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Is President Obama a Far Leftie?....Or something else?

Kurmugeon

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So in a conversation, I had mentioned that Obama and Crew are the Far Left of the Democratic Party and American Politics.

A person responded to me stating: " Obama isn't extreme left wing, LMAO!!!!!!! Ignorance. "


Soooooo... I guess I'm just very confused about what Obama is politically?

If he is not a member of the American Far Left? Just what is he?

If you are a member of the American Left, and you believe that Obama is NOT of your political Camp, then justify that position!

Name Five Important Policies/Actions that Obama has pursued, that the America Left does not support?

Name Five Important Policies/Actions that the American Left wants pursued, that Obama has not addressed?

Show me just how Ignorant I am...

Do it well, and convincingly, and I will never state that Obama is a Leftie again, and I will humbly admit my own ignorance!




If you are NOT a member of the American Far Left, is that where you place Obama? Or is he something else?


If President Obama is not really a supporter of the American Far Left's agenda.... Why does the American Far Left so universally and radically support President Obama?
 
I believe that Obama does have what I would consider a far left ideology. However he has been unable or unwilling to really push that agenda. I feel that if he were given a magic wand that would transform America and the world into any system that he wanted that the result would be a very liberal system.
 
Obama is an extremely radical far leftist - and I think anyone who disputes that isn't thinking rationally.

I agree with Boralis to an extent, that he hasn't been able to fully "transform" this nation to conformance with his radical ideology - for a variety of reasons, not the least of which has been critical opposition from centrists and the majority of the American people who happen to be right-leaning.

But I think the major reason has been his inexperience and sheer ineptitude. For the first two years of his presidency, he had complete control of both the House and the Senate and complete support of the main-stream media. He had both the power and the propaganda; and what did he accomplish? Obamacare - an embarrassingly obvious example of just how inept he and his administration truly is - passed before anyone even had a chance to read the rubbish - passed "so we could know what's in it." Very little is more inept than that. Frankly, we've been very very lucky he hasn't proven more experienced or capable - at anything save his inveterate ability to lie so effortlessly.

We've been accused of being ignorant of definitions of labels like "socialist," "marxist," "liberal," "communist," and the like.
We've been ridiculed for tagging the man with any of those labels, or as you noted, labeled "ignorant" for not seeing how "centrist" he really is, how "moderate," how (gag me) "Reagan-esque." Well, all one needs to do in such cases is consider the source. If they haven't any clue of their own labels, they haven't any right to ridicule ours. We know what and who he is. All they can do is deny the truth, or attempt to obfuscate it by dressing him as something he isn't.
 
Liberals: Want a single payer healthcare system
Obama: Heritage foundation plan without public option.

Liberals: Want legal punishments for the financial crisis and stronger banking regulations
Obama: Let a bank literally get away with laundering money for cartels.

Liberals: Bring back the Assault Weapon Ban.
Obama: Talks about it, but never actually does anything.

Liberals: Snowden is Patriot who revealed wrongdoing at the NSA
Obama: Snowden is a criminal, NSA is fine.

Liberals: Its wrong to assassinate American citizens or put people in Gitmo without trial.
Obama: Release memo justifying killing American citizens at the sole discretion of a "high ranking government official".

Obama is a centrist democrat. Being moderate is pretty much a requirement to get elected president, as you need majority appeal.
 
He's a statist with left leanings, just like Bush was a statist with right leanings. For him, control is far, far more important than liberty or even his own ideals. More government is always the solution, and more control is better.
 

I'd Place Obama on the centre left.

5 that Far left does not support and Obama does (Depends on the leftist, but in general):
1. Bailouts of Corporations, would rather see nationalised.
2. Lower taxes on manufacturing industry
3. Failure to close Gitmo
4. Made no effort to keep promise to exit Iraq in 2009. Troops moved to Afghanistan and Iranian border.
5. A $350 billion extension of the Bush tax cuts

5 things the Far left supports but not Obama:
1. Nationalisation of all Industries
2. Nationalisation of all property
3. Huge government welfare program
4. Heavy government intervention in the economy.
5. Eventual dismantling of state (Marxist) / Large, dictatorial government system (USSR/Stalinist)

Why the communist party USA is endorsing Obama?
Since 1988, the CPUSA has not run its own candidates for president and vice-president, preferring instead to work through the Democratic Party.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
He's a statist with left leanings, just like Bush was a statist with right leanings. For him, control is far, far more important than liberty or even his own ideals. More government is always the solution, and more control is better.
Click to expand...
I agree. He's also just another puppet for the Globalist Elite.
 
He's a statist with left leanings.
 
As recently confirmed, he is a radical, with an enormous ego to boost.
 
Regardless of his political leaning, he's a lousy president.
 
Late to the thread, after 5 years in office it is pretty clear that Obama governs like Bush on steroids. He does the bidding of the military with zest and zeal, he does the bidding of Wall STreet and the health insurance industry in the same fashion, he assaults the US Constitution at every opportunity, compares Paul Revere to the NSA, and makes stuff up all the time.

That makes him a fascist in my book.
 
rathi said:
Liberals: Want a single payer healthcare system
Obama: Heritage foundation plan without public option.
Click to expand...

People need to stop perpetuating this propoganda line.

The ACA is not the "Heritage Foundation Plan".

Secondly, this highlights the problem with such a question. There's two potential answers really...what someone's IDEOLOGY is and what someones RESULTS are.

I would say Obama is a somewhat pragmatic staunchly left wing individual.

For example, you say Liberals wanted a single payer healthcare system. Obama himself has been on record as wanting a single payer healthcare system. Ideologically, that matches up exactly. However, he was pragmatic in his approach understanding that even with a Democratic Majority in congress he had a hard time pushing through a version of health care focused around insurance reform let alone actual "Single Payer".

The Assault Weapon Ban and guns in general are another perfect example. Ideologically, it's quite clear that he is for significantly stronger regulation upon firearms and related items, including outright bans of some. However, pragmatically, all he can really do is threaten...there's only so far he can go with executive actions, and ultimately he'd need a congress to help him that has no desire to do such.

Even in terms of national security issues, Ideologically there's evidence of Obama having been pretty soundly in line with what you've outlined in terms of thought processes. However, back to the pragmatic part, once able to see the full scope of the NatDef situation he seems to have pulled back on many of those things that were so prominent in his career prior to becoming President.

Barack Obama is an ideoligical staunch liberal whose Presidency has been faced with an early portion where he had to deal with a segment of moderate Democrats in congress to get his way, and in the later portion has deal with half of congress being Republicans which required political manuevering and pragmatism to get agenda items done.
 
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Reading over more posts, it really does seem the issue that some view him based on his stated Ideology and some view him based on his eventual actions. GITMO is a great example. Ideologically there's no question he was fully in favor of getting rid of it completely....based on actions though, this did not happen. Was the former his true feeling and the situation has kept it from being able to occur....or was the final result actually what he desires and personally wants. And how do you personally judge which defines a person? And what of things that are attempted but don't succeed? Do they get counted or not (For example, cap and trade)?

There's no real "right" way to do it...but it's an inconsistency between people that will exist in this debate.
 

Obama is irrelevant and well past his "best before" date. What he is or isn't, other than a terrible President and of no impact on serious decision making, doesn't matter much. Time to move on to topics and discussions that can have a significant impact on our futures, both in America and in the world at large.
 
I agree with others that hes more a centrist than a leftist. Those two things seem similar to many conservatives, but they are entirely different concepts. Centrists try to consolidate power into the central government. A lot of time this means they'll agree with the leftist view point on things. Obama has failed to do essentially ALL the leftist things I wanted him to do. He's been crap for ending wars, doing anything about present environmental concerns, the ACA is an overly complicated placeholder for which you guys are going to love once you have it , has done nothing for ending the war on drugs , and hasn't actually done anything for gay rights since he's left that to the supreme court. If you were to give him a grade as a centrist though, off the charts. He gives the president authorization to kill and detain American citizens as part of war powers, circumvents the congressional process and is proud of it, reauthorized the Patriot Act, and supports the NSA against Snowden. He also has the highest rates of oil drilling and deportation of illegal immigrants in recent history. What about him is extreme liberal exactly?
 
The Prez, any Prez, should be given the benefit of the doubt, simply because we don't know the need to know. This POTUS ran his mouth substantially until he obtained all necessary facts to make informed decisions, and we can see by his deeds that not all is what seems so simple at first glance, and not only did he mellow down his rhetoric, he even reversed some of it, based on facts. So give him some credit.
However, circumventing congress, something he disagreed with previously, to me makes him a bully, and in no way can I support this.
 
Obama is an accomplished campaigner and liar with an endearing personality. I'm amazed at how many people fall for it. I would say he is left of any president since Roosevelt.
 

A very fair viewpoint. Such a rarity in political discussion. Thank you.
 

How would you classify G.W. Bush?

Was GWB a "far leftist"?

Because Obama is hardly anything more than Bush 2.0
 
Bush would have approved Keystone right away.
Bush would be executing DIFFERENT executive orders, the real issue on XOs.
Bush would not have signed ACA into law.
No telling what Bush would have done with Iraq, Afghan, now Iran, NSA, etc.
Government shutdowns and debt ceiling fights would not be occurring with the House.
Social issues and Guns would be treated far differently.
I don't see the Bush 2.0 analogy .
Dragonfly said:
How would you classify G.W. Bush?

Was GWB a "far leftist"?

Because Obama is hardly anything more than Bush 2.0
Click to expand...
 

A far leftie by whose definition, was Bush II a far right conservative? Does rhetoric and slogans paint a president as to whether they are far left or right? Bush II and Obama have governed pretty much the same, so why consider one far left and the other far right?

Both grew government and both added trillions to the debt. One signed the patriot act into law, the other extended it. One came up with prescription part D, the other the ACA, one got us involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, the other got us out of Iraq after a few years, got us involved in Libya, wants us to remain in Afghanistan. One tried to get immigration reform through congress and the other is trying to get immigration reform through congress. One came up with TARP the other the Stimulus, both have push free trade agreements, and on and on.

So outside of talk, how can one be left and the other right?
 

When it comes to Bush 2, right wingers are so embarrassed by him these days they try to claim he was a liberal.
 
Form an international perspective, I put him centre to centre-right.
 
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