I was reading an article in the Seattle Times by Danny Westneat, “S-word is Suddenly Hot Subject”. Obama is now being called a socialist by many of the McCain supporters as well as those who are slightly to the left of him. However, despite his lefty appeal to the democrats, let’s look at a few of his policies as delineated on his website and see how well he fits under socialist ideas.
Immigration
Obama supports a more secure Mexican-American border. He supports the arrests, deportations, fines, more technology and personnel. Socialists are supportive of open borders, no deportations, and a comprehensive transition for illegal immigrants (and their families) who have lived and worked here to become citizens.
Iraq War
Obama wants a responsible time phase withdrawal and hopes that Iraq will use its oil revenue for their reconstruction. Socialists think this war was for the oil in the first place, so if Iraq was to use its oil revenue for reconstructing their war torn city, wouldn’t they be in a more economically desperate situation? Oil would be more readily available for big oil companies’ distribution.
Poverty
Obama is going to raise the minimum wage to 9.50 by 2011 and pour $1 billion towards getting low income workers to higher paying jobs. Socialists would support minimum wage increase… but to a level that is a livable wage. Moving people from low to higher income jobs doesn’t change the fact that there are still low income jobs. Socialists have a more radical proposal – to have state control over the top 500 US companies.
Taxes
Obama plans on making tax cuts… which one would call “progressive”, but according to the socialists, it would do little to redistribute the wealth in this country.
Homeland Security
Obama wants to fight terrorism worldwide and prevent nuclear proliferation. Socialists would remain skeptical as to whether or not he will use this as an excuse to propagate American corporate interests worldwide. Afterall, he has received the largest amount of contributions from corporations in American history.
So why does McCain call Obama a “redistribution-in-chief”? I’ve talked to a few McCain supporters, and they all seem to be afraid of “socialist Obama”. I’m not sure where they’re getting this from in terms of policy. They think having somebody young (or ‘socialist’) is something to be afraid of. Funny thing, is on the supporting side, they have more imagery to go with too.
I’ve watched a little bit of campaigning on television, and as a college student working as a nanny, the amount of name calling and imagery that dominates political discussion reminds me of a battle between Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston for Brad Pitt. Then you have all those tabloids picking a side.
