moment into doing otherwise – there is even a realistic chance that Gordon Fucking Bully-Brown will be returned in May!!!!! How STUPID of the Brits is THAT? Useless JERK! But I digress – whilst I’m sure that Obama is NOT what I would call a socialist, he does (out of decency) believe that a kinder, fairer State is possible – in my experience, it simply ISN’T – not as people and governments are today.
I wish that were not so, but fanciful though those Conservative fears may be at the moment, they ARE very real fears and most are the likely ultimate result of “Socialist leanings” in any administration – it is almost an inevitable progression over time.
Incidentally, one of the scariest aspects of this is that, once started, it is VERY difficult to reverse Socialist trends because the people become steadily more afraid to lose the “safety net” of the State.
I want to be an individual. I don’t want the State to look after me – even if I have to die to avoid it – but to be done well, that really requires that the State would, over the period of my lifetime, have stolen less of my hard earned money to pay for other people’s failures and inadequacies – MUCH less!
In my view, more than the temporary safety net I mentioned at the beginning is BAD for a country and BAD for the human race as a whole – in the long run. Strangely, the one exception to that belief as far as I’m concerned is … healthcare … a good and “free at the point of delivery” version of which is I believe essential for a country, its prosperity, society as a whole and, of course, the people themselves.
I see where you are coming from….but in the case of Obama, while a liberal and a sometimes Progressive, his agenda is NO secret socialistic movement…..Hell the consers are just as guilty of building this massive bureaucracy….the problem I have is that will all the yelling about socialism and they are all for corporate communism……see below:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33224880/ns/msnbc_tv-the_dylan_ratigan_show/
This guy has a point….but yet NO one wants to admit that the conservs are doing this and by conservs I am talking about the Obama group also………BTW I like this Ratigan guy…one of the few pundits on the tube that make his guest answer real questions with real answer…he does not let them use talking points to answer….I give him thumbs up…
Yes, I agree with all of that and you are in my opinion quite right – especially about the corporate communism thing.
However, where I DO think the right wing have a serious and valid concern is my point about state sponsored “social responsibility” – it IS the very thin end of a very long and fat wedge. To put it another way… I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “give ’em and inch and they’ll take a mile” – well that’s people for you and they won’t just take a mile they’ll DEMAND a mile next time and two miles the following time – it’s just the way humans are – especially stupid, lazy, selfish and greedy ones and there seem to be a lot of those around these days.
I have NO problem with “social responsibility”–but it must apply to all things–if applies to one then all–like the banks–they have a responsibility to keep the economy strong and running properly–and like the “lazy” ones, at the first sign of trouble they run to the government for help but yet does not want any restrictions placed on them….that is a BIG problem for me…..
I was in America up to 2009.
I saw some people talk to other people, and get the idea that Obama is a socialist.
From what I gathered, just by listening, was that a lot of people talk and basically the way they think is easily boxed in, and controlled , as if guided by stereotypes, etc.
essentially a lot of people do not know
how to discuss,
how to think properly.
how to consider other people’s perspective, instead of just denying it, and repeating their perspective
They think they know how to discuss, but when you see them talking
their emotions are high,
they think by judging others
and a host of other problems
so I would not take some people’s supposed discussions as serious.
This idea of Obama being a socialist has been thrown around, and people with not so intelligent minds may just go along with it. 🙂
Welcome sagehope and thanx for the comments…..that is one of my problems with political parties these days….slogans, name calling, labels and insults….that is why I am turned off on the political process as it is now…..please visit often……check back I have one about Bush admin and fascism……a comparsion type of thing…thanx again…
I agree with you entirely. You are so right about the label thing. The difficulty seems to me to be that what many (most?) Americans would regard as Socialist would be regarded in much of Europe as being way off to the right, but as you say, they struggle to see any point of view other than their own.
That said, although I wouldn’t call him a Socialist at all, Obama does have some ideas that are essentially socialist in what they seek to do for Americans and, whilst I have no problem at all with the principle of socialist ideals and greater “social responsibility” towards all citizens, it is the methods used to impliment those principles and what such support does to previously ordinary decent people.
Put it this way, apart from the fact that I hate and despise almost all bureaucracy as a waste of time and money, I’d have to be starving in the gutter and close to death before I’d accept a penny from the State – that’s just the way I was brought up – I manage my own life and, whilst not wealthy, I’ve never gone without and I would most surely never have seen my family go without.
Part of the reason taking State help would be an absolute last resort for me is because I’m human and I know my weaknesses – if taking handouts (as I would see it) ever became commonplace to me, I know I would change and the next time I was a bit stuck, or we needed (wanted) a new (bigger?) TV, I’d be straight down the Social telling whatever lies were required to get the money I needed – it’s the way it is in the UK, it’s the way I never want to be and it’s destroying our whole nation, both for that reason and so many others that are all direct products of our “Nanny State”!
So, Lobotero is right, but beware, because being nice just gets you crapped on from an ever increasing height!
I wonder what the conservatives think of what they are doing? what label will they give themselves? what would fit? REALLY? WHAT ARE THEY? (labeling someone that seems close enough to the label, creates in the minds of the people who are not so intelligent that, YES HE IS THE LABEL) (Also it shows that labeling, even conservatives would not want to label themselves, because then their position would be known and then they could be questioned on it)