10.21.08
Socialists: Obama no socialist
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Socialists: Obama no socialist
By Rex W. Huppke
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
October 20, 2008
http://www.marxmail.org/msg50916.html
These are hard times to be a socialist in America. And
not just because there’s a bourgeois-bloated Starbucks
on every other corner, thumbing its capitalist nose at
the proletariat.
No, it’s tough these days because you’ve got politicians
on the right, the same guys who just helped nationalize
the banking system, derisively and inaccurately calling
the presidential candidate on the left a socialist.
That’s enough to make Karl Marx harumph in his grave.
Local communists, rarely tapped as campaign pundits, say
Sen. Barack Obama and his policies stand far afield from
any form of socialism they know.
John Bachtell, the Illinois organizer for Communist Party
USA, sees attempts by Sen. John McCain’s campaign to label
Obama a socialist as both offensive to socialists and a
desperate ploy to tap into fears of voters who haven’t
forgotten their Cold War rhetoric.
“Red baiting is really the last refuge of scoundrels,”
Bachtell said. “It has nothing to do with the issues that
are confronting the American people right now. It’s just
a big diversion.”
Of course that’s just one man’s opinion. (And everyone
knows you can’t trust a communist.)
The “s-word” bubbled up from the McCain campaign after
Obama said, in his chat with Joe the Plumber, that he
thinks “when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for
everybody.”
Well, that certainly sounds like the words of a Red
Menace. But is it socialist?
There are about as many definitions for socialism as
comedian Jeff Foxworthy has for the term “redneck.”
So, how do you know if you’re a socailist?
Generally, it involves espousing government control over
a country’s basic industries, like transportation,
communication and energy, while also allowing some
government regulation of private industries.
“Obama is about as far from being a socialist as Joe The
Plumber is from being a rocket scientist,” said Darrell
West, director of governance studies at the Brookings
Institution. “I think it’s hard for McCain to call Obama
a socialist when George Bush is nationalizing banks.”
And this from Bruce Carruthers, a sociology professor at
Northwestern University: “Obama is like a center-liberal
Democrat, and he is certainly not looking to overthrow
capitalism. My goodness, he wouldn’t have the support of
someone like The Wizard of Omaha, Warren Buffet, if he
truly was going to overthrow capitalism.”
Bottom line: pure capitalism and socialism can be a
difficult mix.
Which hits at the heart of the problem. Right now, with
the economy in the tank, the idea of a little wealth
sharing doesn’t sound so bad to people whose 401k plans
are worth less than the contents of their coin jars.
“The idea of closing that wealth gap, I think, is a
concern for many, many Americans,” said Teresa Albano,
editor of the Chicago-based People’s Weekly World, a
communist newspaper. “I don’t think people are going to
respond negatively to the idea of spreading around the
wealth.”
Which is not to say that, by electing Obama, the country
will gamely head down the path of socialism.
“The whole point of his policies don’t really represent
the political economy of the working class,” said Robert
Roman, who edits the newsletter of the roughly 250-member
Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
“Obama’s going to be a person who represents all of us,
he’s going to be representing the interest of the
capitalists as well as the working people. He’s not
really talking about transforming society beyond
capitalism.”
But don’t worry, Sen. Obama. You’re still likely to win
the vote of avowed socialists.
“Having Obama as president would be greatly superior,
from our point of view, than having McCain as president,”
Roman said.
And you can expect to see that quote in a McCain ad
in 5, 4, 3, 2….