Actually, moving to Denmark, Sweden or France is quite tempting, but this damned CORPORATE socialism is designed to keep us from being able to afford to move out and escape it. A majority of American support single-payer health care and Veterans Administration health care is socialized health care. Democratic Socialism doesn't purport to give you everything...just everything essential to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Christopher Thomas Conway

If Obama was paying off his debt to the unions, he'd actually be pushing the Employee Free Choice Act, but he's obviously not. He's also obviously not enforcing the labor provisions in NAFTA just like any other Reaganomics/Clintonomics/Bushonomics type would not. His real loyalty is to corporatists. One also wonders why anti-union pro-child-slave-labor WALMART (for crying out loud) supports Obama's health care plan. Obama is just another right-wing lite Clinton. And yes, Carter is guilty of corporatism as well. WWII was the last justifiable war this country ever got involved in.

Christopher Thomas Conway

Government is not the problem... Corporate control of government is the problem. The entire republican party and a majority of the "democratic" party has been bought and paid for by the bankers and corporations. And these "people" who control and infiltrate the government are the same "people" who depend on the financial slavery that is the debt-based and privatized monetary system. Corporate "personhood" has been granted by the supreme court over the years which in turn gave them free speech. And since a corporation doesn't have a mouth, they're currently allowed to exercise their free speech with their money. This corporate personhood must be permanently repealed in order for true campaign finance reform to take hold.

Fox has moved on to their next weapon of mass distraction... Michael Jackson coverage.

Christopher Thomas Conway

Sandy, UT
Iraq Occupation Veteran and Democratic Socialist

Yes, Obama does redistribute wealth...TO CORPORATIONS AND THE RICH and NO one else...just like Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton and W. Bush all did... That's called Reaganomics. So yes, tax monies redistributed to those who didn't earn them IS theft. Join me in telling that fact to the CEOs and their right-wing (corporate) sponsors on both sides of the aisle in Washington. The same small businesses that some republicans pretend to defend are being run out of town...by the corporations they ACTUALLY defend. By the way, I realize, and have for quite a while, that Jimmy Carter is guilty of corporatism as well.

Christopher Thomas Conway

Iraq Occupation Veteran and Democratic Socialist

You can call it whatever you want, but the fact is that Reaganomics has, for three decades now, been redistributing wealth from the poor, the middle class and small business TO corporations and the rich. The Democratic form of socialism, exemplified in Sweden, France and Denmark, does not run all of the economy. It only runs the public necessities which William Jefferson referred to as 'the commons'. This is for the purpose of keeping profit motives out of the goods and services that society depends on. For where is a profit motive, those at the bottom are left fighting for the scraps, hence our current disaster. The rest of the economy in a Democratic Socialist system is privatized to prevent government monopoly on the economy (communism). On the other hand, you DO already agree with me that the "federal" reserve is an inherent and perpetually worse disaster for all of us. This is why true Democratic Socialism includes socialization of the monetary system. This would mean a monetary system that is NOT debt-based. President Lincoln tried this (see the 'Greenback') and was promptly assassinated thereafter. Kennedy tried it again, and sure enough... And yes, both parties are at fault because both parties are bought and paid for by corporations and the rich, and therefore are both are right-wing to slightly different degrees. Clintonomics was based on the same for-profit and anti-democratic principles as Reaganomics was.

Christopher Thomas Conway

Iraq Occupation Veteran and Democratic Socialist

I've got some questions for those who've been calling President Obama a socialist. Don't you realize there are multiple and wide-ranging forms of socialism? And don't you realize that what we've been living under for the past 30 years has been corporate socialism? I don't know about you, but I believe that people matter more than profit and it's about time that our government's policies, after all those 30 years, reflect that reality. A demand for this is justifiably growing across the nation and it's because the people have at last snapped out of their acceptance of what Reaganomics did, not for us, but to us, particularly to the middle class. Have you ever noticed that republicans never talk about the middle class or even utter the phrase? Ask yourself why that is. The answer is they don't want one. Why? Because that's how the corporate sponsors of the republican party and many democrats want it. When there's no strong middle class, the cost of labor goes down which forces the average working American to have to accept lower wages in order to make ends meet. This is why more and more families have had to sacrifice evermore quality family time. First, both parents had to work just to make ends meet, then teenagers had to start working to help keep the family above water and now it's to the point where almost everyone who makes an honest living has to work more jobs and more hours, thereby further disconnecting us from our families and our communities. It's left us without the time and willpower to pay attention to the things that matter most and to what Wall Street and their government sponsors have done, not for us, but to us. This is the real Reaganomics... Tax cuts for corporations and the rich... The biggest tax hike on the middle class in our history... Deregulation of industry allowing it to consolidate into fewer and larger corporations, thereby getting to and past the point where they have too much influence on the marketplace and become "too big to fail". And of course there's the busting of unions for the purpose of breaking down the organized labor power necessary to fight back against these forces of corporate socialism who redistribute wealth upward and encourage us to engage in the selfish materialism and greed which fuels it. Materialism leads to debt and confuses priorities. That's how they like it because it's how they survive and that's where Reaganomics has us today. So let us get rid of it. Competition is for excellence, not domination. Let us abandon the "thinking" which supports only those who build their own lives on the shattered dreams of other human beings. The private sector has proven that it cannot be trusted to handle our necessities. Health care, education, public transportation, banking, the monetary system, food production, water and all forms of energy must be socialized, some of them federally and some locally. For when any public necessities are driven by a profit motive, only the controllers will benefit. The most evident example is health insurance companies. They make their money by denying you coverage when you need it. As for non-essential goods and services, let the private sector control them so we don't have a government monopoly on the economy. What I'm describing is called a mixed economy, not dominated by the private sector nor the government. This is the real way forward Mr. President, not a bailout rescue of capitalistic bubble and burst economics. Government isn't the problem. Corporate control of it is the problem.

Christopher Thomas Conway

Iraq Occupation Veteran and Democratic Socialist