IS OBAMA A SOCIALIST?

Most people on the right say Obama is a socialist and most on the left say he is not.

Well, perhaps he is not in the strictest sense of the word.   The most widely accepted definition of socialism is government ownership of the means of production.   Obama is certainly an enemy of the free market, and wants politicians and bureaucrats to make the fundamental decisions about the economy.  However, I think he prefers private ownership under government control in order to give the false illusion of free enterprise.

What President Obama has been pushing for, is much more government control of the economy, while leaving ownership in private hands. That way, politicians get to call the shots but, when their bright ideas lead to disaster, they can always blame those who own businesses in the private sector.

What this amounts to politically is very similar to socialism but not exactly.  I guess you could refer to it as pseudo-socialism.   When things go right, it’s because of government control, and when things go wrong, it’s because government needs to have MORE control.  This is far preferable, from Obama's point of view, since it gives him someone other than Bush to blame for all his failed policies and dumb decisions.

Government ownership of the means of production would mean that politicians also own the consequences of their policies, and have to face responsibility when those consequences are disastrous. This is something that Obama wants to avoid.

Applying this principle to ObamaCare, it means this administration can arbitrarily force insurance companies to cover the children of their customers until the children are 26 years old.  Obviously, this creates favorable publicity for President Obama.  But when  this and other government edicts cause insurance premiums to rise, then that is something that can be blamed on the "greed" of the insurance companies.

The same principle, or lack of principle, applies to many other privately owned businesses.  It is a very successful political ploy that can be adapted to all sorts of situations.

What socialism, fascism and other ideologies of the left have in common is an assumption that some very wise people -- like themselves -- need to take decisions out of the hands of lesser people, like the rest of us, and impose upon us those decisions made by the government.  In the United States, however, this conflicts with a Constitution that begins, "We the People..."

That is why the left has for more than a century been trying to get the Constitution's limitations on government loosened or evaded by judges' new interpretations, based on notions of "a living Constitution" that will take decisions out of the hands of "We the People," and transfer those decisions to our betters.

The self-flattery of the vision of the left also gives its true believers a huge ego stake in that vision, which means that mere facts are unlikely to make them reconsider, regardless of what evidence piles up against the vision of the left, and regardless of its disastrous consequences.

Only our own awareness of the huge stakes involved can save us from the rampaging presumptions of politicians, whether they are called socialists or fascists.  So long as we buy their heady rhetoric, we are selling our birthright of freedom. 

We have the opportunity this November to undo the change this President has forced upon our country.  WE MUST NOT BLOW THIS OPPORTUNITY.