Communist...Socialist...Fascist...eieio

A little while back, I posted about yet another silly meme.  I've done this for a while now.  What was exciting was I got my first true far right comment.  I don't know if the person commenting is a Tea Party member, but his comment is the one that's been fed since Obama's election and then re-election.  The person announced "that he's [Obama] communist." I've heard this charge before.  I've heard that Obama is a socialist and that he is Hitler, who was actually a Fascist despite the name his party, That National Socialist German Workers Party or Nationalsozialismus  in German, Nazi for short. It was considered a far right group who behaved more as an alternative to socialism.

So first if we are going to call someone a name like socialist, communist or fascist we need definitions.  Rather than listen to so and so, who throws the terms around on his website or talk show, we should have a definition.   I would tell students that if they were going to call someone a name, they should understand the definition.  For example, I once had a young feminist who called every male, including me, a male chauvinist.  I asked her if she knew what a chauvinist is? She didn't.  I told her that she could call me a chauvinist only if she knew the definition and that I met the definition.  She went to the dictionary. She also never used the word in my presence again. Chauvinist: 1. excessive or blind patriotism 2. undue partiality or attachment to a group or place to which one belongs or has belonged 3. an attitude of superiority toward members of the opposite sex; also : behavior expressive of such an attitude.

So let's define the words. I am going to use the dictionary to start.

Fascism: : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

Socialism: a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies. b. Any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. c. A stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done.

Communism: a way of organizing a society in which the government owns the things that are used to make and transport products (such as land, oil, factories, ships, etc.) and there is no privately owned property. A theory advocating elimination of private property. b : A system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed.  2. (capitalized)  a : A doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that was the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. b : A totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party controls state-owned means of production. c: A final stage of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably.

Is Obama a Fascist? If he is, he cannot be a Socialist or Communist by definition.  If he is a dictatorial leader, given his inability to get congress to pass anything, he is either not a dictator or has the worse understanding of a dictatorship ever.  So the answer is no.  He is not even close to the kind of leader Hitler was.

Is he a Socialist?  Let's not confuse Socialist with Liberal.  Has he organized industries to be controlled, not to be confused with regulated, by the government? No.  Even Obamacare includes the insurance industry who determine the plans and the cost.  Given the current behavior of the free market, or stock trading on Wall Street, he also fails as someone who has government control of the industry market.The free markets are at record levels, over 16,000.  This makes him the worst Socialist ever.  Even in 2012, the president of the Socialist Party announced Obama is not a Socialist, calling him "another corporate funded politician placed in the White House to protect the wealth and status of the 1 percent."

If he were actually a Socialist and the ACA was Socialist, we would all wake-up tomorrow to have exactly the same health care insurance, cost and coverage.  Obamacare is not socialist; it is liberal. So by definition, he is not a Socialist or at the least not a very good one. There is the issue of those who think Obama is both Muslim and Socialist pointing to his socialist leanings of having attended  Chicago Trinity Church  years ago. On the church's website they write, "We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian..." Obama the horrible Socialist must also be a pretty bad Muslim.

Is he a Communist?  Note that Socialism is the step between Capitalism and Communism.  This means that all Communists should be Socialist, but not all Socialists are Communist.  Since Obama is not a Socialist, then he is not a Communist, but if I grant you that he is just a bad Socialist, there is that other problem in the definition of a "single authoritarian party [that] controls state-owned means of production." We also know that we don't have a single party in this country, but a bunch and again Obama seems to lack any authoritarian control, especially when it comes to the House and the Supreme Court.  So the answer must also be no.  I should also point out that one of the tenets of Communism is Athiesm,  hence the saying of those "Goddless Comunists." Not good for a Christian or a Muslim.

Actually if you think about it, to put Obama in the same picture as Hitler, the Fascist,  and Lenin, the Socialist,  is something of an oxymoron. In case you didn't know, Lenin was declared a traitor to the movement and exiled from Russia when Stalin took over effectively moving the Socialist movement to the definition of Communism ran by an authoritarian party. 

Is Obama liberal? I know I didn't define Liberal. Yes.  Is he an a far left Liberal? No.  If he were, Obamacare would have the single payer option and not what it has with the industry.  Is he a Democrat? Again without a definition, Yes.  Given the size and scope of Obamacare, does he believe in big government as a means to help? Yes, he probably does.

I will gladly entertain anything he has done that shows him as a Socialist, Communist or Fascist, but it needs to be more than because Fox, Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, O'Reily or other pundit says so.  It has to meet a real definitions.