I’ve seen the bumper stickers and t-shirts calling Barack Obama a Communist or a Socialist. Do the people displaying these really believe this is true or is it just something they’re saying because they don’t like Obama?
I have no problem with those people who don’t want to vote for Obama because he’s a Democrat but let’s face facts, he’s not a Socialist or a Communist. It’s as ridiculous as claiming McCain is a member of the Nazi Party.
So what’s the point? If you oppose Obama’s election, publically declaring that you’re grossly ignorant of basic political issues is unlikely to sway any other voters to follow your example. Is the point that everyone is in on the joke? They know that Obama isn’t a Communist and they know that you know it also, so it’s just a hyperbolic statement of opposition?
They think he’s a Joe McCarthy Communist (basically an educated social-welfare liberal who’s been exposed to too many un-American influences), not a Joe Stalin Communist (as in card-carrying doctrinaire party agitator).
Jesus, are we back to McCarthyism, where if you have any Communist associate you are a Communist? Fox News makes me want to puke.
Not that CNN is any better. The only time I watched CNN in the last month was when I flipped on it long enough to hear Glenn Beck say that he thought Obama was a “Marxist.” I had to change the channel before I threw something at the TV. So either Glenn Beck thinks Obama is a Marxist, or he is a liar. Take your pick.
Wouldn’t surprise me a bit. People believe in Big Foot and that the US government was responsible for 9/11, that the moon landings were fake and that there was a vast conspiracy to kill Kennedy involving the US government and the Mob (and space aliens to). They believe that a balloon train to monitory Soviet nuclear activity was a crashed alien space craft and that the Republican plays dirty political tricks while the Dems are pure like snowflake…
So…yeah, doesn’t seem a stretch to me that some clueless people think Obama is a communist. Even less of a stretch that people would consider him a socialist (he’s closer to that than being a communist).
No, I think that the majority of people putting this on their car probably really believe it at some level. Now, if you asked them to define what a communist IS…well, that’s another matter.
Also, there is an aspect of painting Obama with the communist brush because people in the US have a very negative view of communists and communism. Socialism to is not exactly going to be giving most people warm and fuzzy feeling about anyone who is successfully painted with that brush (well, among the center and right wings anyway).
Agreed. Sort of like all those nut cases who were (and still are for all I know) trying to paint Bush as a Nazi, or at least to compare him to the Nazi party. How many debates did we have on this board about that in the last 7 years? No idea here…but it was more than one.
Well, there isn’t one point. There are multiple points to this, as with all things political. One point is that many people who put these kinds of bumper stickers on their cars actually believe it. Look at all the anti-Bush bumper stickers…some of them are really out there. Well, same here with Obama. Another point is to try and fix a label or concept to someone. If people can associate Obama with communists and/or socialists then it will be a negative label affixed to him, no? And he will have to spend energy (and money) disputing it (if they are successful)…taking away energy and money from things he’d rather be talking about.
This is standard US politics 101 here…give the tools (such as bumper stickers) to the poor schlubs out there who actually believe this kind of tripe, and see what happens. If it gets traction, then great. If not…well, the faithful will appreciate it in any case. Think of all those folks happily motoring about with ‘Impeach Bush!’ on their bumpers. Well, the right wing nutters need something to make them feel good to, no?
Big “S” Marxist type Socialist, of course not. Certainly not a commie, but yeah he’s pretty close to some of the 100 different definitions of “socialism”. From what I’ve heard, a social democracy wouldn’t offend him terribly. Some people deny that social democracy is a form of socialism, so it’s all a matter of definitions.
And I don’t think he’s a Muslim or give a damn if he wears a flag pin.
Exactly. This is my point. Why should I give any more respect to somebody who claims that Barack Obama is a Communist then I should to somebody who claims that he’s a Muslim or that he’s a Lizardman from Alpha Draconis? These are people who are proclaiming that their political beliefs are not connected with reality.
Serious question - what member of the Communist party did Reagan and Goldwater list as childhood mentors? Unless you were talking about their economic policies.
ETA: I was trying to explain why one might believe Obama is a socialist rather than asserting that he is.
My god, that “mentor” thing is lame. Obama’s grandfather was friends with a poet and civil rights activist named Frank Marshall Davis.
So, because Barack Obama’s granfather (A WWII veteran, by the way) was friends with a commie when Barack was a child, that makes him a “mentor” and makes Obama a communist?
Do you righties ever actually listen to yourselves?
Reagan, Goldwater, and Wayne all had close associates in their life who were Communist Party members. None of them were Communist themselves. Neither is Obama unless you can explain why he caught a case of contact communism and those others were immune.
Well, I have learned from past experience that no one can force someone to acknowledge the truth if they are determined enough to ignore it.
Yes, I do. Do you ever read cites? The Obama campaign has “finally acknowledged that the mysterious “Frank” in Obama’s 1995 book, Dreams From My Father, is in fact the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) member Frank Marshall Davis.”
I am assuming we are going down the Wright path, where your nose is repeatedly rubbed in the facts, but to no avail.
That is not what I asked - which Communists did Goldwater, Reagan and Wayne mention as childhood mentors? I read both Reagan’s and Goldwater’s autobiographies, and I don’t recall anything like this. If you do, by all means cite it.
No one is disputing "Frank’s identity. What I’m pointing out is the idiocy of trying to extropolate that it makes Obama himself a communist. He wasn’t even really a “mentor,” just a friend of his grandfather’s.
Shodan, if you look up you’ll see that the title of this thread is not “Do people really believe that Frank Davis is a Communist?” Hopefully that will clear up whatever confusion you’re been experiencing as you’ve presented evidence that Davis was a Communist while the rest of us were discussing a different topic.
