Obama NOT a socialist according to Democratic Socialists of America

[Sanitas]

Top U.S. Socialist Says Barack Obama is Not One of Them -- Politics Daily

So if the United States has elected a socialist president, the socialists must be pretty excited, right? Claiming just a single U.S. Senator (Vermonter Bernie Sanders) and exactly zero members of the House of Representatives as their own, putting a socialist in the White House would represent the greatest achievement of any socialist alive today.

But there's just one problem. The socialists won't claim Obama as their own. They won't even call him a socialist.

"He's not challenging the power of the corporations," Llewellyn added. "The banking reforms that have been suggested are not particularly far reaching. He says we must have room for innovation, but we had innovation -- look where it got us. So I just...I can't..I mean it's laugh out loud, really."

What is your take on this article?

Has the word "socialist" has been taken on merely as a slur towards leftists, or are all democrats secretly socialist?

Seems awfully like another red scare. Hah.

 

[Agent_Grey]

I'm a proud Socialist, and it is absolutely correct that Obama is not one of us.

His policies might lean SLIGHTLY in our direction more than republican ones do, but that doesn't change the fact that free-market lassez-faire capitalist rules dominate both active parties in the U.S.

It brings sadness to my red heart.

 

[Agnapostate]

Speaking as a socialist also, Obama is less supportive of socialism than more rightist capitalists because their favored policies can at least cause destabilization. Liberal democratic capitalist policies rarely do this. As for Bernie Sanders, I'd identify him as a social democrat rather than a socialist myself, especially in light of his reformism.

 

[Khayembii Communique]

I don't see anything especially left about Obama at all, so I don't even know why he's painted a lib'rul, much less a socialist.

 

[Picaro]

Top U.S. Socialist Says Barack Obama is Not One of Them -- Politics Daily





What is your take on this article?

I would say calling Obama, The Messiah From Goldman Sachs, a socialist makes me laugh out loud, too.

Has the word "socialist" has been taken on merely as a slur towards leftists, or are all democrats secretly socialist?

Democrats were always more conservative than Republicans, the main socialist party since it's founding in 1855 or so, though since Reagan there is virtually no difference at all between their parties, they conducted a merger around 1980 or so, unless you count meaningless rhetoric and hubris as 'differences'. It's merely a 'good cop, bad cop' scam conducted by the media, for public consumption, these days. Elections are now just tawdry rituals for laundering bribes to the media every couple of years, which is why you will never see electoral reform here.

Seems awfully like another red scare. Hah.

Most socialists aren't Reds, but yeah, I know what you mean.

 

[The Baron]

“Obama NOT a socialist according to Democratic Socialists of America” - Sanitas

“I'm a proud Socialist, and it is absolutely correct that Obama is not one of us.” - Agent Grey

“I don't see anything especially left about Obama at all, so I don't even know why he's painted a lib'rul, much less a socialist.” - Khayembii Communique

“I would say calling Obama… a socialist makes me laugh out loud, too.” - Picaro

:2funny:​

 

[ScottD]

“Obama NOT a socialist according to Democratic Socialists of America” - Sanitas

“I'm a proud Socialist, and it is absolutely correct that Obama is not one of us.” - Agent Grey

“I don't see anything especially left about Obama at all, so I don't even know why he's painted a lib'rul, much less a socialist.” - Khayembii Communique

“I would say calling Obama… a socialist makes me laugh out loud, too.” - Picaro

:2funny:​

I know, it's funny how the idiots on the right who don't even know what socialism is call Obama a socialist when even socialists say he isn't even close to being one.

 

[Wessexman]

Speaking as a socialist also, Obama is less supportive of socialism than more rightist capitalists because their favored policies can at least cause destabilization. Liberal democratic capitalist policies rarely do this. As for Bernie Sanders, I'd identify him as a social democrat rather than a socialist myself, especially in light of his reformism.

In the short term yes, in the long term Keynesianism and such cannot hold back the inherent contradictions and tensions in corporate-capitalism for ever and you could say their intervention will make the eventual collapse that much greater.

Anyway of course he isn't a socialist, I doubt few intelligent and informed people sincerely believe that.

 

[Wessexman]

I don't see anything especially left about Obama at all, so I don't even know why he's painted a lib'rul, much less a socialist.

Well socially he might not be the paradigm of New Left excess and complete social destruction but he is hardly a traditionalist either. I can tell you that as a traditionalist.

 

[Anikdote]

Like I need a socialist to point out the obvious. When i see the first piece of legislation prohibiting ownership of capital and/or worker ownership then there'll be a case, until then it's just an idiotic smear tactic.

 

[Khayembii Communique]

Well socially he might not be the paradigm of New Left excess and complete social destruction but he is hardly a traditionalist either. I can tell you that as a traditionalist.

I think he's closer to traditionalism than socialism, though.

In fact, I think he's simply a centrist that has been pushed further left by the sentiment in the country and also that his position as a "reformist" has been pretty much made up by conservatives and some moderates, much in the same way that say Mousavi was painted as a reformist when the reality was the complete opposite.

 

[Wessexman]

I think he's closer to traditionalism than socialism, though.

In fact, I think he's simply a centrist that has been pushed further left by the sentiment in the country and also that his position as a "reformist" has been pretty much made up by conservatives and some moderates, much in the same way that say Mousavi was painted as a reformist when the reality was the complete opposite.

Economically yes, but on the social level while not being an out and out leftist he is still comparatively socially liberal; certainly not the friend of traditionalists and social conservatives.