Is Barack Obama Really a Socialist?

I'm sure you've heard the one about how Barack Obama is a socialist, right? I imagine you must have heard about it because it seems to be all that the John McCain/Sarah Palin/Fox News campaign has been talking about recently.

Before they have tried other names like "celebrity" and "pal of terrorists" but those attacks didn't work because they were simply too obviously untrue. How about this latest attack? Is Barack Obama really a socialist? Is there anything to this?

First of all, consider the basis for this attack: Barack Obama's plan to let the George W. Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire.

Secondly, consider that a Senator named John McCain voted against those tax cuts for the rich in both 2001 and in 2003 (before voting for them in 2006 when an eye on the Republican nomination.)

So if Obama is a "socialist" because he's against these tax cuts for the rich, then does that mean that John McCain is a reformed socialist? That doesn't make much sense to me.

How about the fact that if Obama does become President and allows these tax cuts for the rich to expire (while giving new tax cuts to the middle class) that the tax rates for the rich will be back to where they were under Bill Clinton. Similar to where they were under President Ronald Reagan. That means by McCain/Palin's definition of "soclialist" both Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan are socalists too.

On top of all of that I'd like you to remember that the "socialist" scare tactic is nothing new from the Republicans. They've used it before. Perhaps most memorably in trying to fight the new program called Medicare. Yes. The United States does have programs which can reasonably be called "socialist." Among those programs are Medicare & Social Security. If McCain/Palin are so against socialism does that mean they want to destroy the Medicare & Social Security programs? I know that McCain wants to greatly cut funding to Medicare and change Social Security so that money is in the stock market (yes, the stock market) instead of safe. But does he want to get rid of the programs all together?

No. Barack Obama is not a socialist by any reasonable modern definition. But America does have many socialist programs as does every other Western country. The truth is, socialism isn't a bad thing. It's a part of any society that cares about everyone instead of only a few elite rich people.