Is Obama a Socialist?During the pre-Wrightian, Meccachurian-candidate phase, I was speculating that Obama is a Marxist. As a result, I was getting called delusional--and, occasionally, a person who was racist against whites and an apologist for Islam.
Just wanted to point that out.
I don't know why this is such a big revelation to the pundits/talking heads, I always assumed from the start he was a Marxist...
Posted by: doubleplusundead | July 20, 2008 at 04:31 PM
Aloha, Juliette,
Friedrich Hayek dedicated "The Road to Serfdom" "(t)o the socialists of all parties". The label isn't important.
The government of a locality is the largest dealer in interpersonal violence in that locality (definition). State (government, generally) employment does not make people more altruistic, more intelligebt, better informed, or capable. Quite the opposite: guns attract thugs.
In "The Road to Wigan Pier", George Orwell suggested that socialism may indicate a hypertrophied sense of order. Elsewhere (e.g., "Raffles and Mrs. Blandish", "Inside the Whale") Orwell suggests that authoritarian politics may appeal to vicarious sadism.
Most politicians exhibit both of these. Senator McCain and Senator Obama are world-class egomaniacs.
Posted by: Malcolm Kirkpatrick | July 20, 2008 at 11:07 PM
I don't think there's any doubt that Obama is a socialist, however I believe it's sloppy terminology to call him a Marxist (on the other hand, the man has deliberately presented himself as a tabula rasa upon which the wistful can write their own dreams, so that nobody can really pin him down). All he has told us for sure is that he's for hopeychanginess.
I haven't seen anything to suggest he believes in the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, despite his wife's litany of the things Obama will "demand" and "not let" us do. I've written those off to sheer egomania, however his call for a civilian security force as well funded and as powerful as the US military is disconcerting. It won't take many more such statements from him to turn me around on this point.
However, I will bet a paycheck that he does not believe in the Withering Away of the State. Certainly not any state so blessed as to have his loving hand guiding it.
I think his socialism is plain vanilla Euro-style welfare statism, and his more egregious remarks are due to his self identity as a Man of Destiny. He will do all the things he blandly assures us he will because He Is The Man, and Now Is His Time.
Posted by: Steve Skubinna | July 21, 2008 at 08:48 AM
I don't think that anybody but Marx believed in the withering away of the state.
Posted by: baldilocks | July 21, 2008 at 09:04 AM
That "civilian security force" ... seems kinda redundant, when we already have everything from the FBI to the local cop, with respect to security.
It instead brings to mind the the "Dignity Battalions" of Manuel Noriega ... or the Revolutionary Guards of Iran ... or the Peacekeepers/Morale Monitors in the (presently) fictional Global Community of LaHaye & Jenkins.
As for the last one, let me state that I have no concern for my safety in the event Revelation unfolds ... my concern is all the wannabe world nannies that might cross my path before then.
Posted by: Rich Casebolt | July 21, 2008 at 09:51 AM