Comrade Obama
Red-Baiting has been a staple of right-wing attack politics for more than a century, and lately, we've been experiencing a particular renaissance. President Obama has been labeled a Socialist by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Jonah Goldberg, and the ditzy comedienne who used to do handstands on "Saturday Night Live".
But Obama is not a Socialist. Take it from your old pal Friedrich Engels. On Tuesday, the president called himself "a New Democrat," and that he is. Ergo our problem. Obama says he's pro-growth, opposes protectionism, and supports free trade. His appointees in the Treasury have been adamant that "nationalizing the banks" is not an option currently on the radar. Spokespersons in Health and Human Services won't touch single-payer health insurance with a 10-foot pole, still arguing that our defective health care system can be fixed "by building on" the current one involving private insurers and by "modernizing" Social Security.
At a public health forum this week, Obama told Iowa Senator Charles Grassley that he was concerned that "private insurance plans might end up feeling overwhelmed" by any radical changes to the health care system. So evidently, the real agenda in that arena is not to make coverage more readily available or more cost-efficient to Americans, but in continuing to protect the middle-men who have been jacking up the price.
"Socialist" ideas are easy to recognize. They're the ones that have worked-- Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits, federal deposit insurance, market regulation and oversight, a minimum wage, rural electrification and national parks.
And here are some ideas that have proven not to work, or offer little hope-- deregulation (casino capitalism), privately-administered health care, and corporate handouts disguised as altruistic public relief programs.
Calling President Obama a Socialist is an insult to our American Socialist forebears who did the heavy lifting of introducing and championing the successful ideas listed above.
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A.I.G executives just took Obama's lunch money.
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As of tomorrow, it will be two full weeks since The Des Moines Register published the accusations of an Iowa state representative accusing members of the public interest group, Citizens for Community Improvement, of physically threatening her over the phone and running her off the road into a ditch near her home. In those two weeks since, there have been no follow-up stories on her slanderous accusations. As far any news consumer can surmise, the state rep, Delores Mertz, has not been asked to produce the audio tape she claims to have that indicts the organization or its members. There has been no follow-up by the Register or challenge to her outrageous claims whatsoever. If similar accusations had been leveled by an elected official against, say, members of the Principal Financial board of directors, do you think there would have been some sort of follow-up in the paper?
But Obama is not a Socialist. Take it from your old pal Friedrich Engels. On Tuesday, the president called himself "a New Democrat," and that he is. Ergo our problem. Obama says he's pro-growth, opposes protectionism, and supports free trade. His appointees in the Treasury have been adamant that "nationalizing the banks" is not an option currently on the radar. Spokespersons in Health and Human Services won't touch single-payer health insurance with a 10-foot pole, still arguing that our defective health care system can be fixed "by building on" the current one involving private insurers and by "modernizing" Social Security.
At a public health forum this week, Obama told Iowa Senator Charles Grassley that he was concerned that "private insurance plans might end up feeling overwhelmed" by any radical changes to the health care system. So evidently, the real agenda in that arena is not to make coverage more readily available or more cost-efficient to Americans, but in continuing to protect the middle-men who have been jacking up the price.
"Socialist" ideas are easy to recognize. They're the ones that have worked-- Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits, federal deposit insurance, market regulation and oversight, a minimum wage, rural electrification and national parks.
And here are some ideas that have proven not to work, or offer little hope-- deregulation (casino capitalism), privately-administered health care, and corporate handouts disguised as altruistic public relief programs.
Calling President Obama a Socialist is an insult to our American Socialist forebears who did the heavy lifting of introducing and championing the successful ideas listed above.
---
A.I.G executives just took Obama's lunch money.
---
As of tomorrow, it will be two full weeks since The Des Moines Register published the accusations of an Iowa state representative accusing members of the public interest group, Citizens for Community Improvement, of physically threatening her over the phone and running her off the road into a ditch near her home. In those two weeks since, there have been no follow-up stories on her slanderous accusations. As far any news consumer can surmise, the state rep, Delores Mertz, has not been asked to produce the audio tape she claims to have that indicts the organization or its members. There has been no follow-up by the Register or challenge to her outrageous claims whatsoever. If similar accusations had been leveled by an elected official against, say, members of the Principal Financial board of directors, do you think there would have been some sort of follow-up in the paper?
posted by CM @ 12:08 PM
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