It is 2009, and the same party controls the legislative and executive branches of government. This happens relevantly frequently, but there are a couple of issues that make this particular situation rather undesirable:
- The executive branch is held by a half-hearted socialist.
- The legislative majority holds a filibuster proof majority.
The situation reminds me of a very Thomas Jefferson quote:
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.
UPDATE (2009-07-07):
Apparently, there is some magical article people point to, to say that Obama is not a socialist. I am not exactly sure how a socialist even got published in a newspaper, but in the opinion piece he says that Obama is not a socialist. Considering that the individual is a socialist they are not really a credible source on any given matter.
I approved a couple of the comments with a link to the article, and a received a bunch of emails on the matter. Seriously, are people searching for “obama is a socialist” and then going to sites and giving people shit about it?
However, to a certain extend I can see how you could try to make the argument since he is not attempt to enact full fledged socialists policies. If he was, he would never have been elected. Instead, we are getting shit on with half-hearted socialism that is currently mainstream.
I don’t think it is necessarily wrong to call Obama a socialist, since I think that’s the direction he is headed. It would be impossible for him to make the transition as quickly as he would like, because there is still a stigma associated with socialism to some extent (justifiably so). It seems to me, if the socialists really wants Obama to remain popular, and slowly convert to socialist policies I would deny his affiliation.
UPDATE (2009-07-08):
My assessment that Obama is a socialist is speculative. I agree that his current actions are neither pro-socialism nor pro-capalist. They are a shitty hybrid of both that not at all productive use of resources.
I do not believe that stating that since he ran as a democrat rather than a socialist means he is not a socialist. It means he made a pragmatic decision in order to be electable. Unfortunately, in the United States we have a wretched two party system, whereby other parties must submarine themselves in order to have a shot at getting elected.
My point about socialists not being credible is because anyone that believe that socialism is a workable system are on the same level as people that believe they were abducted by aliens.
Since Matt Renfer has been commenting on this post, I’ll share the link to a post he wrote about the subject on his blog: For the Record: President Obama is Not a Socialist. I do not agree with his assessment, but I encourage everyone to take a look at it.
you have chosen an unfortunate talking point
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/13/AR2009031301899.html
If Obama was a socialist, why does the socialist party of America not even recognize him as one? In fact, they regard him as perpetuating capitalist ideas just as they would a republican president:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/13/AR2009031301899.html
I think it’s easy for someone to throw around the word. In reality, if Obama was a true socialist, it would be so much more widely called out–not just by a small portion of republicans/people who don’t know what true socialism means.
“I don’t think it is necessarily wrong to call Obama a Socialist.”
It’s not wrong. But it is inaccurate.
“Considering that the individual is a socialist they are not really a credible source on any given matter.”
So a Socialist doesn’t know the first thing about Socialism, but you do? That’s rather ambitious of you. Tell me: what makes you a credible source?
The point of the article was to show that even the Socialist party won’t see Obama as a Socialist. Doesn’t that mean that your claim that he is one holds no water?
I posted about this topic on my own blog if you want to read more about it: The Cultivator
Jeff,
I appreciate the link to my blog post. That was very considerate of you given our clash of views.
My visiting your site was to review DarkRoom, a program I use to help write with less distractions. I still intend to write this, so you will receive links to your site on my blog as well.
I will let you know when it gets posted. Thanks again.
You’re welcome on the link. I strongly believe that every one should be able to express their views and if my site can help facilitate that, all the better.
I hope that you’re enjoying dark room. I will soon be breaking it out of this site into is own domain, and will be open sourcing the different versions. Hopefully this will breath some much needed to life into the project.