Obama: The Stealth Socialist
By NancyA on August 2, 2008 at 1:30 PM in Barack Obama, Communism, Current Affairs, Economy, James Cone, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., Unions
Barack Obama’s stealth socialism can be defined by this term, which Obama uses frequently, “economic justice” Simply put it is redistribution of wealth and a euphemism for socialism. Obama discusses these words in term like “restoring fairness to the economy”, according to Investor’s Business Daily which is a code word for “soaking” the “rich”-which he seems to forget includes mom-and-pop businesses filing individual tax returns., businesses that help fuel our economy.
In the nearly two months since Obama became the presumptive nominee, he has tried to present himself as a moderate, edging ever closer to the middle of the road. Fortunately enough, Obama has left a “footprint in the sand”, his voting record. He has one of the most liberal voting records in the United States Senate. Recently, McCain had this to say about Obama’s voting record:
That’s his voting record. All I said was his voting record-and that is more to the left than the announced socialist in the United States Senate, Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Could he really be farther left than Senator Sanders (D-VT)? Yes his voting record supports his far left liberal leanings, right down to partial birth abortions! The seed of his far left leanings were developed in those summer days post high school, pre-college and a future on the horizon, while he spent days on a Waikiki Beach, with none other than late self professed communist, Frank Marshall Davis. The influence was great as Obama followed in Davis’ footsteps by becoming a Chicago-based community organizer.
His association with Trinity UCC was no mistake either. Reverend Wright spewed forth Marxist after Marxist sermon from the pulpit. He preached Black Liberation Theory as we well know now. Obama sat in that church for 20 years because he saw it as a tool. A tool, where he could affect change, and reach for the presidency he wrote about here as a youth. This what his third grade teacher said about that:
Third-grade teacher Fermina Katarina Sinaga, now 67, has perhaps the most telling story. In an essay about what he wanted to be when he grew up, Obama “wrote he wanted to be president,” Sinaga recalled.
TUCC and Reverend Wright made a wonderful, but scary back drop for Obama’s meteoric rise as a politician.
Now Obama talks about a presidency that will last 8 - 10 years. He says he will accomplish many things in his first term. Among them is the following list from Investor’s Business Daily Editorials:
• “Universal,” “guaranteed” health care.
• “Free” college tuition.
• “Universal national service” (a la Havana).
• “Universal 401(k)s” (in which the government would match contributions made by “low- and moderate-income families”).
• “Free” job training (even for criminals).
• “Wage insurance” (to supplement dislocated union workers’ old income levels).
• “Free” child care and “universal” preschool.
• More subsidized public housing.
• A fatter earned income tax credit for “working poor.”
• And even a Global Poverty Act that amounts to a Marshall Plan for the Third World, first and foremost Africa.
His new New Deal also guarantees a “living wage,” with a $10 minimum wage indexed to inflation; and “fair trade” and “fair labor practices,” with breaks for “patriot employers” who cow-tow to unions, and sticks for “nonpatriot” companies that don’t.
Of course he has more plans to socialize human resource departments at companies. Obama wants to micromanage companies by insisting certain requirements be met, like 7 paid sick days a year. He suggests these mandates without considering the small business person and their company bottom line, a backbone of our country.
Obama certainly appears to be following in his father’s, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr.’s footsteps, who espoused massive taxes on the “rich” and redistribution of wealth”. Obama Sr, even believed in 100% taxation of wealth as long as the government gave the citizens something back they was commensurate with the taxation. More on that here.
With the economy slowing, even in a recession, gas prices high at the pumps, prices rising in every other area of our lives as transportation costs are passed on to us, we can’t afford this type of quiet stealth socialism. Obama seems to think ending the Iraq War will free up billions of dollars for the “big” government but he seems to forget we borrowed money from China to stay the days and months to come in Iraq.
Obama, who appears to not understand that the USA is using a non-existent credit card to fund the war among other things, will with his ever growing socialistic plans further push the economy in the toilet and stall the economy. It is time for Obama to take a course on economy, Economy 101.
Ah one that’s not stealth that’s political code, and can we be honest here it’s not the rich he would tax to pay for this it’s the working class the wage earners no non poor. Democrats also don’t tax the rich they tax hard working people who have a bit of a cushion.
but yes I agree but I believe that’s also the power in Congress his co eabling Presidentcy would make his election the 3rd Bush term, WE ARE the ones who would be bending over AGAIN it’s welfare just with a new name
You have turned everything upside down and thats unfortunate. Let me ask you this, “Who paid more taxes in the last seven plus years under George Bush?” and the other question is, Is it the poor middle class or the rich ?…I am sure you know the answer so I arrest my case. By the way I am a republican……and am voting DEMOCRAT and since OBAMA is the nominee it dosen’t matter.MCCAIN HAS LOST MY VOTE AND EVEN MORE SO WHO THE HELL IS SARAH PALIN…….? If you want women votes, cann’t you find a more intellectual one ?
There are many of them out there. Have you checkout their educational accomplishments. You will be surprised. McCain is second to last in his class not that it matters but its important.
My last question is , “are you better off now ? Even if you are rich, you are still hurting in some ways…..WAKE UP REPUBLICANS WE HAVE SCREWED UP BIG UNDER THIS ADMINISTRATION.God bless you and I hope you see the light.
So basically Obama thinks he can win by promising money to us poor people, or is it just poor AAs?
Reparations anyone?
obama mentioned reparations last week as an option.
Yes but didn’t he flip flop on that today?
Probably. He adjusts his stance depending on whether it’s a black or white audience.
Michelle wants my pie? SHe can shove her own pie in her pie hole.
well TUCC BLT says it does not believe in the concept of middle class..
guess it wil be the Prtizkers Obummer and we will al become poor….
Now you’re against taxing the rich, and attacking Obama’s stance on abortion? When exactly did this metamorphosis into full-fledged Republicanism take place, exactly?
I have the same question. I thought we Democrats against Obama because we hold Democratic positions– and Obama is tacking to the right. What’s up?
I wouldn’t call doubling the dividends and capital gain taxes taxing the rich. Of course if you never saved any money for your future and just spent above your means without planning, you wouldn’t understand.
And if you haven’t done that, keep your goddamned hands off the money I earned and sacrificed so that I could invest and save. You want my pie, you come here and get it, you won’t get it until I empty my clip and my dog has a snack.
Come on. As a supposed enlightened DEMOCRAT, you should be well aware that the relatively minor savings you (and I assume you’re like most of us and not a millionaire) accrue from cutting the capital gains and dividends tax is more than offset by the gains we would all realize from the increased funding for education, health care, infrastructure, etc. with the capital gains and dividend tax at their higher levels.
Sweet Lord do you actually believe this or is this a rhetorical question? Because history and common sense have shown otherwise.
I think you have only a passing acquaintance with common sense if you would argue, like a dyed in the wool Republican, that cutting the capital gains and dividends tax was an overall positive for your typical middle-class American.
You obviously don’t invest. Or Save. If you did, you would understand that the paltry interest rates and earnings and losses are already pathetic. And I would like to know why I, who didn’t live above my means, should have to be penalized for those who have–from my own savings.
Salt: you took the words right out of my head. He won’t soak the rich, and the only redistribution of wealth he’s interested in is the kind that distributes it to him!
I don’t believe for a minute that Obama is a socialist. He is a megalomanic, an arrogant prick, a sexist pig, can’t put a sentence together to save his @$$. But a socialist? Don’t think so.
Sure, there are the Marxist pics up on the walls of some of his campaign sites. Pretty sure that it is all show. He has done nothing - I mean nothing that would indicate that he is about social change. If anything, he is counter to that movement. He used the poorest of the poor in Chicago to buy himself influence and a house.
He uses people. He doesn’t do for people.
I agree — he will do what ever it takes to gain the reins of power.
He has an agenda — and he will play any game and become anybody & use anybody, in order to get what he wants.
I doubt that he’s a socialist — I doubt he has any core values.
See this is the problem — we do NOT know who the hell he really is. All he has is two BS books/fiction.
PUMA
Yeapppppp!
Yes Northwest, thats what I’m thinking too. I don’t know what he is in terms of any kind of label. Well, except the label of Narcissist. His “voting record” may have been liberal in the past, but his most current votes, (FISA, etc) indicate something else. As other posters have said, he’s really all about Obama.
HillGirl, you say it right. He is a political vampire, he will drain whomever he needs to, feed off whatever cause he can(just ask NARAL) to further his imagined agenda, as we know he doesn’t have one, it’s whatever is needed in the moment. He has made himself undefinable and that will be his undoing, if you sit on the fence, then you are just that a very good fence sitter.
He’s no socialist or to the left of Bernie Sanders. Though Bernie is really a populist in the mold of FDR.
If Obama was a leftist he would have fought for those Maytag workers and told Crown to shove his bribe where the sun don’t shine.
If he was a leftist or populist he’d have called for the termination of the NAFTA and other trade treaties where we got shafted, especially American workers.
If he was a leftist or populist he have proposed legislation to end “payday” and “rent to own” centers that prey on minorities.
If he was a leftist or populist he would have proposed bankruptcy legislation that would help lower and middle-income workers escape crushing debt loads.
If he was a leftist or populist he would stopping the companies from using H1-B and L-1 guest workers to replace American workers.
If he was a leftist or populist he’d be proposing legislation to penalize American companies who off-shore their factories.
If he was a leftist or populist he would proposing taxing off-shore hedge funds and American companies who relocate their HQ to the Carribean to avoid the IRS.
If he was a leftist or populist he’d support public financing of campaigns from state to national level.
Put it this way Obama is a leftist on the little things. But on the big things, things that really matter he’s to the right of Lieberman or McConnell.
This is the first post on this site that makes me want to vote for Obama. My concern about the guy isn’t that he’ll actually provide these things (which are basic in European countries and they still have democracy). My fear is that he’s actually a closet Republican. This list you have is of typical Democratic policy stances– health care, living wag, education. Is this now a Republican site?
Go vote for who you want. Phony baloney troll.
People keep referring to Euro socialism as if it can be duplicated in the US. IMO, not at this time in history.
US socialists seem too mired in that radical left of yore. I listen to the left of the US and they seem dated, stuck in a place in history when their struggle was much needed by the Am. society, but that society has evolved and they have not. They almost sound as if they are living in a developing nation.
Euro socialists constantly work a balance between capitalist interests and social welfare. The US left seems as if its aim is an “all or nothing” “now” radical break. If the left had been serious about helping the Am. society, they would have placed their support on Hillary Clinton. A moderate with a history of a desire to institute one of the pillars of the left: health care for all.
I dont know if anyone has mentioned the funny similarity between Bog Herbert and the guy who defended Brittany but someone needs to do a youtube video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qOW__TneAY
Truly, This post makes me want to vote for Obama.
troll- the new scam trick ain’t working.
The trolls are a weird bunch today, no?
You are no “Hillfan” because if you were, you would know that Obama will say and do anything to win. He’ll play every and any angle (and person) to get ahead.
Truly, your posts make me want to get you removed from the forum.
When you quote the far right Investor’s Business Daily’s editorials you lose ALL credibility.
I don’t support Obama because in part he isn’t a progressive and I consider myself a socialist. Please stop using the word socialist as a prejorative. Socialism is not Marxism. Socialism in Europe works and Canada has many socialist practices such a single payer health care system.
I worked on Wall Street for ten years and I was given three times a free subscription to the IBD. The articles were great and insightful, the editorials the most rabid savage capitalism imaginable. They are a lunatic fringe. That’s whom you are quoting.
And for the record, neither Bernie Sanders nor Obama are the most liberal members of the Senate. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. The National Journal that named Obama the most liberal Senator is a conservative rag and 4 years ago named John Kerry the most liberal Senator. Know your sources.
If Obama were for the above list of entitlements, I might be for him but he is not. He’s not for universal health care nor for state-funded education.
While Havana does have a national service, so do Britain, Germany and others. I haven’t heard one word about a Global Poverty Act which is frankly a much needed plan. The IBD is a Free Republic crowd publication. That is not who I am. I’m a liberal and proud to be one.
I am a FReeper and proudly remain one. As you’re proud to be liberal, I’m proud to be conservative. There’s nothing wrong with our differing points of view.
I find too often that liberals and conservatives are brain dead. Honestly, we are more than willing to read things that favor our point of view—but rarely will seek out the viewpoint of others that disagree.
Why do they disagree? That is one question that always keeps me wandering online and through the bookstores.
Broaden your horizon’s both sides tell people. Well, broaden yours first and then get back to me.
Your ideas of entitlements scare the hell out of me, but that’s my personal opinion. In my view, we’re not entitled to jackshit in this country.
As for IBD, like the WSJ–the editorials are conservative while the rest of the paper isn’t.
I do thank you for the articles that you have written. I have not agreed with some of the things you’ve written, but I’m better informed for having read them. Thank you.
I’m proud to be a moderate.
Extremism in any direction is the path to destruction.
“There’s nothing in the middle of the road but a yellow stripe and dead armadillos.”
– Jim Hightower
And corporatist lickspittles.
– Me
Your ass. This country has already been ruined by an extremist for the last seven years. You think I want to put another extremist in office? Let me introduce you to moderation, you fool. The only people who aren’t intersted in it are those who are getting everything they need from somebody else.
I agree with you by and large. My problem with Free Republic is their anti-gay positions and their anti-immigrant ones as well.
I am a liberal but I am also a fiscal conservative by and large though I am a Kenyesian and believe in state control of key sectors. One of the problems is that we in the US tend to fear government no matter what. Government can work, it depends on whom you staff it with.
I also think you’re right about each side not seeking out the viewpoints of the other. We would be served if we did.
I am fiscally conservative as well, but there is nothing less threatening to me than homosexuality, and as for immigration, if there weren’t a social safety net I’d make it unlimited.
One issue with what you wrote there:
“Government can work, it depends on whom you staff it with.”
I disagree. I think if we rely on ‘nice’ people to act against incentiveswe are fooling ourselves. I think potentially some government postitions can work, if the incentives for the worker are the same as for the public paying them. I would never expect a state worker to cut their own budget if their next year’s budget was indexed to how much they spent this year. Not going to happen in general, no matter how nice the person is.
Homosexuality isn’t “ruining the family”. That’s bullcrap. Divorce is ruining the family a whole lot more. People ought to leave homosexuals alone. It’s nobody’s business. My bedroom is nobody’s business either. I am so sick of immoral politicians making other people’s moral decisions for them. They are so busy minding everybody’s business, they never get around to serving, which is what their job is supposed to be. We have the sexual preference police, the reproductive police, the food police, the religion police, the smoking police, everything but POLITICIAN POLICE…which is what we REALLY need.
Charles Lemos -
A Few Q’s:
1. Do you want to to tax and take more from the middle class for the poor? If so, how much? Is there any amount or percentage at which you would stop taxing some for others?
2. Do you support reparations? If so, for whom and why?
3. Would your universal education include academic standards? If not, please state the benefit to those paying for such.
4. Do you believe schools should be pass/fail?
5. Do you support ebonics?
6. Should the U.S. help pay for a Global Poverty Plan when people suffer in the U.S.?
7. Do you support Affirmative Action? If so why? For whom and why? If so, why have decades not been enough?
John McCain should start reading No Quarter to get some crystal clear talking points that will resonate with the electorate. Many voters have figured this stuff out and the race seems to be close, but McCain needs to deliver a knock out punch to Obama soon. Obama is much too skilled at flim-flamming the voters — he needs a tough talking opponent to sink his campaign. But I would not characterize No Quarter as a “Republican site.” It’s holding the center ground. The Europeans have been bankrupt for years because of their socialism. You can have a healthy democracy without socialism. But you cannot have a financially solvent nation by expanding entitlements at the expense of one segment of the population. When that becomes the order of the day, our “rich,” will soon pick up their bank accounts and leave home. There has to be a balance, a blend. Also, if Obama is really sincere about addressing the problems of the poor, he needs to take color out of the equation. America’s poor come in many colors, including white.
There’s plenty of time left. Most Americans don’t really start focusing on the election until after Labor Day. The GOP is holding back the heavy stuff to make sure that the Democrats don’t wise up and give the nomination to Hillary at the convention.
The best scenario for the GOP is to have Obama holding a narrow lead heading into the convention. He’ll get a bounce right after the convention, but then McCain will get a bounce of his own after the GOP convention a week later.
Then the GOP will let loose with the real attack ads, going after everything from Obama’s lack of defense to his weakness on national defense to his ultra-liberal voting record in the Senate to the troubling associations from his past to his willingness to flip-flop on any issue and throw anyone under the bus if he perceives it to be in his political interests to do so.
And for the coup de grace, a week before Election Day, the “whitey” tape will hit the air. McCain will win comfortably.
There’s plenty of time left. Most Americans don’t really start focusing on the election until after Labor Day. The GOP is holding back the heavy stuff to make sure that the Democrats don’t wise up and give the nomination to Hillary at the convention.
The best scenario for the GOP is to have Obama holding a narrow lead heading into the convention. He’ll get a bounce right after the convention, but then McCain will get a bounce of his own after the GOP convention a week later.
Then the GOP will let loose with the real attack ads, going after everything from Obama’s lack of experience to his weakness on national defense to his ultra-liberal voting record in the Senate to the troubling associations from his past to his willingness to flip-flop on any issue and throw anyone under the bus if he perceives it to be in his political interests to do so.
And for the coup de grace, a week before Election Day, the “whitey” tape will hit the air. McCain will win comfortably.
Reverend Manning nailed it.
He’s a fascist.
Neo-Liberal Fascist.
BO is a disaster being foisted on a sleeping nation. Someone better wake up soon. Already the country is in almost insurmountable debt; there is no tangible production to speak of; no new job markets, and a failing infrastructure. We have failed to address the energy problem; we have no railroad system which we need to move people and goods rather than relying on gas guzzling trucks carrying freight, one truckload at a time. The auto industry is late to the game, too. Those in leadership have given subsidies to build ethanol plants, knowing full well that ethanol production uses more energy than it produces. Already corn is being diverted from food to fuel and has driven the price of corn up and the supply for food down substantially.
I’d be less pessimistic if I knew that the Repubs actusally are going to support MCain in such a way as to overcome BO’s endless supply of money and the party structure he seems to have completely under his control (and in every state). He has a coup in progress and the fact that he speaks of doing away with elections and has an iffy grasp of the length of the presidential term worries me even more, I keep thinking Odinga here.
A lot of people ARE awake and onto him. That’s why he can’t reach 50% in the polls. He couldn’t close the primary deal and he can’t close the election deal either. And the swiftboats haven’t even taken any pieces out of him yet.
He has whined so much and played the (yawn) race card so many times, even his counterwhining won’t work.
You can stop snickering now, Barky.
More attempted deception from Pelosi and Gang … she’s scrubbing the bad reviews of her book from Amazon’s site:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/08/pelsoi-scrubs-b.html
BWAAAAHAAA
She wont be able to keep up.
facist frakker
turns cameras and mikes of on the House floor and now scrubs her bad book reviews
frakker
I have known many Nancy’s in corporate America.
The Nancies are the women who kick the ladder out from under them so that they minimize the competition and nobody can notice they aren’t so great.
They don’t believe in the concept that when one women breaks a ceiling she makes room for others.
Generally, other women wait patiently until the Nancy stands too close to a dangerous corporate hole. Then they shove her in it and throw dirt on her. Later they all go out for a drink and laugh a lot.
LOL…………..
Aw nancy I sowwy. It was a Pelosi reference.
….ducking and running.
She’s a fool and he’s menace. Kennedy, Dean, Brazile, Kerry, et al, need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Where’s Linda Fucking Tripp when you need her?
Nancy Pelosi is an idiot. I caught a shot of her on Youtube where she explained to her hosts and the audience-at large on The View:
“First there is the president and then there is the vice president and then there is the speaker…. and she promptly let the VIEWERS know in no uncertain terms WHO that was.
She even hand-gestured in 3 levels in case you couldn’t understand English. **
I had to laugh. WTF?
**must say, English, is a wonderful language.
She’s Italian. YOu tie our hands and we can’t talk.
Mandelay said “The Europeans have been bankrupt for years because of their socialism. ” HUH?? I lived most of my life in Britain - they’re not bankrupt, neither is Denmark or any Scandinavian country.
I’m getting really confused now.
I call myself a European style socialist. I don’t support Obama though because as far as I can see he’s not on my page at all. Dennis Kucinich was, and I could have lived with Hillary Clinton. But nobody really knows what page Obama IS on. That is the problem.
I hope the picture clears soon !
This is a really good angle of attack for McCain. Up to now, the Republicans have avoided using the “S-word”. But once Obama has offically been designated as the Democratic nominee in late August, expect to see the Republicans start aggressively painting Obama as a “socialist in the best traditions of 1970’s Europe.”
Why? Because it will be highly effective.
And why will it be effective? Because it’s true.
Good grief. Do you even know what a socialist is? Obama is a neocon libertarian who embodies all the vices of capitalism and none of the virtues of socialism. If the USA were not so totally braindead and had a real, informed, open-minded and courageous left wing, it would be a much better country. As it is, it deserves the right wing corporate courtiers who regularly stand for election and keep it mired in a capitalist version of serfdom.
Obama’s a socialist.
Hillary’s a socialist.
What’s the problem?
My problem is Obama is a neo-liberal fascist.
My problem is that he is a (X x x x) and he is a wannabe neo-liberal fascist and that he is really getting there. He’s an imposter, a trojan horse and we are the Obones who are stuck in this moment.
A comedy and a tragedy.
(X x x x) if I only I could say it aloud.
I just did.
Clue: X = S
Spent nearly two hours in with our atty and accountant last week. Obama definitely wants to screw you over with taxes if you have a middle class to upper class income and life style. If you make over about 32,000 a year you will be screwed at some level by the Obama plan.
He is socialist/ marxist. He doesn’t seem to understand that commitment, hard work, saving, educating yourself, and smart money management goes much further than the oppression of the citizens.
It’s another case of Obama taking the easy way out. He’s such a fraud you can now scrape it off the TV screen and anywhere else it lands.
Dems (of which I have been one until now) should be absolutely embarrassed and ashamed for supporting this dickhead.
Frankly I think that Obama is a socialist/Marxist, a neo-liberal facist and a neocon libertarian all rolled into one. It just depends which way the wind blows in the opinion polls on that particular day.
The one thing he consistently is however, is a man with severe Daddy and Abandonment issues. Both his parents eventually abandoned him. First, a father who left him behind in his pursuit of great things for himself and then a mother who returned to Indonesia without him to continue her love of the dark, exotic, forbidden fruit in her second husband Lolo Soetoro.
>>> Both his parents eventually abandoned him.
They weren’t no fools!
Oh lord, it’s society’s fault besides, I’m sure..
If the guy has abandonment problems, I don’t want his ass in the oval office. He needs a shrink. He has the best free health care we offer. What we don’t need is a president with enough gremlins in his head to screw up the entire world. We already are coming down from one like that. Besides, I know others who were abandoned by their parents who aren’t assholes like he is. Things happen in our lives. We suck it up, act like adults and move on….that is if we aren’t ten year olds in adult bodies like Obama is.
Buzz latte, McCain also said that if you’re making 32K (or did he say 35K?) Obama is going to really cost you. However the press treated it like a throw away line. Obama just keeps trying to get people to believe he’s only going after the folks in the 250K+ yr bracket, what a joke.
Twilight, Since you lived for so long in England how’d you like it in ‘92 when Obama supporter Geo Soros borrowed 10 Billion to short the pound, silver markets & crash the currency?
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