Barack Obama is a powerful, eloquent, talented orator and he proved that today when, in front of the old state capital building in Springfield, IL, he announced his candidacy for president.
If you watched the speech or if you see it replayed you’ll note that he not only spoke eloquently, he spoke extemporaneously. You’ll also notice as you listen to his speech or read the transcript that he did not enter this race calling his opponents names, nor did he enter the race trumpeting the superiority of his Democratic Party over the Republican Party; he entered the race by rallying the crowd around the concept of a failing America that can, under his leadership, be made great again.
It is his chosen path for greatness that concerns me.
Ignoring, for the purpose of this post, Obama’s stance on the “War against terrorism” (and, specifically, his confused call for our immediate withdrawal from Iraq as the definitive answer to successfully fighting terrorism); Barack Obama has two especially dangeous ideas that relate to our day-to-day American life; ideas that tell all you need to know about Barack Obama.
Obama feels that stronger labor unions are essential to returning America to greatness.
Obama is so strongly pro-union that his call for stronger labor unions was one of the first important points he made in his speech. What he did not say, or even conceive of saying, is that unions have traditionally taken the role of adversary to American business and in that adversarial role they have hurt business and have done immeasurable damage to the American worker.
Labor unions have done many things that most Americans perceive as ‘good things’:they’ve forced increased wages, they’ve forced improved benefits and they have forced improved working conditions but while doing that they drove many companies to the brink of bankruptcy, have closed the doors of many more businesses and unwittingly gave birth to the concept of outsourcing, causing millions of American jobs to be lost to foreign countries.
When labor unions start being a force for positive change for both parties, for both the worker and the company, they will begin to be a force for good, but that is not likely to happen until our economy is so disastrously crippled that the workers themselves rebel against and disband the unions that created the disaster. (This is, in fact, already happening and that is why labor unions will, no doubt, pour money into Obama’s warchest; to regain the power that many American workers are now denying them.)
Obama feels that Universal Health Care is the answer to America’s health care problem.
He used the term “Universal Health Care” only once but the crowd heard it and the world heard it; and those around the world who now live under a system of universal healthcare are, no doubt, shaking their heads at our flirtation with the idea. Universal health care in Canada, for example, has those who can afford it flocking across the border on a daily basis to receive their health care in the United States. Why? Because under Universal Health Care they receive medical care that they consider substandard.
Consider this: Every country that has adopted universal health care has a “back door” for those who can afford to use it - it may be, like Canada, travel to a place where they can get healthcare that is tailored to their particular illness or, like England, it may be a private healthcare policy that allows them to see a doctor of their choice when they need to.
Also, if you think about it logically you’ll see that the United States already HAS a system that comes very close to the concept of Universal health care. We have private/premium healthcare for those who can afford the premium, we have HMOs and other health plans that provide excellent care for others who make a good income but aren’t rich and we have hospital emergency rooms and clinics that provide care to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. If there are “holes” in the system (I’m not saying there are no problems) let’s patch the holes without destroying the system and let’s NOT turn health care into another government program. Let’s always bear in mind that the proper role of government is to protect our rights and freedoms, not to control our health care or any of our social institutions.
The United States achieved its greatness through the sweat and tears of individuals — individuals who worked hard to build better lives for themselves and their families. It is the private citizen, driven by the profit motive, that made this country great and who will help this country stay great. These two ideas that Obama introduced today as essential parts of his campaign for the presidency: more powerful, government-supported labor unions and universal health care are both ideas that reject individual freedom and Capitalism (individual rights), the two foundations of American life.
I can not and will never support a Socialist for President and Barack Obama, beneath the flowery prose and eloquent presentation, has announced his position as a creature with at least two too many socialist ideas.
Links:
The Kansas City Star: Obama invokes Lincoln in bid to be first black elected to White House
The Boston Globe: Obama announces ‘08 campaign, talks of leading new generation
From the blogosphere:
American Reality: Reviewing Barack Obama’s Big Announcement
Democratic Edge: Commentary: Obama’s running
Whymrhymer’s fresh perspectives on today’s news, as published here, also appear at My View from the Center and at The American Chronicle Family of Journals. Your visit is always welcome!
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14 users commented in " The Creeping Socialism of Barack Obama "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackbackyou are absolutely ridiculous. lol so medicaid that supports our elderly is socialist and evil? as is libraries, police, fired dept., and public schools? again, ridiculous!
Before you vote for a Socialist that exceeds anything Jimmy Carter accomplished during the seventies, stop and think at how Government runs anything.
Government workers are overpaid, generally inefficient and under-productive, and treat those who fund their Jobs with a lack of respect. Because of ‘Job Security’, they don’t think competitively nor economically.
They can’t run an efficient & effective School, Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamp, Post Office or Welfare system, to name a few. There isn’t one system or agency anyone can think of that is efficient, and within a reasonable budget. Then we have Maxine Waters: “And guess what this liberal would be all about? This liberal would be all about socialize — uh, uh, would be about basically taking over and the government running all of your (Oil) companies”. That’s a scary thought, gas would be $15.00 a gallon, if you could find it!
I can’t understand why anyone would vote for somebody who would create more and more Government Programs that sound great to those that like freebies, when we all know how disastrous any government program is in the long run and how impossible it is to correct.
Yet I read the “Democrat polling” that states College educated citizens are for Obama, but the average non-college educated (Democrat) citizens are for Hillary. To me that shows the influence (Brainwashing) the Ivy league (Socialist) professors have had on our students. At least those without the Higher education have more common sense.
But it also shows that those on the Left have no practical sense of functional and fundamental economics. Their path to Socialism will destroy the Economic Engine, as Jimmy Carter almost succeeded in doing during the Seventies.
Hope we survive this assault by National Stupidity!
You are and Idiot.
NAFTA & CAFTA, as well as the WTO, are a corporate race to the bottom for workers. (Blue collar and white collar alike).
If we valued the soveirgnty of THIS country, Unions would have never put companies in the bankrupt positions they found themselves in after those “deals”.
Our health should not be “for sale or profit”.
Make all medical proceedures (other than cosmetic) and Insurance plans NON-PROFIT problem solved. Everyone could afford their $20. a month health insurance.
Besides, the House and Senate ultimatly make those desions anyway… Not the President.
McCain, however, is a confused old man on so many diff Meds, includng Ambien, (you know, the sleepwalking side affect pill?) and I would NOT be comfortable with HIM next to “the Button” and the “red phone”.
MrKittyBites-
I’m confused by your choice of words- you made a reference to “our health”- I’m assuming you were referring the health care services available in this country, since it is impossible for one to sell their “health” to another, as if they could transfer their state of physical well-being to someone else.
But why would you refer to American health care services as “ours?” These are businesses you are referring to; there are private owners, and people who work for them, and people all over the world who work to create the materials necessary to provide health care services. Which of the foregoing is it that you think “we” “own?”, as if “we” have the right to control the products of other peoples’ labors the same way we would expect to control anything else that is ours?
Maybe “we” should make whatever profession you are involved in “non-profit,” since it is no doubt a service used by Americans, thus making it “ours” as well? You know, this logic is great- any business that is consumed by Americans is thereby the property of Americans, and we should declare ALL business non-profit! Problem solved. No more greedy capitalists in America, we’ll all just do our jobs and be paid exactly what we need to survive through the days and years (nothing more, since that would constitute an excess of what is necessary- “profit”), and no one will have more than his neighbor. Also, we’ll have to have a central power to ensure that everything is divvied up according to your plan, so why don’t we sort through the ranks of some local communist club for a great leader (because Communists are very familiar with your plan already, MrKittyBites, they’re actually a few steps ahead of where you’re going- just a few, though)?
Now don’t go telling me that we should just limit your plan to health care, because that wouldn’t be very fair to make my job not-for-profit and leave yours and everyone else’s alone, would it? Or, you can do your job, and charge what you will for it, and I’ll do mine the same way.
To the author and some of the people above who throw around the “Soocialist” card, maybe something tragic needs to happen in your life to see what is really going on in this country everyday.
To take Healthcare for example, the costs of a expensive illness or injury will take everything you love and know away from you. I know first hand the anguish, frustration, and anger that comes from suffering a major illness. It is what the Insurance Companies put you and your family through. The current system puts profit over human life; so losing your home, cars, everything you have worked your entire life for, then all your friends, and co-workers, because they won’t understand, all this while the Insurance companies delay every procedure and won’t pay for anything - that is something you should experience, under our current system. All this they put people in this country through so they can be the darlings on Wall Street and show wonderful profits every quarter.
I take it back, I pray that you and your family experience this.
do u mind if i ask your opinion on gay fetus’s? open your mind u conservative ****
Author: Well done.
Bill in Niantic: Well done.
Idiots: This talk about health care and the government “running” it…not the answer!
Example: DMV/DOT PERIOD. This is what it will be like standing in line at the ER. Not to mention salaries. Doctors, nurses, ect. now Federal Employees. Who will pay their salaries??? US citizens. Who will pay for the “Unviersal Health Care?” US Citizens! TAXES WILL GO UP! The democratic party gives all of the “great” ideas yet none of you followers ever look at the BIG PICTURE! You are the idiots.
On to those who “can’t afford” healthcare. Bullshit! Excuse me…but yes, BULLSHIT. There are programs for those on fixed incomes! Where if you make less than a certain amount the government will pay a portion of your medical bills. There are also programs out there for those whos employer does not offer a healthcare program.
Barack Obama talks about helping people. He can’t even help is own brother who is living in a shack in Kenya. Not to mention I DO NOT want a muslim running MY COUNTRY. And yes Obama is muslim. Only muslims are givin the middle name Hussein.
If Obama is a socialist for thinking taxes are a good idea, then Mccain is a supporter of modern day slavery for thinking that the the wealth sahould be in the hands of a few while the majority of us fight drops that trickle down.
If all of you people want to make intelligent arguments, trying using spellcheck first.
wel done obama
i’m canadian and if i lived in the states, both my mother and i would have been dead a long time coming.
i’ve been in a coma, i’ve had over 13 surgeries. my mother lost her mind when i was a teen and since has faced issues with cancer and other illnesses. i added up the cost of her medications in the states one day out of curiousity, and it would cost her $23,000 a MONTH. for a woman who lives off disability.
anyone speaking out against universal healthcare is a flat out idiot. i’ve never had a long wait for my surgeries, i’ve never received subpar care.
what i HAVE received is hysterical phonecalls from good friends in the states who need to go to the doctor but know they cannot afford it.
grow up, stop looking at things illogically and in an extremist manner.
To anyone who still blindly worships our Socialist President, please remove the blinders already!
He’s closing down Gitmo. So, where are the 245 war criminals going to live? In your back yard, so they can rape and kill your loved ones? That’s what criminals do, after all.
He’s passing out free money, rather than create the jobs he’s promised two years ago, in the form of a stimulus package. Have you blind liberal imbeciles bothered reading your paychecks (that is, if you do work) or noticed the decreasing interest on your savings accounts? Pure Obamanomics at work! And never mind the fact that that arrogant lowlife made sure my fiancee and future mother-in-law lost their jobs!
And let’s face it: He’s been groomed for this position by his anti-American radical friends since his teenage years. Are you people that stupid in thinking he’s doing whatever he can for YOUR best interests? Heck, no! All that piece of walking dungheap knows how to do is beat his black Marxist chest, pose for the cameras, and deliver lie after lie after lie–more of the same.
Change is coming, indeed, COMRADES!
With universal health care, people (on average) will stop looking at the root of it all and think that it’s alright to be a hypochondriac and milk the system.
With that comes higher taxes and fewer people taking better care of THEMSELVES. Get into a bad accident requiring a huge bill? I’d rather be paying insurance than taxes to get covered for that because at least in the case of the former, the fees were not taken from me by gunpoint. There will be competition among insurance companies to offer different types of coverage for lower prices.
You can rest assured also that in a country that advocates personal responsibility in its PRIVATE schools will be overall more healthy than those evil, one-size-fits-all indoctrination centres that preach how great their home and native land is with the government looking after you from cradle to the grave, giving you no incentive to be a better, more robust person. And yes, even libraries can become evil. I notice here in Toronto the public libraries are gradually cutting their selection in topics and viewpoints, so much so I don’t use them anymore. I’ll leave other government run institutions that some here deem essential for debunking as an exercise.
Finally, the way to get the economy running again is by being CREATIVE and PRODUCTIVE, not by simply consuming as Bush once said (yes, I hate Bush too). If you create a service or produce a product at a lower cost for you and everyone, the economy WILL get better but only in a free market. Only consuming the products we have now isn’t going to be good for the long run because the novelty frankly wears off with the old stuff.
It’s time people think with their minds in addition to their hearts, for hearts only pump blood but not solutions.
Obamanomics is going to create nothing but emptiness in this country. It’s robbing our economy of everything. No new jobs as promised, no nothing, but a pure damn lie. America better wake up before it’s too late. Our jobs are going overseas and our people are getting poorer. Mexicans are coming over and buying what they can scavenge and taking it home and stealing all the Real American jobs, while the Arabs steal our land a piece at a time. Healthcare is bullshit. If the USA gets healthcare thru the government and everyone has to use it, it will be a line a mile long like at the post office most times. Doctor’s on government payrolls? Ha Ha what happened to Russia I wonder on this scenario? When the last days are her and 1 zillion Chinese invade our country, I won’t be her anymore to see it all. Russia is doing long range missions now while they tried to set post up in Syria and Iran, but Syria got bombed and the Russians pulled out of Iran really quick with their missile technology. “Did I spell seria right?” Also the bear country “Russia” signed treaties with china, but mean while good ole usa is putting in missile defense systems anywhere they can. Wonder why? To protect us all? Remember in the early war days when California cost was lined with nuclear missiles set to go off at 20 miles offshore if we got invaded? They didn’t care about millions then dying from nuclear fallout and do you think they care now? NO… When Russia’s army hits the Mediterranean Sea, you better take cover as then their armies will be boasting and doing what will happen. While the Israel state will be attacked from all sides and the Jew’s will drive them all back. Wonder how a country so small can drive back an attack by so many other countries? Yep… A big nuclear weapon will do just fine as they say please send us some more of those you old poor old broke USA. Well us small people will be broke by then, but not the big rich people in the government who will not give up their insurance for a public option plan.. Does that tell you anything Mr. sleepy Americans? Wake up Wake Up Jesus is coming very soon.. He’s been scoffed at for centuries, but when you never expect he will be here just wait and see and we will all be gone, all us crazy wrong Christians who have a bible that has never been proven wrong like most dilapidated scriptures are. Look at bmv’s now with the new laws such as in Indiana who ask you for everything except you but hole size. Does this ring in anything to all you stupid Americans who should have know better, but are just to lazy or give an excuse that peer pressure made me do it? Would you follow me off the side of a gorge into a river if I jumped? Would you jump? Well you are jumping right now……. into a big black hole that you cannot climb out of. Enough said you decide if i am crazy or not, but am I?
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