Obama And Socialism
By MacPundit
Is Barack Obama A Socialist?
This article is about President Obama's deception, a corrupt media, Socialism and Marxism. But before we continue, I want to make a distinction between Marxism and Socialism. In the simplest terms, which is fine for my purposes here, Socialism is a milder form of Marxism than Communism. It is said that Communism is red and Socialism is pink.
There has been much speculation about whether Barack Obama is or ever was a Socialist/Marxist. Simply put, his academic and political history strongly suggests that he was, and despite his occasional pleadings to the contrary, there is no credible evidence to refute the proposition that he remains at least a Socialist at heart. Obama and Socialism have a documented history together.
It is more than noteworthy to point out that his long history of Socialist leanings has been assiduously buried by our so-called mainstream media. They have either not done their homework or – and I think this is the case – they know it but do not want you to know it. Whatever their reason, their failure to do so is inexcusable and will forever mark them as, perhaps, the most corrupt media in U.S. history. Moreover, the very fact that the media withholds important, potentially critical information from us reveals their arrogance and sense of superiority. They believe they know best, that we the people are not as capable as they are to make wise decisions about our own welfare. Their small-minded, intellectual self-indulgence would be laughable if not for how seriously it impacts our political discourse.
That this dark "secret" of Obama's history is carefully tended by the media and the Democratic Party is further evidenced by the lack of Barack Obama's college records and his personal associations. (See: Media Hide Obama Associations) Why has he consistently refused to release his college records? (See: Obama School Records) When we consider his past radical associations and his own words, the obvious conclusion is that he does not want us to read college papers full of Marxist ideas and leanings. In his autobiographical book, Dreams From My Father, he wrote the following:
To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist Professors (my italics) and the structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.
I'd bet that young Barry was not thinking of running for President of the United States when he wrote those lines.
As has become standard practice, President Bush released his college records. Of course it is now well established that the Bush Administration was far more transparent than is the Obama Administration, which Obama promised would be the most transparent ever. (See: Obama Broken Promises) The idea that the general public still knows virtually nothing about these things is absolutely amazing! Yet what may be even more amazing is that we the people have allowed the media to continue their protection of him without a loud and indignant protest.
Republicans are treated differently
Keep in mind that the media was so desperate to find something negative on presidential candidate George W. Bush that when all else failed, CBS anchor Dan Rather actually ran a bogus story about Bush's National Guard service just days before the November presidential election. If it hadn't been for an alert Internet blogger he would have gotten away with it and Bush would most probably have lost the election. Thankfully, Rather was found out and lost his job as a consequence.
Then there was the shameful spectacle of the media's savage assault on Sarah Palin. When they realized that she was gaining too much popularity, they sent a virtual army of reporters to Alaska to dig up dirt on her. They found nothing but that did not slow them down. In the absence of hard negative facts, they and other Obama supporters launched a relentless campaign of character assassination and personal destruction against her. They did all of this against someone who held the honor of being the most popular governor in America with an approval rating by Alaskan citizens that at times was as high as 90%.
Nevertheless, they were determined to destroy her. Incredibly, in June 2011 the New York Times and other left wing media attack dogs got their hands on 25,000 Palin emails and enlisted everyone they could find – including Times' readers – to pour through them in order to look for any dirt they thought MUST certainly be there. Imagine that! They were committed to reading 25,000 emails but because the task was so monumental, The New York Times' Derek Willis posted a plea to its online liberal readership: "Help Us Investigate the Sarah Palin E-Mail Records." But guess what? There was no dirt to be found. To their great disappointment, the emails revealed that Governor Palin was a highly devoted, competent, and honest manager of Alaskan affairs.
How shameful and pathetic to think that these same people continue to tout themselves as our journalistic elite. Yet, the naked truth is that the one person they should have (and should be) vetting is our president. Why? Because he is our president and is thereby the most powerful person in the world.
Below is just one video, which sheds at least some light on this incredible story of deceit and journalistic corruption.
NOTE: Since this video was made, Mr. Obama has made public what he insists is his birth certificate and the State of Hawaii has verified it. However, his college and other important records and documents still remain unavailable to the American public.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgOy71oa3hw]
Recommended reading: Radical In Chief by Stanley Kurtz. It documents much of Barack Obama's Marxist and other radical associations and interests.
So what's wrong with Socialism?
The simple answer is: It does not work for the people as well as Capitalism. History shows that it diminishes the human experience—the things we hold dear—things that enhance our lives—our freedom.
To understand why Socialism actually makes the human experience worse, we must accept certain truths:
- Human beings are corruptible.
- "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
- The more power a government has, the more corrupt it becomes.
- The more corrupt government is, the more the people in government (the ones with the power) will make laws and regulations to maintain and extend their power over we the people.
- The more power government has over us, the less freedom we have—less freedom to make our own life decisions to decide for ourselves what we think is best for us. Less freedom to speak out against the government. Less religious freedom. Less freedom in every part of our lives.
Full blown Marxism takes virtually all power from the people and gives it to the state—the government. For those who like to argue theory, forget it. Various forms of Marxism have been practiced many times. Communist Russia (the U.S.S.R.), Communist China, and Communist Cuba are obvious examples of failed Marxist political experiments. While it argues well on paper, the five truths given above unerringly doom it to failure. Perhaps it would work on another planet, but not on this one, not with the human race.
The U.S.S.R. completely collapsed. But before it failed its all powerful corrupt leaders wreaked havoc on the people economically, civilly, and spiritually. One economic plan after another failed miserably. Elections were all rigged—the outcomes strictly managed by the Communist Party. Opponents of the Party were terrorized. Political prisoners were sent to camps in Siberia. Freedom of religion was aggressively curtailed. Atheism was promoted. Its leaders routinely "eliminated" their opponents. It is estimated that Joseph Stalin was responsible for the murders of at least 20 million people—far more than Adolph Hitler. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
For decades, Communist China was not much different than the U.S.S.R. But after the collapse of the communist experiment in Russia and given their own failing economic system, the Chinese leaders decided it was time for a change. It was an existential decision. They chose Capitalism over Communism, at least for their economic system. They knew it had made the United States of America the most successful nation in the history of mankind. They knew that wherever it was practiced, it fed, clothed, housed and, generally, took better care of its citizens than any other economic system. Since then China has advanced dramatically economically and even though they still have a Communist government, the success of capitalism has brought more freedom to their people. Even so, they still have a long way to go. The quality of life of their people remains far behind ours and it will be a long time before we know their ultimate fate.
Marxism light
A less onerous form of Marxism is Socialism. It is less onerous because the people are less restricted in the freedoms allotted to them. The problem is that the government still has too much power and, therefore, corruption, inefficiency and other deleterious consequences of big government inevitably diminish the quality of life of the citizens. It's the same old problem: The larger the government, the less freedom and quality of life for the people. Don't think so? Take a look at what is happening in Greece, Portugal, France, and other European countries right now. While you're at it, take a look at Venezuela.
So what does work?
Of course that should be obvious by now. Again, the United State of America is the most successful nation in history. No other nation has come close when measured by freedom to its citizens, economic security, protection from foreign invasion, and much more. We have a constitution, which is unique in what it guarantees to its people. But it is also unique in its power in law. It is the law of the land and it was so designed that it is very difficult to change. In other words, it sets out a system of checks and balances—three separate and equal parts of government—that make it extremely hard for one part to gain power over any other part(s). Even more, it gives the power to the people. It gives us the vote, the power to elect or reject our leaders.
But as with all things human, our Constitution is not perfect nor is it invulnerable to human corruption. In fact its very existence depends on you and me—we the people. If we become ignorant, lazy, indifferent, or so stupid and greedy that we think our government should take care of all our needs, we will surely lose the great gift we have been given. Our great grandchildren will read that we were the ones that destroyed America, the nation with the best system of governing ever designed. They will read about a wonderful nation that once existed—one in which their ancestors enjoyed things that they will never have. And they will shake their heads and wonder why we did such a thing. No, we will not be remembered as "The Great Generation" — that is unless we wake up and stand up and fight to preserve what our founders gave us.
We are in trouble
We must make no mistake about this: Our current president has a different vision than that of our founders. It is a vision that our founders would have immediately recognized as one that would give far too much power to the government. Oh yes, they knew all about these things. That is why they warned us in advance about them. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, and many others, warned the people of their day and future generations to be diligent to prevent politicians from gaining too much power. They knew that if the government became too large and, thus, too powerful, the people would lose their power and if that happened the Republic would be destroyed. President Obama is at the very least a big government Liberal. I say "at the very least" because all indications are that he is a Socialist and given enough time and power he will take us there.
Still have some doubts?
Consider these things carefully: In a little over 3 years, President Obama has increased the size of the federal government and its power dramatically. He has also added more dept to our nation (you and me) than all our presidents from George Washington through George H. W. Bush combined! He added $5 trillion in just 3 years! He has added 10,215 new federal regulations that are costing consumers, businesses and the economy $46 billion annually. This is more than five times the regulatory price tag of former President Bush in his first three years in office. Just implementing those regulations has an additional cost of $11 billion.
Of course he tells us that the spending was necessary because he inherited such a bad economy so he had to spend all that money and add all those regulations to save us from a depression. Yet only the uninformed buy that argument. The truth is that his policies have not only failed to improve our economy, they have made our situation far worse. Our debt alone could destroy us. Once other nations came to us to borrow money; now we are the greatest debtor nation in history. We owe China alone almost $1 trillion. For every dollar the Obama government now spends it has to borrow about 40 cents. Each and every man, women, and child in America now owes almost $50,000 as their part of our national debt. Every newborn baby in America is born into debt. No enemy in our history has been able to hurt us as much as the Obama policies have. While he claims he believes in Capitalism, his policies say otherwise. Actions do speak louder than words. So we must all be very careful to not trust his words—no matter how well he delivers them—but instead we must consider what he does.
Capitalism versus Socialism
The winner is always Capitalism. Whenever capitalism has been allowed to work properly, it has provided more wealth to more people from rich to poor than any other economic system in human history. There is and probably never will be absolute equality in this world. That is a fact of life. Our Declaration of Independence speaks about all men being born equal but we must understand what it meant. It did not mean that every person is born as smart as or as talented as every other person. We all know that in those and many other things we are not equal. Some people are smarter, some are stronger physically, and so forth. What our founders meant was that we are born with equal rights—that even if we are not as smart as someone else, we still have equal rights. For example, we have equal civil rights and equal protection under the law and we have a right to have equal opportunities. But under Marxism, rights are given or withheld by the government. Think about that. Our founders said that we are born with equal rights and that men should not have the power to give them to us or to take them from us. This is a very important distinction.
Equal opportunity versus equal outcome
We must also understand the distinction between equal opportunity and equal outcome. President Obama often tells us that he wants to change America so that we all have equal opportunity. He says that it's about fairness. But he is being dishonest because we have already been guaranteed equal opportunity. So when he tells naive audiences that he wants to give them equal opportunities, he is making a specious argument designed to trick his listeners into thinking he will give them something they don't have. His purpose is to get their votes. Of course it only works with ignorant people.
A core problem with large central governments is that with enough power, corrupt politicians decide which groups get certain opportunities and which do not. (See: Big Government Is Our Enemy) This is precisely why our Constitution was designed to make it difficult for the federal government to gain too much power. The intent was to vest most of the power in the people. Mr. Obama knows this. So I think he is trying to do something else—something that sounds very much like it is Marxist in nature. You see, he also says he wants to "redistribute the wealth" and that is clearly Marxist doctrine. Yet even though it sounds good, when put it into practice and for reasons already outlined here, it actually makes life worse for everyone. Former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher put it this way, "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."
It's common sense
Here is a classic example: Imagine two students. The first is a hard working student who does her homework faithfully and pays attention in the classroom. She is an A student. Student number two is just as smart as the first student but she is not nearly as committed as the first. She is a C- student. But student number two does not take personal responsibility for her lack of commitment and thinks that her C- grade is unfair. So she asks student number one to give her some of her A grades. Well of course you know this would not happen. You know immediately that it is not about fairness, that it is about personal responsibility.
But what about student number three who is not as smart as one and two? She works just as hard as student number one but she just cannot seem to get her grades up to where she would like them to be. Would it not be fair if student number one gave her a couple of her A grades? Again, when we think this through the answer would most certainly be no. If the A student gave away some of her high grades it would create a misrepresentation of who both of the students are. It would, ultimately, hurt both of them.
The Myth Of Equality
So what is to be done? How can we create a society in which everyone is equal in all ways? Well, we can't. Not on this planet. Not given human nature—our nature—and the undeniable fact that we are not born equal in all ways. You can't accept that? Really? Then I would very much like to hear your plan. I would like to know how you would turn lazy people into productive people, dishonest people into honest people, cruel people into compassionate people, criminals into law abiding citizens, and so forth. You see, we cannot make a perfect world. I doubt that we can even agree on what a "perfect world" would look like. But what we can do and what America has done better than any other nation is to make things as fair and as compassionate as is humanly possible for all its people. And while the job is never finished, we will continue to improve the lives of our citizens as long as we do not allow smooth-talking politicians to "transform" our government into something that has never and will never work as well as what we already have.
I am forever puzzled at those who rigidly defend Mr. Obama even when confronted with irrefutable evidence of his inconsistencies and dishonesty. The Barack Obama videos below present evidence in his own words – words that are at times so blatantly contradictory that one finds it difficult to stifle a “What did he just say?” It isn’t personal, it is simply what it is.