I was reading this blog post on the Florida Progressive Coalition Blog, Florida’s most useful idiots, where they assert that Barack Hussein Obama is not a socialist, because the socialists say so. To begin with, the socialists in this country would never feed into the accusations that Obama is a socialist because it would only push their agenda back by giving the Right more evidence about his socialist-ness. So in itself, the Socialist Party’s rejection of Obama means nothing. The interesting thing is that if you read their reasons for rejecting him, you realize that he actually is a socialist, about 100%.

First, the Socialist Party USA’s spokesperson asserts that socialists advocate direct nationalization of the financial industry. Apparently, buying and controlling majority stake in several major financial institutions is not going far enough. The only difference between what the administration has done and direct nationalization is that the government has taken over certain companies and banks “temporarily.” We saw that the government took majority stake in GM, unions were given majority stake of Chrysler, so far this year 81 banks have been seized by the state, and the government has huge stakes in several major banks… at what point can we cry nationalization? Politically, direct nationalization is impossible in America, no matter how loved the dear leader is. So the government takes the first approach, de facto nationalization and a second approach, destroying private industry. This is evident in the Cap-and-Trade proposal that, in Obama’s own, un-spun words, would “bankrupt” the coal industry. This is evident in the Public Option plan that the Obama administration was pushing, one that would be taxpayer-funded and would destroy smaller private insurers. So when the socialists say that Obama is not pursuing nationalization, their real concern is the speed at which Obama destroys private enterprise and increases government control. Obama’s socialism is socialism by increments.

On the issue of Health Care Reform, the socialists point out that Obama wants to create mandates that would force people to buy health insurance and therefore, they reason, that this actually helps the private insurance industry and is not a socialist plan. Either the socialists are lying or their are oblivious to reality. If the administration introduces a “public option” that is cheaper and subsidized, then the mandates will disproportionately help the government-run insurance program and end up destroying the rest of the industry, except for the very expensive ones. Mandates coupled with a public option of some sort will only accelerate government’s control of health care… but from all indications, it looks like the mandates have been dropped. Obama has made it clear that he favors single-payer universal health care but cannot get there right now and that the best way is to get there through a public option program. Socialists want single-payer right now. Again, it’s an issue of speed, not goals. Obama’s socialism is socialism by increments.

On the last issue of war policy, again the problem that the socialists have is that Obama has not called for a complete withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. Apparently, Obama is not defeatist enough. What the administration has done is plan to significantly reduce the number of troops in Iraq while somewhat increasing our presence in Afghanistan. His policy is one that decidedly draws us down and eventually takes us out of the region completely. Already, administration officials are in secret talks with the Taliban, probably planning our exit from there as well. Again, it’s an issue of speed, not goals. Obama’s socialism is socialism by increments.

So, is Obama a socialist? In my opinion, he tends towards socialism. He is taking an incremental approach to socialism in this country, particularly because Americans would never stand for such a society and the Constitution does not grant the federal government the necessary powers to become a full socialist state. Little by little, through a progressive taxation scheme that has the top 5% pay more taxes than the bottom 95%, through class and social divisions like affirmative action and identity politics, through the de facto nationalization of whole industries, and through massive federal spending, the government bureaucrats and socialists are inching their way towards socialism. Americans need live and vote like we are only one inch away from this “worker’s paradise.”

-AG