"Is 0bama a Socialist or a Fascist?"

[TBoneTX 45,469]

Is Obama a Socialist or a Fascist?

Thomas Sowell

It bothers me a little when conservatives call Barack Obama a "socialist." He certainly is an enemy of the free market, and he wants politicians and bureaucrats to make the fundamental decisions about the economy. But that does not mean he wants government ownership of the means of production, which has long been a standard definition of socialism.

What President Obama has been pushing for, and moving toward, is more insidious: government control of the economy, while leaving ownership in private hands. That way, politicians get to call the shots but, when their bright ideas lead to disaster, they can always blame those who own businesses in the private sector.

Politically, it is heads-I-win when things go right, and tails-you-lose when things go wrong. This is far preferable, from Obama's point of view, since it gives him a variety of scapegoats for all his failed policies, without having to use President Bush as a scapegoat all the time.

Government ownership of the means of production means that politicians also own the consequences of their policies, and have to face responsibility when those consequences are disastrous – something Barack Obama avoids like the plague.

Thus the Obama administration can arbitrarily force insurance companies to cover the children of their customers until the children are 26 years old. Obviously, this creates favorable publicity for President Obama. But if this and other government edicts cause insurance premiums to rise, then that is something that can be blamed on the "greed" of the insurance companies.

The same principle, or lack of principle, applies to many other privately owned businesses. It is a very successful political ploy that can be adapted to all sorts of situations.

One of the reasons why both pro-Obama and anti-Obama observers may be reluctant to see him as fascist is that both tend to accept the prevailing notion that fascism is on the political right, while it is obvious that Obama is on the political left.

Back in the 1920s, however, when fascism was a new political development, it was widely – and correctly – regarded as being on the political left. Jonah Goldberg’s great book, "Liberal Fascism," cites overwhelming evidence of the fascists' consistent pursuit of the goals of the left, and of the left's embrace of the fascists as one of their own during the 1920s.

Mussolini, the originator of fascism, was lionized by the left, both in Europe and in America, during the 1920s. Even Hitler, who adopted fascist ideas in the 1920s, was seen by some, including W.E.B. Du Bois, as a man of the left.

It was in the 1930s, when ugly internal and international actions by Hitler and Mussolini repelled the world, that the left distanced itself from fascism and its Nazi offshoot – and verbally transferred these totalitarian dictatorships to the right, saddling opponents with these pariahs.

What socialism, fascism and other ideologies of the left have in common is an assumption that some very wise people – like themselves – need to take decisions out of the hands of lesser people, like the rest of us, and impose those decisions by government fiat.

The left's vision is not only a vision of the world, but also a vision of themselves as superior beings pursuing superior ends. In the United States, however, this vision conflicts with a Constitution that begins, "We the People..."

That is why the left has for more than a century been trying to get the Constitution's limitations on government loosened or evaded by judges' new interpretations, based on notions of "a living Constitution" that will take decisions out of the hands of "We the People," and transfer those decisions to our betters.

The self-flattery of the vision of the left also gives its true believers a huge ego stake in that vision, which means that mere facts are unlikely to make them reconsider, regardless of what evidence piles up against the vision of the left and regardless of its disastrous consequences.

Only our own awareness of the huge stakes involved can save us from the rampaging presumptions of our betters, whether they are called socialists or fascists. So long as we buy their heady rhetoric, we are selling our birthright of freedom.

http://www.wnd.com/2012/06/is-obama-a-socialist-or-a-fascist/

[mawilson 2,133]

He is a facialist.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

Ah yes Fascism. You can tell the world is going to hell by just looking at history.

In the 1930s the Fascists were putting people to death.

In 2010s the apparent Fascists are creating laws extending healthcare coverage.

Whats wrong with the world???

[mawilson 2,133]

Ah yes Fascism. You can tell the world is going to hell by just looking at history.

In the 1930s the Fascists were putting people to death.

In 2010s the apparent Fascists are creating laws extending healthcare coverage.

Whats wrong with the world???

You know the world is fcuked up when the best basketball player is Chinese, the best rapper is white, the best golfer is black, the French think we're too arrogant and the Germans think we go to war too easily.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

You know the world is fcuked up when the best basketball player is Chinese, the best rapper is white, the best golfer is black, the French think we're too arrogant and the Germans think we go to war too easily.

All we need now is for the KKK to start providing scholarships for ethnic minorities. If that happens, I'm running for the hills.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

You know the world is fcuked up when the best basketball player is Chinese, the best rapper is white, the best golfer is black, the French think we're too arrogant and the Germans think we go to war too easily.

All we need now is for the KKK to start providing scholarships for ethnic minorities. If that happens, I'm running for the hills.

[Captain Oates 911]

All we need now is for the KKK to start providing scholarships for ethnic minorities. If that happens, I'm running for the hills.

....don't run through Georgia - along the KKK highway - and don't 'axe' for directions down there

The right wing in all the rest of the world is seen as fascist

Only in the USA is the right wing seen as the opposite of that - ie libertarian - and respectable

The US is impressively un-self-aware in that regard

The Conservative Prime Minister in the UK swears to defend socialised medicine to his last breath and is in love with concept

Obama is a mile to the right of that and is described as a socialist !

The evidence is in and the US is a far right society and will be even if Obama is re-elected

I know people who think they are semi-commies and they are glued to MSNBC day and night - but ask them a few questions and they are actually a long way right of what is the center of politics in all the industrialized nations.

Ask a Canadian

Edited June 12, 2012 by Ashud Cocoa

[JimandChristy 1,689]

....don't run through Georgia - along the KKK highway - and don't 'axe' for directions down there

The right wing in all the rest of the world is seen as fascist

Only in the USA is the right wing seen as the opposite of that - ie libertarian - and respectable

The US is impressively un-self-aware in that regard

The Conservative Prime Minister in the UK swears to defend socialised medicine to his last breath and is in love with concept

Obama is a mile to the right of that and is described as a socialist !

The evidence is in and the US is a far right society and will be even if Obama is re-elected

I know people who think they are semi-commies and they are glued to MSNBC day and night - but ask them a few questions and they are actually a long way right of what is the center of politics in all the industrialized nations.

Ask a Canadian

Agree, socialism is a dirty word in the US particularly to the conservatives, irony is they staunchly support the most expensive socialist program on the planet. The American political compass is much further to the right than that of our home country though not entirely sure where I think the overlap would be between US and UK politics.

[Captain Oates 911]

Agree, socialism is a dirty word in the US particularly to the conservatives, irony is they staunchly support the most expensive socialist program on the planet. The American political compass is much further to the right than that of our home country though not entirely sure where I think the overlap would be between US and UK politics.

There is no overlap between any European politics and the US.

No 1st world politician outside the US could say 'let the sick die in the street if they have no insurance'. You can here that here.

No 1st world politician outside the US could get applause for an electric fence to electrocute illegal immigrants

No 1st world politician outside the US could describe the hundreds of people he had sent for execution and get whoops of applause

etc etc

It's quite hair-raising to most unsuspecting Europeans who hear this stuff for the first time in their lives.

Obama is a far right politician by the politics of any European country

If any 1st world country killed over 2,800 people using anonymous drones controlled from thousands of miles away using information supplied by locals who had a beef with those people, there would be a lot of questioning by the home population. In the US ? Nothing.

[웃 910]

You know the world is fcuked up when the best basketball player is Chinese, the best rapper is white, the best golfer is black, the French think we're too arrogant and the Germans think we go to war too easily.

And the president of the US is a foreign-born black Muslim from Africa, educated in Indonesia in a Madrasah, with known ties to domestic and foreign terrorism, named Barack Hussein by his father, Barack Hussein, also Muslim.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

And the president of the US is a foreign-born black Muslim from Africa, educated in Indonesia in a Madrasah, with known ties to domestic and foreign terrorism, named Barack Hussein by his father, Barack Hussein, also Muslim.

Hawaii is a foreign country? Who knew???

[Darnell 8,478]

i think Obama is leaning to the 'socialist-marxist' label this year and last.

I truly wish there was a different PAC that funded his first election campaign.

grrrr.

[Captain Oates 911]

And the president of the US is a foreign-born black Muslim from Africa, educated in Indonesia in a Madrasah, with known ties to domestic and foreign terrorism, named Barack Hussein by his father, Barack Hussein, also Muslim.

That's rubbish - he is an Eskimo who bought a defective sun lamp bought from a Donald Trump hotel bankruptcy sale. His mother was paddling a canoe in Alaskan waters at the time of his birth but on the international line between Russian and US waters. It is possible that his left leg is Russian and the right is US. What's the rule there ? Does it say 'wholly' natural born in the Constitution ?

The Eskimo word for 'genius' in their clicking language is Barro'k

His only tie to terrorism is that he has visited Oklahoma where they kill abortion doctors - and also Alabama where they MURDER black schoolgirls and lynch black farmers.

Contrary to the understanding of ignorant tea party people, the Constitution does NOT have a ban on Muslims or black people or even intelligent people. I am hoping they don't realize that or they will try for a Constitutional amendment so that only fat white men with goatee beards who have trucks with NASCAR stickers and huntin' dawgs in the back are eligible.

The USA is very fortunate in having one of the coolest and most intelligent and clear thinking Americans of the last 100 years at the time of their greatest danger in 2008.

I don't think anyone else could have handled the situation where 700,000 (SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND) Americans A MONTH were losing their jobs. I felt so sorry for the massive weight placed on one man's shoulders. He took it and handled it and every Republican should pray by their beds tonight that they were so fortunate to have such a superb President in their hour of need.

Perhaps God did bless America after all and their prayers were answered by a President who has grown private sector jobs every month since

and the proposed solution ? An asset stripping Mormon ? Do you realize what those guys believe ? You should ... alien spaceships and guitar playing Jesus' in blue jeans and no coffee all the rest of it

Barrack is the finest American since LBJ

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Hawaii is a foreign country? Who knew???

It was, until the missionaries showed up, made them start wearing clothes, and stole all the land. When the Hawaiians wouldn't work the land, they brought in Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos, as well as Samoans, and anybody else they press into service.

[웃 910]

Spelling Obama with a 0 as the O. That is very clever! Did you think of that yourself? Nol, man!