Robby Glenn
09-04-2010, 08:27 PM
Ever since the Obama Administration won the election in 2008 the Right has mobilized a fear campaign against the administration that draws heavily on the elements of Illegal Immigration, Nationalism and most of all Obama's apparent "socialism". The use of the term socialism however seems a bit misleading. Socialism is a political theory that developed during the 19th century in Europe and the United States as a response to the hyper exploitative conditions of factory/mining labor. In the United States Socialism was in its height during the first few decades of the 20th century, before being brutally repressed under Woodrow Wilson’s Espionage Act with the assistance of the FBI. For example the International Workers of the World (IWW) was one of the biggest socialist organizations in the United States with over 500,000 members whom participated in numerous national strikes and campaigned for the rights of the poor. Socialist Presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs won nearly one million votes in his 1920 presidential bid.
Strictly speaking Socialism is and always has been a working class ideology. Socialism’s dynamic history has created many different shades of socialism from Lenin's idea of a all powerful state that owns all means of production to the Libertarian Socialism of Bakunin and Kropotkin in which the people of the world, without the mediation of the state or corporations, control all the means of production democratically sharing wealth from the bottom-up "from each according to ability to each based on need". If any central principle can be gleaned from the complex often contradicting shades of socialist theory it is that government money should be spent more on social programs that benefit the common taxpayer such as programs in education, health care, ect. The idea here being that if the people have the means to provide for themselves then they will then be able to carry on creative projects of their own unhindered by having to slave for a boss in a job that does nothing to enhance the persons own personal interest. It is because of the courageous actions of socialists and other labor organizers that we have laws that protect against child labor, cruel long working hours, unsafe or hazardous working conditions and slave wages. .
So with that said is the Obama administration typical of a "socialism" as the Right has indicated, I think not. Obama's Education budget was only 42 billion with a welfare budget for needy families of only 23 billion compare that to the Military budget of $663.8 billion which was larger then Bushes budget ever was. Obama has also continued to wage expensive imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has cost millions of lives. Obama has done nothing to end the CIA’s and other secret military organizations that train and arm military dictatorships in any third world nation that does not follow lock step to corporate interest, socialist or otherwise (see Chile, Nicaragua, Iran, and most recently Honduras). Obama has not passed the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for American workers to form unions at their workplace. Which brings me to my next point. Obama may not be a socialist for the poor but he is a great socialist for the rich, for his continued support for "corporate welfare" that is the billions of taxpayer dollars that is given to some of the richest corporations in the world. According the CATO institute this exchange amounted to some 92 billion in 2006 under the Bush administration. And that was before the Bailouts under both the Bush and Obama administrations, which have funneled trillions of dollars from the working/middle class to the richest top 5%.
With all this in mind it would seem absurd in fact out right wrong to say Obama is anything close to a socialist, in fact it would seem absurd to me to even refer to him as being "left" at all. Obama is continuing the capitalist right wing imperialist program that Regan initiated in the 1980s a program that puts corporate profits above the welfare of the general public. Under Obama we continue to see more capital flight from the United States as businesses pack their bags fire their domestic workers and move their operations overseas to countries that offer a cheaper labor supply, leaving a generation of workers without unions or good paying manufacturing jobs that once allowed the working class somewhat of a financial future. The government should be investing in health care and the repair of decaying public housing and other infrastructure/municipal programs. Imagine if we just took 100 billion from the defense fund and put it towards education, health care or other necessities. Imagine if the wealth in the USA actually was spent on the betterment of everybody’s livelihoods instead of enhancing the welfare of the wealthy few.
Strictly speaking Socialism is and always has been a working class ideology. Socialism’s dynamic history has created many different shades of socialism from Lenin's idea of a all powerful state that owns all means of production to the Libertarian Socialism of Bakunin and Kropotkin in which the people of the world, without the mediation of the state or corporations, control all the means of production democratically sharing wealth from the bottom-up "from each according to ability to each based on need". If any central principle can be gleaned from the complex often contradicting shades of socialist theory it is that government money should be spent more on social programs that benefit the common taxpayer such as programs in education, health care, ect. The idea here being that if the people have the means to provide for themselves then they will then be able to carry on creative projects of their own unhindered by having to slave for a boss in a job that does nothing to enhance the persons own personal interest. It is because of the courageous actions of socialists and other labor organizers that we have laws that protect against child labor, cruel long working hours, unsafe or hazardous working conditions and slave wages. .
So with that said is the Obama administration typical of a "socialism" as the Right has indicated, I think not. Obama's Education budget was only 42 billion with a welfare budget for needy families of only 23 billion compare that to the Military budget of $663.8 billion which was larger then Bushes budget ever was. Obama has also continued to wage expensive imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has cost millions of lives. Obama has done nothing to end the CIA’s and other secret military organizations that train and arm military dictatorships in any third world nation that does not follow lock step to corporate interest, socialist or otherwise (see Chile, Nicaragua, Iran, and most recently Honduras). Obama has not passed the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for American workers to form unions at their workplace. Which brings me to my next point. Obama may not be a socialist for the poor but he is a great socialist for the rich, for his continued support for "corporate welfare" that is the billions of taxpayer dollars that is given to some of the richest corporations in the world. According the CATO institute this exchange amounted to some 92 billion in 2006 under the Bush administration. And that was before the Bailouts under both the Bush and Obama administrations, which have funneled trillions of dollars from the working/middle class to the richest top 5%.
With all this in mind it would seem absurd in fact out right wrong to say Obama is anything close to a socialist, in fact it would seem absurd to me to even refer to him as being "left" at all. Obama is continuing the capitalist right wing imperialist program that Regan initiated in the 1980s a program that puts corporate profits above the welfare of the general public. Under Obama we continue to see more capital flight from the United States as businesses pack their bags fire their domestic workers and move their operations overseas to countries that offer a cheaper labor supply, leaving a generation of workers without unions or good paying manufacturing jobs that once allowed the working class somewhat of a financial future. The government should be investing in health care and the repair of decaying public housing and other infrastructure/municipal programs. Imagine if we just took 100 billion from the defense fund and put it towards education, health care or other necessities. Imagine if the wealth in the USA actually was spent on the betterment of everybody’s livelihoods instead of enhancing the welfare of the wealthy few.