M2RB:
This country's sure as hell been goin' down the drain
We know what we need
We know who to blame
United Socialist States of America
Don't ya just love that name?
I'll keep the USA and y'all can keep the change
By Paul Roderick Gregory, Forbes
Pew Research finds that sixty percent of Americans respond negatively to “socialism.” It is clear why President Barack Obama must avoid that label. Words are important. Political candidates who control the language of political discourse win elections.
Most of our elites would certainly not entertain the question: “Is
Obama a socialist?” Only irresponsible fanatics carelessly throw around
such epithets, they say. Polite circles ignore such goofiness.
As someone who has professionally studied and written about
comparative economics, capitalism, and socialism for almost fifty years,
the reticence to probe the core beliefs of a political leader seems
odd. The question is perfectly legitimate in both an academic and
political context as long as we define terms and place the discussion in
proper context.
By “socialist,” I do not mean a Lenin, Castro, or Mao, but whether
Obama falls within the mainstream of contemporary socialism as
represented, for example, by Germany’s Social Democrats, French
Socialists, or Spain’s socialist-workers party?
By this criterion, yes, Obama is a socialist.
The socialist parties of Europe trace their origins to reform
Marxism. After Marx’s death in 1883, Europe’s Marxists rejected the
Bolsheviks’ call for socialist revolution and worked within the
political system for Marxist goals. Marxists, such as Karl Leibknecht,
August Bebel, Paul Lafargue, Leon Blum, and others, formed the socialist
parties that we know today. Most emerged from the trade-union movement,
and they retain close ties with organized labor today, as does Obama’s
Democrat Party.
Whereas, the eighteenth century liberalism of John Locke and Adam
Smith gave us our constitution and limited government, Marxism provided
the intellectual foundations of the European welfare state.
The European socialists have their welfare state. Even their
conservative opponents no longer question the “social state,” despite
rising concern about its affordability. In the United States, we are
fighting the battle of the welfare state, and we do not know what the
outcome will be.
The European welfare state takes one half of national output to
provide state health care, pensions, extended unemployment benefits,
income grants, and free higher education. Failed nationalizations taught
European socialists to leave enterprise in private hands and coerce it
through taxation and regulation to contribute to what the state deems
the “social welfare.”
The November 2011 Declaration of Principles of the Party of European
Socialists (PES) summarizes the European socialist agenda. I condense
its main points and compare them with Obama’s statements and legislative
initiatives:
PES: The welfare state and state-provided universal access to education and health care are society’s great achievements.
Obama: Favors universal access to health care and associated benefits as a critical expansion of the welfare state.
PES: A strong and just society must ensure that the wealth generated by all is shared fairly as determined by the state.
Obama: Favors progressive taxes on the rich to redistribute income
and wealth from winners to losers and to ensure that all pay their fair
share. (As he has said: “When you spread the wealth around, it’s good
for everybody.”)
PES: Collective responsibility makes society stronger when people
work together, and all people are enabled to live a dignified life, free
of poverty and protected from social risks in life.
Obama: Favors collective responsibility (as defined by the federal
government) to protect all from social risks through food stamps,
welfare programs, extended unemployment benefits, guaranteed health
care, the bailing out of big companies, forcing renegotiation of
mortgages, class action law suits, and other measures. (Instead of
opportunity and incentive to succeed, no one is allowed to fail).
PES: The state must insure that economic growth is environmentally “sustainable.”
Obama: Favors carbon taxes, higher energy prices, restricted drilling
and refining, and subsidies of green technology for the “common good,”
even at the expenses of higher conventional growth and jobs.
PES: If unfettered by state control, market forces, driven by and
greed and shift power to the privileged few, deepen economic, geographic
and social inequalities, and create economic crises.
Obama: Shows a distrust of market forces and advocates selective
regulation, subsidies, and taxation to persuade or coerce business to
promote the general welfare as he defines it. Industries not part of his
collective endeavor (oil and gas and coal) are penalized. Industries
that serve his conception of “general welfare” (green technology) are to
be promoted even if the market rejects them.
PES: Ensuring long lasting prosperity, stability and above all, peace
requires effective coordination in the international realm based on
democracy, mutual respect, and human rights.
Obama: Places reliance on international institutions, international
consensus, and mutual respect in the conduct of foreign policy. (The
United States must coordinate its foreign policy with international
organizations and treat even rogue nations with respect in the hope that
they will voluntarily improve their behavior).
PES: A strong state must preserve the public good, guarantee the
common interest, promote justice and solidarity and allow people to lead
lives rich beyond material wealth, so that each individual’s
fulfillment is also part of a collective endeavor.
Obama: Advocates a strong state that offers the “positive right” of
political and economic justice to its citizens. He complains that the
U.S. Constitution is a “charter of negative liberties,” that dictates
what government “can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal
government or the state government must do on your behalf.”
If the Party of European Socialists were to rate Obama, he would get a
near perfect score. The political views and programs that Obama is
prepared to reveal to the public are consistent with those of European
socialists. He is clearly a socialist in the European sense of the term.
If the “socialist label” sticks, Obama faces an even more uphill 2012
campaign. In scripted moments – like Tuesday’s State of the Union
Address — he must present his socialist campaign themes while avoiding
the appearance of being a socialist.
Obama must worry most about those slips in unscripted moments that, I
believe, reveal a deep animosity towards private enterprise. He has
given us a few fleeting glimpses, such as his complaint about the
Constitution’s “negative rights and his off-the-cuff “spread the wealth
around” remark. His most recent and significant slip was to tell Occupy Wall Street protesters: “You are the reason I ran for office.”
Obama’s defenders will counter that Republicans also accept Social
Security and a progressive income tax and that his slips are taken out
of context. But these criticisms fail to address the remarkable
coincidence of Obama’s views with those of European socialists. By
comparing Obama not to Lenin or Mao but to European socialism, we have
placed the question “Is Obama a socialist?” in a fair and appropriate
context.
Our political discourse is conducted largely in the language of the
left, to the disadvantage of conservatives. After all, who can oppose
“fairness, justice, dignified life, or sustainable growth?” Only
sophisticated observers understand that these are code words for
something else. They are all excuses for the state to take from one
group to give to another or to coerce people or businesses to do
something they do not want to do otherwise. The more powerful the state,
the greater the risk of state coercion under the guise of noble aims.
Enhancing the size, scope, and power of the state vis-Ã -vis the private
sector may be Obama’s ultimate objective.
This country was founded on the principle that individuals should not
be subject to the control of a powerful state. That founding idea has
never before been in greater peril.
Paul Roderick Gregory‘s latest book, ”Politics, Murder, and Love in Stalin’s Kremlin: The Story of Nikolai Bukharin and Anna Larina, ” can be found at amazon.com.
Related Reading
Is President Obama Truly A Socialist?
French Socialists Test Ride Obama Platform
Is It Within Bounds To Ask: Is Obama A Socialist?
"Keep The Change"
I'll keep my freedom
I'll keep my guns
Try to keep my money
And my religion too
Try to keep on workin'
Try to keep on smilin'
I will keep my Christian name
And y'all can keep the change
I'll keep my heroes
Pictures on the wall
I'll keep my family safe
You bluff when I call
I'm gonna keep my big V8
Keep my friends the same
Keep the government outta my business
And y'all can keep the change
This country's sure as hell been goin' down the drain
We know what we need
We know who to blame
United Socialist States of America
How do you like that name?
I'll keep the USA and y'all can keep the change
So FOX and friends
Wanna put me down
Ask for my opinion
Then twist it all around
Supposed to be talkin' about my father's new CD
Well two can play that "Gotcha Game" just wait and see
Don't tread on me
This country's sure as hell been goin' down the drain
We know what we need
We know who to blame
United Socialist States of America
Don't ya just love that name?
I'll keep the USA and y'all can keep the change
I'll keep the USA and y'all can keep the change
Yeah, you can keep FOX and friends and ESPN outta your homes too
Cause Bocephus and all his rowdy friends and his song is outta there!
Yessir!
I'll keep my guns
Try to keep my money
And my religion too
Try to keep on workin'
Try to keep on smilin'
I will keep my Christian name
And y'all can keep the change
I'll keep my heroes
Pictures on the wall
I'll keep my family safe
You bluff when I call
I'm gonna keep my big V8
Keep my friends the same
Keep the government outta my business
And y'all can keep the change
This country's sure as hell been goin' down the drain
We know what we need
We know who to blame
United Socialist States of America
How do you like that name?
I'll keep the USA and y'all can keep the change
So FOX and friends
Wanna put me down
Ask for my opinion
Then twist it all around
Supposed to be talkin' about my father's new CD
Well two can play that "Gotcha Game" just wait and see
Don't tread on me
This country's sure as hell been goin' down the drain
We know what we need
We know who to blame
United Socialist States of America
Don't ya just love that name?
I'll keep the USA and y'all can keep the change
I'll keep the USA and y'all can keep the change
Yeah, you can keep FOX and friends and ESPN outta your homes too
Cause Bocephus and all his rowdy friends and his song is outta there!
Yessir!
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