and thank you!
A most excellent article about Obama's "brand" of Marxism or Leninism.
As far as I'm concerned, if it walks like a duck...
That's one reason Ayn Rand never even used the word "communist","marxist","socialist" etc. in her books- so that you would recognize the bastards no matter what they call themselves.
That's one reason Ayn Rand never even used the word "communist","marxist","socialist" etc. in her books- so that you would recognize the bastards no matter what they call themselves.
No need for semantic arguments, Marxism, Leninism, Trotsky-ism, Marxist-socialism - they're all just different flavors of the generic umbrella term "socialism".
Does it matter which one Obama is?
Point is - they are all BAD no matter what friggin' flavor you choose!
So shall we call it just plain Obama-ism now?
Now matter what you want to call it - the results are the same:
- DEATH of the middle class
- Big Gov rules every facet of your life
- State owned everything...
- etc. (see below)
You go ahead and fight with your friends about the semantics of marxism/leninism/socialism etc.
Just don't vote for the bastard!
President Obama's Marxist-Leninist Economics: Fact And Fiction
Forbes
"A fair description of Obama and his economic goals is to say that he is 'an interventionist, corporatist, statist, Big Government progressive, free-market-hating control freak who favors economic policies of a Marxist-Leninist flavor.'" (Photo credit: Intel Photos)
The problem here is that the dictionary definition of "socialist" sets an almost impossibly high bar for any leader. Even Vladimir Lenin himself couldn't meet that standard. Actually, Lenin tried to implement pure socialism when he first came to power, but when his policies caused the Russian economy to collapse all around him, in 1921 he abandoned literal socialism and replaced it with a pragmatic, expedient reform program called the "New Economic Policy." Under NEP, Lenin permitted various privatizations while seeking state domination of the "commanding heights" of the economy.
President Obama has emulated Lenin in striving to increase state control over such "commanding heights" of our economy as energy, health care, finance, and education, with smaller forays into food, transportation and undoubtedlysome areas I am overlooking.
Besides mimicking some of Lenin's policy strategies, Obama also has adopted Karl Marx's strategies for gradually socializing an economy. Before I spell out the Marxian nature of many of Obama's policies, let me emphasize that I am not calling Obama a "Marxist-Leninist, period." "Marxist-Leninist" connotes the brutal totalitarian police state of the late, unlamented Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. There is no comparison between Barack Obama's statism and the genocidal, gulag-riddled regime of the Soviet Communists. That being said,Obama's economic program is taken directly, if not deliberately, from the Marxist-Leninist playbook, and on that basis one may say that Obama tends toward Marxist-Leninist economics.
Besides adopting the Leninist strategy of seeking greater control over the commanding heights of the economy, if one reviews Marx's 10-point platform for how to socialize a country's economy in stages ("The Communist Manifesto," chapter two), one finds that Team Obama and his congressional progressive allies have taken actions to further the goals laid out in all 10 of the planks in the Marx platform. Here are some examples, with Marx's wording being revised for simplicity's sake:
1. State control of real property. Team Obama repeatedly has thwarted the development of domestic energy supplies by asserting government ownership and asserting arbitrary regulatory control over massive acreage.
2. Progressive income taxes. Obama has an Ahab-like obsession with raising taxes on "the rich" even though the top 1 percent of earners already pay 39 percent of the total income tax.
3. Abolition of inheritance. Obama favors re-institution of estate taxes.
4. Confiscation of the property of emigrants and rebels. Team Obama has declared war on offshore tax havens; has sought legal jurisdiction to tax the offshore income of multi-national corporations as well as foreign citizens and banks that have any investments in America (causing Switzerland's oldest bank to recommend that its clients avoid all American investments);
5. Centralization of the country's financial system in the hands of the state. Dodd-Frank was a huge step in this direction.
6. State control of means of communication and transportation. Team Obama has attempted to cow conservative media outlets like Fox News into submission through denunciation and has suggested reviving the so-called "fairness doctrine" and imposing heavier licensing fees on station owners. In the area of transportation, Obama insinuated government into the auto industry, has favored the high-speed rail boondoggle, and wishes he could compel us all to convert to "green transportation."
7. Increase state control over means of production. Through his green energy subsidies, his failed cap-and-trade scheme, now via EPA regulation, Obama has sought state control over the industry on which most other industries depend—energy.
8 Establishment of workers' armies. Obama has ramped up the number of Americans working for Uncle Sam by securing a large expansion of Americorps and winning passage of his Serve America Act. He also has done everything he could to strengthen labor unions.
9. Control over where people live. Team Obama doesn't go quite this far, but one of the clear implications of cap-and-trade is that government could start to limit human mobility by controlling how far they can travel by capping energy consumption. In Brian Sussman's book, "Eco-Tyranny," you can read an executive order that Obama signed on October 5, 2009 that would "divide the country into sectors where all humans would be herded into urban hubs" while most of the land would be "returned to a natural state upon which humans would only be allowed to tread lightly." (Marx wanted more equal distribution of the human population between town and country, whereas Obama favors urban concentration, but both want to control where people live.)
10. Free education. Obama has sought a federal government monopoly on student loans for higher education, and in his 2012 State of the Union Address, he called for additional funds for new federal education programs.
Clearly Barack Obama's policies have a distinctly Marxian flavor to them. Does that mean we are destined for socialism? Certainly not yet. But Marx knew that his 10 strategies would move a society toward socialism. The great free-market economist Ludwig von Mises agreed with Marx that government interventions breed further interventions and tend inexorably toward socialism. (See his class essay, "Middle-of-the-Road Policy Leads to Socialism.")
There is another vital point to understand about Marxist-Leninist economics: The greatest damage is done to the middle class. With his customary bloodthirsty malevolence, Lenin said, "The way to crush the bourgeoisie [middle class] is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation."
You may suppose that Obama isn't implementing that aspect of Marxist-Leninist economics, but you would be mistaken. It's true that income tax rates haven't risen under Obama and inflation has only surfaced in a few areas (e.g., food and energy) but what you need to understand is that government borrowing is a tax hike on future taxpayers. Obama's unprecedented deficit spending has been subsidized by the Federal Reserve, whose balance sheet has swelled as they have bought more and more federal debt (more than 60 percent of the total last year). Whenever the Fed's zero interest rate policyends, some combination of massive tax hikes and/or raging inflation will ensue, devastating the middle class.
Already, Obama's economic policies have hurt the middle class. They have enervated the job market, raised food and energy bills, and been accompanied by falling incomes and net worth. If these are the results of Obama's partial steps in a Marxist-Leninist direction, imagine the damage that would be wrought by a fuller implementation of such an agenda.
In closing, I repeat that we should not recklessly call Obama a "Marxist-Leninist." Although it's too long and cumbersome a label for a generation addicted to sound bites and simplistic labels, a fair description of Obama and his economic goals is to say that he is "an interventionist, corporatist, statist, Big Government progressive, free-market-hating control freak who favors economic policies of a Marxist-Leninist flavor."
7. Increase state control over means of production. Through his green energy subsidies, his failed cap-and-trade scheme, now via EPA regulation, Obama has sought state control over the industry on which most other industries depend—energy.
8 Establishment of workers' armies. Obama has ramped up the number of Americans working for Uncle Sam by securing a large expansion of Americorps and winning passage of his Serve America Act. He also has done everything he could to strengthen labor unions.
9. Control over where people live. Team Obama doesn't go quite this far, but one of the clear implications of cap-and-trade is that government could start to limit human mobility by controlling how far they can travel by capping energy consumption. In Brian Sussman's book, "Eco-Tyranny," you can read an executive order that Obama signed on October 5, 2009 that would "divide the country into sectors where all humans would be herded into urban hubs" while most of the land would be "returned to a natural state upon which humans would only be allowed to tread lightly." (Marx wanted more equal distribution of the human population between town and country, whereas Obama favors urban concentration, but both want to control where people live.)
10. Free education. Obama has sought a federal government monopoly on student loans for higher education, and in his 2012 State of the Union Address, he called for additional funds for new federal education programs.
Clearly Barack Obama's policies have a distinctly Marxian flavor to them. Does that mean we are destined for socialism? Certainly not yet. But Marx knew that his 10 strategies would move a society toward socialism. The great free-market economist Ludwig von Mises agreed with Marx that government interventions breed further interventions and tend inexorably toward socialism. (See his class essay, "Middle-of-the-Road Policy Leads to Socialism.")
There is another vital point to understand about Marxist-Leninist economics: The greatest damage is done to the middle class. With his customary bloodthirsty malevolence, Lenin said, "The way to crush the bourgeoisie [middle class] is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation."
You may suppose that Obama isn't implementing that aspect of Marxist-Leninist economics, but you would be mistaken. It's true that income tax rates haven't risen under Obama and inflation has only surfaced in a few areas (e.g., food and energy) but what you need to understand is that government borrowing is a tax hike on future taxpayers. Obama's unprecedented deficit spending has been subsidized by the Federal Reserve, whose balance sheet has swelled as they have bought more and more federal debt (more than 60 percent of the total last year). Whenever the Fed's zero interest rate policyends, some combination of massive tax hikes and/or raging inflation will ensue, devastating the middle class.
Already, Obama's economic policies have hurt the middle class. They have enervated the job market, raised food and energy bills, and been accompanied by falling incomes and net worth. If these are the results of Obama's partial steps in a Marxist-Leninist direction, imagine the damage that would be wrought by a fuller implementation of such an agenda.
In closing, I repeat that we should not recklessly call Obama a "Marxist-Leninist." Although it's too long and cumbersome a label for a generation addicted to sound bites and simplistic labels, a fair description of Obama and his economic goals is to say that he is "an interventionist, corporatist, statist, Big Government progressive, free-market-hating control freak who favors economic policies of a Marxist-Leninist flavor."
Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson is an adjunct faculty member, economist, and fellow for economic and social policy with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College.
Extra points:
One of the immediate effects of Lenin's (a.k.a. Leninism) policies was CANNIBALISM!
check it out -
Extra points:
One of the immediate effects of Lenin's (a.k.a. Leninism) policies was CANNIBALISM!
check it out -
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