Is Obama a Socialist?

Well, before I post, let me give a big LMMFAO at debateman who, with brilliant ease, was able to turn a question about people describing Obama as a "socialist" into a blame Bush rant. That truly takes practice! People in America cannot rightly identify with the "true" (irony abound lol) meaning of what socialism is because most of us have never been taught it through America's history revision and we've certainly never lived through it. The best was can do is to morph the word to fit our understandings. This gives the pro-Obamabots a field day in playing semantics. But it's tired and old and, if you're already sleepy, will work better than Lunesta to get you 8 hours. If I had to describe what I personally think Obama "is" in those terms, I would say he's a social progressive radical (60s version) who believes in redistribution, large and controlling government, social justice and that America is a failed system entirely that needs rebooting. ('Radical,' I believe, due to his undeniable connections that he conveniently avoids now but WERE present during his pre-presidential run, not to mention his appointment of unquestionably commie-wannabe czars and such...) If I had to describe what I personally think Obama "is" on a sign, I would write "SOCIALIST" in big, bold letters. George Bush was along those same lines, in my opinion. Obama is like Bush's progressive leanings x50, plus a different core ideology. In the context of American capitalism, "socialist" describes Obama fittingly I believe, as the connotation of the word is the exact opposite of what we had. To folks who want to play semantics and put on their Keith Olbermann glasses and practice their diction, "socialist" is obviously a smear that only racists use.

Laglen, you didn't mention the "social control" aspect of socialism. Taxes, government mandates, cap-and-trade, moratoriums, electing Supreme Court justices based on "compassion"...all of these are forms of social control in one way or another. Just because someone supports one or two of these doesn't make them a socialist. The desire to exert social control (of which Obama has proven he has), the desire to expand government and contract private industry, the desire to institute massive social programs and create a nanny state, the belief that the "ruling elite" know what's better for the masses than themselves, redistribution of wealth, and the belief that government is the cure for all of society's ills all fall along the socialist/communist line of thinking. Obama has proven his desire for all of these "theories". If anyone wants to challenge me on this, I will provide specific examples and links. Good discussion laglen.

What a surprise Fox news says he is a socialist...lol, really what did you expect from a biased media outlet. Well here is the other side of the coin there was plenty of things that used to be done in American that were done because they were the right thing to do and not just to make a profit. Universal health care coverage will mean insurance companies will make even more money than they did before so I don't see why everyone says "socialist" when its clearly being pushed for a "capitalist" agenda and backed by private companies. http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/14/Obama.socialist/index.html "Wharton said the new health care bill only strengthens private health insurance companies. They get 32 million new customers and no incentive to change -- something a socialist wouldn't accept. "Most of it was authored by the health care industry," Wharton says. "I call it the corporate restructuring of health care."" "Llewellyn says a socialist leader would have at least nationalized some of the troubled banks."He gave them [the banks] too much with no strings attached," Llewellyn says. "Banks that were too big to fail are bigger, and they can still fail."" Still think Obama is a socialist? Lets take a look at who donated to his campaign, you will notice that there just might be a reason why he has so many wall street people in his cabinet: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=n00009638 Goldman Sachs $994,795, Citigroup Inc $701,290, JPMorgan Chase & Co $695,132, Sure doesn't look like socialist are backing him to me. This might explain why he was so keen on carrying on with Bush's plans for the bank bailouts.

The fact is that President Obama has never advocated ending the institution of private property ownership. The government taking a temporary and partial ownership stake in companies that voluntarily accept taxpayer-funded bailouts does not qualify as such.

the question was whether Osama oops Obama was socialist or not and going by the proof he is you crazy left wingers need to stop blaming Bush for the worlds ills. true he was a progressive and I did not agree with him all the time and yes he started the bail outs but the dems have been destroying the US for years and with there new king in the White house they are unchecked. as for health care I agree we could have changed it but to give control of it to the government is crazy. NATIONAL HEALTH CARE DOSE NOT WORK take off the blinders and look to our neighbors, the ones who can afford it they come here. look at Greece socialism worked so well there economy has collapsed, ask them if they like socialism the less the government control the better and yes Bush created the DHS ok we could do alot by eliminating a good quarter of the cabinet positions. people are sick of the way things are being CHANGED that's why there is a tea party now, to bring back the way the government is suppose to be the way the founders meant for us

Actually Obama is a progressive. Much of his agenda is rooted in the way of one Saul Alinsky. Some other noted progressives; Teddy Roosevelt and the Clintons. There are progressives in both parties. It is a very dangerous doctrine and I hope the American people would stop falling for the tricks of these kinds of people at election time. One idea of the progessives is to have the ability to change the Constitution.

I saw that poll and all that proved to me is that 55% of the voters have no real clue what socialism actually is, which is no big surprise. It also should come as no big surprise to anyone here that my answer to your title question is NO, President Obama is not a Socialist. Heck, according to some he's "more conservative than Ronald Reagan". I'm not sure I agree with that in most ways but I don't think he's even a "liberal", I'd describe him as very SLIGHTLY left of center. I still support our President but the ways in which he's disappointed me and the things on which I disagree with him are because he's not liberal enough, in my humble opinion. He refused to come even close to pushing for a "government takeover of health care", which is how many would describe the single-payer system I was hoping for, instead settling for a bill that, while it's better than what we have now and will cover millions of additional Americans, is also a HUGE gift to the insurance companies, giving them millions of new customers. Annie

Interesting to read some US political conversation. In the UK the word 'socialist' conjures a far more left wing image. I would sum up UK politics thus: Labour. A party of tired Christian democrats who stole Tory clothes to get themselves elected under Blair in order that he become rich. Masquerading as the Labour party. Conservatives. A party of younger Christian democrats who have adopted some traditionally Liberal ideas to make themselves appear modernists: posing as the Conservative party. In other words, we will have a centre left Christian democrat government for years to come, in all but name.

LOL i never laugh like that OBAMA-socialist. How one mass murder can be socialist.Oooo my mistake now days he can be what ever he want like the Nobel prize he won for peace.I inspect soon that they gonna "discover" that Obama's mother was virgin when she was pregnat with him. Rlly thou stop believe in everythink u see or hear on TV NEWS cuz they are nothink more then comersale and movies payet and produced by somebody with some purpose and interest(the most popular are money and power). WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFE!!