Obama a Centrist?
If you are looking for something fun to read (and don’t have anything else to do) check out this blog post at http://agonist.org/ian_welsh/20080218/obama_and_health_care (The Agonist). Here is an excerpt:
“I remain befuddled and bemused at the way Obama supporters seem to think their man is particularly progressive. He’s a centrist, who chose Joe Lieberman as his Senate mentor and whose voting record is not significantly different from Clinton’s, including on key issues like the occupation of Iraq. He has very effectively built up a large following, whom he will betray in 2009 and 2010 with triangulation to the right. If he does pass a health care bill, as Mike says, it will be a massive insurance company sell-out like the drug benefit.”
So, Obama is a centrist? This is the guy that wants to raise the top tax bracket to over 39% and raise Social Security withholding taxes on high wage earners. According to the Wall Street Journal’s senior economic advisor, Stephen Moore (http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/6255/), upper end earners may end up paying over 50% of their income in Federal taxes (income, social security, and medicare). Obama is the same guy that wants to sit down and talk to our enemies in the world, which would prop up those regime’s leaders. I also think this is the same guy that wants to help people pay for college, pay bad credit card debt, make sure everyone is guarenteed health insurance, etc…. He just wants to help us all.
If Obama is a centrist, we are all in trouble if a “left of center” person is ever elected President.
February 27th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
The term “Centrist” is an interesting one. If you think on it, it is a matter of perspective totally. Is Obama a centrist, well yes, in the sense that he falls somewhere between John McCain and Hillary Clinton.
What we miss in the discussion is that the playing field has been changing for generations. Would Obama be a centrist in contrast with John Kennedy? Not at all. Kennedy was fiscally conservative with initiatives to control spending. Kennedy knew the appropriate use of the military to protect our country and the rights of our people. Obama clearly lacks that understanding. So, in contrast to Kennedy, Obama is a Leftist.
Would Obama be a centrist in contrast to FDR? Certainly not, although he would pay homage to his memory thinking on the programs which would begin the slowly degrading move to socialism. Still, I feel Obama would be a Leftist compared to FDR.
Would Obama be a centrist in contrast to Karl Marx? This is the question. Again, the answer would be no. Obama clearly believes in redistribution of wealth, a key component in the Communist Manifesto authored by Karl Marx. Obama clearly believes in the government controlling more of our day to day lives (i.e. Healthcare, education, programs for the poor and lower class in our society). Obama in no way would be a centrist to Karl Marx, however one could describe him as being right in line with Marx and his Communist Theory.
We need only remember that in recent years we saw the results of Communist Theory as it ultimately played itself out in the Soviet Union. What was left was a godless, unorganized, chaotic ruin of a nation that lacks the will and understanding of liberty to rebuild itself still to this day. What America will get with an Obama Presidency will take us along the same path, ultimately with the same potential end.
What is sad this year is that there is no choice for the people, and Obama by media endorsement will be crowned the next President.
February 10th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I liked it.