# Is Obama a Fascist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 16, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180 "2012-11-16T12:46:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180/21 "2012-11-16T21:13:42Z")
Nah he’s just a bought and sold crony capitalist like the rest of them. The word “fascism” connotes an ideological purity that American politicians could never adhere to. Was Hamilton a fascist? FDR’s new deal was praised by Mussolini, but it was just a political tool. Obama exercises control over industry in a way that has been going on for well over 100 years. ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180/22 "2012-11-17T11:21:51Z")
I recommend “[The United States and Fascist Italy 1922-1940](http://www.amazon.co.uk/United-States-Fascist-Italy-1922-1940/dp/0807865893)” and the collected writings of Gramsci to get a sufficient grasp on the topic to rebut your friend’s claims. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180/23 "2012-11-17T14:17:02Z")
> [@](#): > > Dear Mr. Socialist, > > Obama isn’t a socialist. Economically speaking it’s far more accurate to say that he is a fascist – a supporter of dirigisme, in which government manages the economy through central planning, not collective ownership. Fascism did not seek to stamp out the innovative, wealth-creating potential of profit-seeking investment and entrepreneurship - instead it sought to channel those > innovations (and funnel that wealth) to the good of the state. It must be true, because he used a fancy word I have never heard of. Set and match! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180/24 "2012-11-17T15:16:20Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Obama’s detractors have shrieked “SOCIALISM!” and “SOCIALIST!” so much that the terms have begun to lose their sting; average people look at Obama’s policies and think: if \*this \*is socialism, I guess socialism isn’t all that bad. > > “Fascism” still has some potential as a magic spell-word, but who knows. Call Obama a “fascist” enough times and young people may wonder why fascism was once such a big deal. The fascist slur is hardly new. Way back in 2009, there were demonstrators outside my post office in California (in a pretty strongly Democratic area, BTW) with a picture of Obama with a Hitler mustache. These people just throw out any ‘bad’ words they can think of; they don’t know or really care what they mean. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180/25 "2012-11-17T15:53:52Z")
Being a fascist, socialist communist is pretty hard to pull off. I admire Obama for being all those things at once. And that is w/o including the fact that he is the anti-christ, while also being muslim at the same time. I hope the right remains this dumb, it makes it easier to beat them. I believe fascism is a unity among the resentful working class and the business class, a militant foreign policy, hostility towards egalitarianism, belief in nationalism, independence from the international community, etc. It goes w/o saying Obama fails pretty much all those things. ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180/26 "2012-11-17T18:36:44Z")
Obama fails at fascism, hows that for a false negative? that’s like saying I love Rush Limbaugh because he’s such an eqalatarian. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180/27 "2012-11-17T19:17:16Z")
Is it possible your friend was joking? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180/28 "2012-11-17T20:57:09Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I was seeing claims of “Now Obama will have himself made President for Life” literally right after the election. Which really means nothing as I heard the same stuff about Bush between 2004-2008. Some people are just idiots. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180/29 "2012-11-17T22:21:11Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > You should slap your friend With [fasces](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasces) in their faces! CMC ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2012, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180/30 "2012-11-17T23:20:47Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Can he at least get the trains to run on time, then? I mean, if we’re going to be Fascist, I want the benefits!! Fascist, with benefits? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2012, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180/31 "2012-11-18T07:44:09Z")
Incidentally a major proponent of dirgiesme was Charles De Gaulle who hardly was a fascist. Supporting certain fascist ideas doesn’t make one a fascist-Eisenhower was inspired by the autobahns of Germany while my views on art are (minus blaming the Jews for degenerate art needless to say) more or less identical to that of the Nazis (and the Communists too) but doesn’t make General Eisenhower or me a fascist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-obama-a-fascist/641180.md?page=1)