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ajax18 wrote:I'm just curious how many of you guys are socialists?

I thought we dispensed with all that horse s*** in the fifties.

I'm not sure it means what you think it means.

Why Do Poor White People Think President Obama is a Socialist/Communist/Marxist?

Stranger than the actual claim that an elite bourgeois like Barack Obama is really a Communist -- is who is making that claim. Or at least repeating it ad nauseum. Sure, the charge is made by bourgeois media personalities like Glenn "Mr. Potato Head" Beck and Rush "can I have some more Oxi" Limbaugh, but President Obama's alleged Communism seems to be repeated more belligerently by that segment of society we sometimes (less charitably) refer to as white trash.

 

Do poor white people really think President Obama is a Communist/Socialist/Marxist? Do they even know what a Communist believes? Are they merely parroting right-wing pundits? My theory answers "No" to all of these questions.

 

I think that these people, those who claim that Obama is a socialist, are racist and simply can't stomach the idea that President Obama has succeeded and risen within the capitalist system well beyond their ability. One example (of many) I am thinking of resides in the godforsaken region of the godforsaken state of Utah: Utah County, and will never be able to afford a luxury car or mansion, could never dream of being elected to public office, would never ever have been able to attend Harvard. Despite these painful slaps to the face, they maintain a love for Capitalism and believe (for some reason) that if they endure the oppression maybe one day they will rise above their current social status. So how to reconcile a black democrat beating them so badly, in this capitalist game? Well, he must not be playing the same game. If Capitalism is like economic Darwinism, as capitalists like to pretend, then President Obama is the current winner. He has bested these white people at what they think is their own game. I can't imagine that sitting well with those already predisposed to hating the President because of his skin color. Sure, George W. Bush has also bested them -- but it is an easier pill to swallow considering the Bush family legacy. Plus, he's white.

 

Forget that President Obama has admitted to being a capitalist:

 

"Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, I am an ardent believer in the free market."

 

The definitive source of Communist theory, Karl Marx:

 

"...the bourgeoisie has at last, since the establishment of Modern Industry and of the world-market, conquered for itself, in the modern representative State, exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie."

 

If Marx was alive today, he would criticize Obama as a representative of the interests of the bourgeoisie and American Capitalism, not endorse him as a fellow comrade.

 

Sometimes people will, unfortunately, try to point at certain regulations or government interventions in our economy as evidence of President Obama's Communist ways. I say 'unfortunately' because anyone that knows anything about Communism knows that regulating aspects of a capitalist economy does not come close to an act of Communism, but it doesn't seem to stop the reactionaries from saying it.

 

Marxism is about the proletariat - bourgeoisie struggle. They fail to acknowledge that Obama is bourgeois, part of the "ruling" class, because they refuse to admit that Obama has so successfully exemplified their Holy economic system; Capitalism, and has done better than they ever will within its confines. 

 

How can these people be so uninformed, and vocal at the same time? That is nothing new, unfortunately.

 

Are we afraid to call idiocy and gross ignorance for what it is, when it involves the C word, in fear of being labeled a Communist too? Despite the apparent unanimous misunderstanding of what Marxism is in this country, I am not afraid to be lumped in with the Communists. Despite living in a hegemony, and the fact that even the poor (for whom the Communists wish to liberate!) seem to love living under the oppressive thumb of the bourgeoisie, I will not shy away from the label Marxist, or Communist, or even Socialist. We can't let the ignorance of others dictate how we identify and define ourselves.

 

Next time you hear the stupid charge: "Obama is a Marxist/Communist/Socialist" ask "Why?". "What makes President Obama a Communist?"

 

And, if you think they have a few brain cells to rub together, ask what it is that makes Communism such a dirty word in America today. As someone who has studied Marx and Engels, who identifies with the Communist movement, I admit I am unable to grasp why these people have such animosity towards a movement that even Jesus Christ (historical or allegorical) seemed to advocate for.

Despite living in a hegemony, and the fact that even the poor (for whom the Communists wish to liberate!) seem to love living under the oppressive thumb of the bourgeoisie, I will not shy away from the label Marxist, or Communist, or even Socialist. We can't let the ignorance of others dictate how we identify and define ourselves.

ajax18 wrote:I'm just curious how many of you guys are socialists?

see the difference?