"Obama is a socialist."

[oldhat]

Socialism: I do not think that word means what conservatives think it means.

 

[Praktik]

y'see, even that tiny sliver is too much - cause what the Free Market Fundamentalists worry about most is the "slippery slope": 82.3 billion today - 39.2 trillion tomorrow!!

 

[headscratcher4]

y'see, even that tiny sliver is too much - cause what the Free Market Fundamentalists worry about most is the "slippery slope": 82.3 billion today - 39.2 trillion tomorrow!!

It will be at least a week from tomorrow, he has to wait until he's completely taken over the media and nationalized the Fox network, and Soros isn't even on his calendar till later in the month....

 

[maddog]

I do not think that this chart fairly represents how much of the economy is controlled or dominated by the government, nor does it have much to do with whether or not Obama has socialist tendencies.

 

[oldhat]

What, pray tell, are socialist tendencies?

No, Hugo Chavez giving Obama a book doesn't count.

Who was that unreconstructed Marxist-Leninist who rammed through that $700 bank bailout in the first place?

 

[Brainster]

Isn't it generally considered communism when the government actually owns the means of production, rather than just taxing the heck out of it as in Socialism?

Get your strawmen straight!

 

[shecky]

The problem with this nonsense is that the Republicans have kind of overplayed their hand with the "Socialist!" stuff. In reality, the US isn't significantly more socialist (or communist) than it has been since the New Deal. The use of those words as scare tactics have simply worn thin. The graph simply illustrates one of the reasons why those tactics have worn thin.

 

[Cain]

Isn't it generally considered communism when the government actually owns the means of production, rather than just taxing the heck out of it as in Socialism?

Get your strawmen straight!

Get your definitions straight: a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole. Also, you're not supposed to capitalize "socialism."

ETA: We could arguably have the distribution of ownership depicted in the OP's graph and still be socialistic, assuming we understand the term in its best sense: workplace democracy (or, "the people who labor in the steel mills, own the steel mills). But that definition is so far removed from the American experience it would be like explaining an iPod to hunter-gatherers.

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

Isn't it generally considered communism when the government actually owns the means of production, rather than just taxing the heck out of it as in Socialism?

Get your strawmen straight!

That's not how Socialism works...

 

[Lucky]

Isn't it generally considered communism when the government actually owns the means of production, rather than just taxing the heck out of it as in Socialism?

Get your strawmen straight!

No, as Cain says, socialists advocate social ownership of the means of production (unless the word means something different in the US than the rest of the world).

Can someone explain to me why the right do this? They redefine 'socialist' so widely as to include anyone to the left of Margaret Thatcher, and then proceed to use it as a term of abuse! Isn't this a trifle contradictory?

 

[Cain]

Can someone explain to me why the right do this?

Apparently it's because the liberal slur was no longer working. They needed to punch up the rhetoric a bit. "Socialist" has always been there, of course... I vividly recall Limbaugh calling Clinton "the most socialist" president since FDR.

 

[oldhat]

Isn't it generally considered communism when the government actually owns the means of production, rather than just taxing the heck out of it as in Socialism?

Get your strawmen straight!

You're right, Obama raised the marginal tax rate on those poor people making over a quarter million dollars a year -- to 10% less than what it was under Ronald Reagan.

Does that make the Gipper Leon Trotsky?

Get your facts straight!

 

[Ysidro]

Apparently it's because the liberal slur was no longer working. They needed to punch up the rhetoric a bit. "Socialist" has always been there, of course... I vividly recall Limbaugh calling Clinton "the most socialist" president since FDR.

Every non-Republican president is "the most socialist" president since FDR to them. It's like the neo-con record keeps skipping at that point.*

*Kids, ask your parents about that one.

 

[Upchurch]

Every non-Republican president is "the most socialist" president since FDR to them.

In the last two elections, the non-Republican presidential candidate has been "the most liberal Senator" in history of forever. What an amazing coincidence. Fortunately, it will be another 7-ish years before we have to hear that one again.

 

[hgc]

Every non-Republican president is "the most socialist" president since FDR to them. It's like the neo-con record keeps skipping at that point.*

*Kids, ask your parents about that one.

But here's the joke: The USSR went out of existence almost 20 years ago. There's a whole new generation of voters (and an old generation with a short memory) who have no idea what "Socialism" is or why it's supposed to be an insult.

The GOP is playing in the 2009 Wimbledon with wooden rackets. They've got to get new rhetorical equipment.

 

[Cleon]

but here's the joke: The ussr went out of existence almost 20 years ago. There's a whole new generation of voters (and an old generation with a short memory) who have no idea what "socialism" is or why it's supposed to be an insult.

The gop is playing in the 2009 wimbledon with wooden rackets. They've got to get new rhetorical equipment.

правда!

 

[Random]

But here's the joke: The USSR went out of existence almost 20 years ago. There's a whole new generation of voters (and an old generation with a short memory) who have no idea what "Socialism" is or why it's supposed to be an insult.

The GOP is playing in the 2009 Wimbledon with wooden rackets. They've got to get new rhetorical equipment.

Hey, the GOP is supposed to be conservative. That's why they haven't changed their presidential election strategy in over four decades...

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

The next thing you know, people with socialist tendencies will be demanding the right to get married.

 

[MattusMaximus]

[qimg]http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o193/noahyzimmerman/socialism_chart.jpg[/qimg]

Socialism: I do not think that word means what conservatives think it means.

"Socialism" has become a catch-all term for meaning "anything we don't like about Obama's governmental and/or economic policies."

Or another way of putting it is this: "socialist" is the new "liberal" on the right.

 

[Geezer]

<snip>

Get your strawmen straight!

Why should they, facts only get in the way.