Articles by RR

During the presidential campaign, a group of Americans opposed to Barack Obama unsuccessfully sought to undermine the President’s campaign by calling attention to his middle name “Hussein,” in what I will refer to as the “Hussein Tactic.” They hoped to use his middle name to mislead Americans into thinking he was a Muslim. Additionally, they hoped Americans would form a mental association between Obama and Saddam Hussein, and thus, tarnish Obama’s image.

The Hussein Tactic was unsuccessful and probably cut against their efforts. Americans are brighter than they give themselves credit for, and they do not like cheap shots. This was clearly one. Whether you think Obama follows the tenants of Christianity, he does not follow the tenants of Islam. Further, it should be no surprise that Americans refused to connect any part of Saddam with Obama. But for their disregard for the dignity of human life at all stages, Obama and Saddam clearly are different. In fact, the only thing the two probably agreed on is that Saddam should still be in power.

Shameful or not, this was unnecessary distraction. Opponents of Obama did not need to use underhanded means to attack him. They should have simply criticized the left-leaning views that he espouses. If they did not want to do that, they should have referred to Obama as Barack “Marx” Obama or warn people about “Obamunism.” Although Marx is not his middle name, it would have been less misleading than his real middle name, and they might have earned a few smiles for making a clever connection between Obama and Karl Marx, the father of communism. Above all, such foresight would have provided increased credibility with each new day of the Obama Presidency.

If you have not read the Communist Manifesto, you should. Specifically, you should look at the pillars of communism and just see what comes to mind. The Manifesto lists ten steps for transitioning a capitalist state to a communism. These are the pillars of Marxism:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equal distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools.

To be fair, some American policies already mirrored Marxism before Obama took office. American has already bought into public education; it already has a progressive income tax and the estate tax; it already uses its eminent domain powers to confiscate private property; it already provides public housing; and industrial armies A.K.A. unions already exist. Additionally, George W. Bush deserves much disfavor for greatly expanding government and introducing bailout politics. Although Bush was a big spending liberal, you must credit his anti-Marxist tax policy, which temporarily flattened the tax code and nearly eliminated the death tax.

Obama, on the other hand, has taken America’s communist trend to new heights with no plus side. He wants to broaden every socialist policy that already exists and hopes to add socialized health care to it. He plans make the tax code substantially more progressive and bring back the death tax with full force. He wants to expand the industrial armies with his check card policy. His party promotes the “fairness doctrine,” which would eliminate the free press, and even if Obama does not support reimposing the doctrine, it is doubtful that he would fight it either. During his campaign, he also made a case for the need to redistribute some of the wealth, and he is using gratuitously large “economic stimulus” bills to spread it around. Additionally, Obama went well beyond Bush’s TARP bailout and seems willing to seize banks, insurance companies, and bailout any big business with a union presence, particularly big auto. With centralization and redistribution being at the heart of so much of Obama’s policies, you might wonder if the President is looking to the Communist Manifesto to solve our nation’s problems. We are only a few months deep in Obamunism and things seem to becoming more communist by the minute. Even if we had not gotten distracted by the Hussein tactic during the campaign, I do not think we would have foreseen so much socialism in so little time — maybe it is just communist manifest destiny.