Is Obama a Socialist? Reflections on the degradation of politics and the ecosystem

IS OBAMA A SOCIALIST? REFLECTIONS ON THE DEGRADATION OF POLITICS AND THE ECOSYSTEM

By Robert Jensen

...In short: Obama and some Democrats have argued for a slight expansion of the social safety net, which is generally a good thing in a society with such dramatic wealth inequality and such a depraved disregard for vulnerable people. But that’s not socialism. It’s not even socialism lite. It’s capitalism -- heavy, full throttle, and heading for the cliff.

In reaction to the issues of the day, a socialist would fight to nationalize the banks, create a national health system, and end imperialist occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. That the right wing can accuse Obama of being a socialist when he does none of those things is one indication of how impoverished and dramatically skewed to the right our politics has become. In most of the civilized world, discussions of policies based in socialist principles are part of the political discourse, while here they are bracketed out of any serious debate. In a recent conversation with an Indonesian journalist, I did my best to explain all this, but she remained perplexed. How can people take seriously the claim that he’s socialist, and why does applying that label to a policy brand it irrelevant? I shrugged. “Welcome to the United States,” I said, “a country that doesn’t know much about the world or its own history.”

Let’s take a moment to remember. Socialist and other radical critiques of capitalism are very much a part of U.S. history. In the last half of the 19th century, workers in this country organized against expanding corporate power and argued for worker control of factories. These ideas were not planted by “outside agitators”; immigrants at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries contributed to radical thought and organizing, but U.S. movements grew organically in U.S. soil.

Business leaders saw this as a threat and responded with private and state violence. The Red Scare of the 19-teens and ‘20s tried to wipe out these movements, with considerable success. But radical movements rose again during the Great Depression, eventually winning the right to organize. In the boom times after WWII, management was willing to buy off labor (for a short time, it turned out) with a larger slice of the pie in a rapidly expanding economy, and in the midst of Cold War hysteria the radical elements of the mainstream labor movement were purged. But radical ideas remain, nurtured by small groups and individuals around the country...

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The people who proudly label themselves socialists don't care for Obama at all. They always find something to bitch about with him.

Yet when you bring this up to an Angry White Male Conservative, they have to make up more shit to justify calling Obama a "socialist".

They just don't want "those people" to have them. Thus they will remain a loyal band of thugs to enforce the agenda of the plutocrats. They'll never figure it out. They could be living in a box under a bridge but as long as they've got a bigger box and don't have to be near the brown people or the gays or whoever else they hate it's all good.

the enemy. Well, I love President Obama and am in Canada. Wish we had someone of his stature here. Go President Obama, you are making a difference in the world and I love you!

Careful what you wish for, as all sides can have their lightning rods. Im quite content with Canada's mild politicians and their moderate & thoughtful politics. I find a refreshing amount of intellectualism here, which has manifested itself in a positive, liberal manner for the people. In other words, even when Canadian politics are a circus (last few years), they are far from the Ringling Brothers. I gotta scoff at some of the extreme characterizations of the main players, who would, in American politics, be faces in the crowd clamoring for good policy, rather than clamoring to have their faces on TV.