It's a testament to just how narrow the realm of acceptable public discourse about the economy (and politics) has become when you hear so-called serious news outlets question whether Obama is a socialist. But that's just what the mainstream media (MSM) is currently debating (I assume that means no celebrities have shaved heads or plumbers became jounalists this week).
This type of demagoguery, usually reserved for the likes of Fox News and Republican presidential campaigns, has become a serious topic of discussion on outlets such as the New York Times and ABC. There seems to be, among the MSM, a serious misunderstanding (either involuntary or willful) of what socialism is. It is not difficult to conclude that both Obama's budget and his free market tendencies quickly disqualify such a label. Both the NYT and ABC, often accused of being bastions of liberal propaganda, are not so subtely pandering to their corporatist agenda. Not only is this sort of labeling inaccurate and unfair (to both Obama and socialists), but is serves to stifle honest discussion of how to deal with the current economic crisis when the last thing we need is ideolgolical handcuffs preventing our government from doing what it should have done in November - nationalize the banks. Ironically, if we had done that from the start of the crisis, less capital would have been needed.
Interviewing with the NYT aboard Air Force One yesterday, Obama was asked the socialist question. He dodged the question but called back after the interview. His response is below:
This type of demagoguery, usually reserved for the likes of Fox News and Republican presidential campaigns, has become a serious topic of discussion on outlets such as the New York Times and ABC. There seems to be, among the MSM, a serious misunderstanding (either involuntary or willful) of what socialism is. It is not difficult to conclude that both Obama's budget and his free market tendencies quickly disqualify such a label. Both the NYT and ABC, often accused of being bastions of liberal propaganda, are not so subtely pandering to their corporatist agenda. Not only is this sort of labeling inaccurate and unfair (to both Obama and socialists), but is serves to stifle honest discussion of how to deal with the current economic crisis when the last thing we need is ideolgolical handcuffs preventing our government from doing what it should have done in November - nationalize the banks. Ironically, if we had done that from the start of the crisis, less capital would have been needed.
Interviewing with the NYT aboard Air Force One yesterday, Obama was asked the socialist question. He dodged the question but called back after the interview. His response is below:
And here is how it was discussed on ABC's This Week:"Just one thing I was thinking about as I was getting on the copter. It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question. I did think it might be useful to point out that it wasn’t under me that we started buying a bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch. And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed a massive new entitlement – the prescription drug plan without a source of funding. And so I think it’s important just to note when you start hearing folks through these words around that we’ve actually been operating in a way that has been entirely consistent with free-market principles and that some of the same folks who are throwing the word socialist around can’t say the same."
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