Those chain emails that we’ve all seen cluttering up our emailboxes can be an annoyance, but one man’s trash is certainly another man’s treasure. Take, for example, Brian Fraley’s latest missive asking “Obamaniacs” to read a supposed “Obama missive” and then tell Brian he’s wrong in his belief that Barack Obama is not only a socialist, but a Communist. What’s more, Brian asks, “Is this not an appeal for Communism?”
Here’s the supposed missive from Barack Obama:
In the longer term, what is required is a new model of economic governance at the state and corporate level. By that I mean a reconfiguring of the role and functions of government and corporations so that they favor working people, the racially and nationally oppressed, women, youth and other social groupings. …
Recent events have undermined the legitimacy of the neoliberal model of governance and accumulation so eagerly embraced by the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress. (No wonder they say they don’t want to play the “blame game.”)
Now using the wonders of the intertubes (Google is a wonderful thing), Jay over a Folkbum was able to determine the missive supposedly written by Sen. Obama was actually written by Sam Webb, the National Chair of the American Communist Party. Now I’m not exactly sure if Brian Fraley culled the supposed “Obama missive” from an email he got or if he just copied and pasted it from a source on the internet, but if Brian Fraley did buy into an email he got, then it’s not the first some some folks on the conservative end of the political spectrum have fallen hook, line and sinker for some dubious emails.
I’ve previously written that “Calling Obama a Socialist is like calling Bush a Democrat.” And it’s true. If realigning the tax structure so that people making less than $250K get a break is socialism, they have a very narrow and inaccurate concept of the term means. Obama’s said nothing remotely resembling the Socialist Party platform, and that’s not nearly as extreme as a communist platform. But to most people today, socialism = communism. But they’re not remotely similar. Milwaukee voters never lost their right to vote for multiple candidates during our decades of having socialist mayors, while in communist regimes, the ballot votes for YOU!
Jason, it seems it’s much easier (or more desirable) for some to scream “SOCIALISM!!” than it is to present a rational argument in support of their beliefs.
I don\’t normally leave comments! But what you said here makes one think! Would you mind if I placed a link back from my blog?