The McCain campaign started this malarkey about Obama wanting Socialism in our country. This is ridiculous. This same campaign tried to paint him as an elitist. How can he be both an elitist and a socialist? They are polar opposites! I won’t even belabor the point of this $700+ billion dollar bailout for the banking industry which was corporate socialism led by a Republican Administration.
However, I digress. I think some of you misled, discouraged McCain supporters need a little lesson in socialism. Let me try to keep it simple for you, I know you don’t like to think.

Firstly, Socialism was thought to be the direct and natural outgrowth of Democracy (i.e. when the people got sick of the few who owned everything and used them as slave labor, getting richer by the people’s work and doing little for the people… then the people would revolt and thusly a revolution would begin by the people, for the people). Socialism starts with the workers or the majority of the people. It is not started by the President! This negates your very premise of Obama wanting to make the U.S. a socialist society. Just the fact that he ran for President negates the premise of socialism’s equal power amongst the people. Socialists believe that political power is not true power because by the very nature of having political power in a Democracy means having more access to wealth than others. In Socialism, EVERYONE IS EQUAL.

Moreover, Socialism is about ownership of the wealth. This has nothing to do with our tax system. Ensuring those who make $1 or over $250,000 or anywhere in between, pay their taxes is NOT socialism, it is lawful reasoning. It is fair. This doesn’t reward the slackers. If someone is a drunk, crack-addicted couch potato… which is a strange, unrealistic speculation in the first place, they won’t be making money either way. They won’t be getting any tax breaks. They won’t be getting any extra wealth. Neither will Richie Rich, who owns a multi-billion dollar company, be paying more than he is LEGALLY supposed to pay. Would you argue so adamantly if Richie Rich went to the grocery store and got $15,000 worth of groceries but didn’t want to pay as much tax as he owes on that $15,000? I mean it is the same context. Yes, when you look at the sales tax for $15,000 worth of groceries, it is going to be astronomical… probably even MORE than everyday people buy in groceries in a month or a few months but do you see how it is still necessary for him to pay it? OH! WELL! Then… can’t you see how it is still necessary for Richie Rich to pay his legal amount of income taxes, no matter how high it may appear?

I digress, yet again.

Socialism advocates public ownership of all major corporations, industries, schools, banks, transportation, insurance companies, manufacturing companies, energy, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies… even the media etc. So, in a socialist society all these industries and corporations make their money by the people and thus belong to the people. Obama has NOT in any way, shape or form proposed public ownership of corporations or hospitals or transportation or media or anything else. Ensuring all Americans have access to healthcare is not eliminating private insurance nor private medical practices or private hospitals or private pharmaceutical companies. It simply allots more of the taxes we pay into the government towards ensuring everyone has health insurance coverage.

Furthermore, socialism encourages only making what you need. In a socialist society you would go to the store and instead of seeing 200 different kinds of cereal, you would see 1 or 2 or maybe 3, the ones people had voted were their favorites. I know. I’ve been to a socialist country. No one is starving or homeless but choices are lacking. There is no need for 200 choices of cereals in a socialist society. They focus on making just what we need, not all that we want. Obama has not discouraged market competition, in fact, he is very much in favor of it. Did you listen to his ideas about science, technology and space? Did you hear his thoughts on innovative new green technology and how it can make us more competitive in the world market? That is NOT socialist talk, folks! That is Capitalism through and through.

Barack Obama is NOT going to bring socialism to the United States, not by any stretch of the imagination. Relax. Breathe. Sit down….read a book. I suggest the following reads:

Communist Manifesto
Socialism: A Very Short Introduction

http://users.comcen.com.au/~marcn/redflag/archive/harman/hmw/

In the past eight years I have been shackled in a fear-driven silent withdrawal. Constantly reminded of the ridiculousness of it all through not-so-subtle innuendos about a lack of patriotism for those of us who had mindfully dissented against the tyranny of the Bush Administration. And after so many years, I must admit, I felt broken … incapable of making change. I grew weary of defending myself and my point-of-view. I continued to speak against torture, against warrantless spying, against the injustices and the loss of liberty but I started to believe there was no going back, I started to lose hope. I was afraid to hope.

Barack Obama gave me and others the right to hope that we can reverse the damage done to our Democracry, to the Constitution. Barack Obama restored our courage to have hope. This is our moment. We believed, we had hope and it paid off. Here’s to hoping the next four years we see some of the damages and neglect tended to in a way that restores our international and domestic legitimacy. Here’s to hoping we can stand tall next to one another and work our way towards a brighter future for our children and our children’s children. Three cheers for hope!

I missed you. I missed me. I feel as if a part of me has returned home after a long absence. I am bewildered and excited but I fumble the words in awkward earnest. I am grateful. I am hopeful. I am humbled. And I am ready to march forward together to restore this country to its greatness.

I noticed that many people were getting up and walking around during his speech. Firstly, didn’t your parents ever teach you it is extremely disrespectful to get up while someone is speaking? HOW rude! Have you ever spoken in front of a crowd? How would you feel if dozens of people were rustling about, getting up and walking around? RUDE! You missed out on a good speech.

If you were not inspired by Kerry’s speech, you were not listening closely enough.

Kerry was spot on in almost everything he said. Some particularly interesting and important things he said I would love to share:

“[Bush] mislead the country…”

There were never any weapons of mass destruction. The Bush regime lied and they still continue to shovel money into the pockets of the oil companies and the weapon-makers. This war MUST END.

“Our mission is to restore America’s influence and position in the world, and we must use all the weapons in our arsenal above all OUR VALUES.”

This is perhaps the most understated statement of the century. We cannot continue to depend on might. While we have the largest military in the world, it is finite. We are spread too thin. We must use diplomacy. If we continue to use our guns, disregarding the opinion of other countries and the good-faith contracts we made for ourselves (the Constitution) and others (International Laws, Geneva Convention, etc.); we will lose all credibility. The past eight years have been a virtual open drain where we have lost almost all political legitimacy. The Bush Administration depended upon military might and forgot the all important notion of ‘good-will’ even when doing so directly conflicted with international law. Political legitimacy is an essential component of state power and efficacy; and we must restore ours by reuniting our words with the core liberal values this country earned so much respect for worldwide. This can only happen through true diplomacy, through obeying the international (and domestic) laws we helped create, by following international standards.

“President Obama and Vice President Biden will shut down Guantanamo, respect the Constitution and make sure once and for all the United States of America DOES NOT torture NOW, NOT EVER. We must listen; we must listen and lead by example because even a nation as powerful as the United States needs some friends in this world.”

APPLAUDS! This is one of the many things we need to do IMMEDIATELY to restore moral legitimacy. Torture undermines our moral legitimacy, alienates us from the rest of the world, fuels legitimate Anti-American sentiment abroad and puts our soldiers (and our country) in harm’s way. We must stop torture NOW!

“This election is a chance for America to tell the merchants of fear and division: you don’t decide who loves this country; you don’t decide who is a patriot; you don’t decide whose service counts and whose doesn’t.”

I could hug him for saying this. It is so obvious but still seems to haunt anyone with any opinion outside the accepted one. I AM PATRIOTIC. I believe in my country. I LOVE MY COUNTRY. I am constantly explaining my thoughts, as an American, to people in other countries; people who have decided we are all Bush-policy supporters. I explain despite the torture, despite the war, despite two-time elected Bush that we are rational, we do think, we are compassionate, we are reasonable, we are the Americans they once respected, the Americans they still want to respect but have lost faith in because of our country’s poor leadership the past eight years.

When my country started heading down this path of total disregard for the international community, I went back to school and studied political science. I wanted to be informed and now I am. And I have an informed opinion. And this DOES NOT make me anti-American, or against the troops. That is simply ridiculous but we have been made to feel that way for eight years too long. Thank you, Kerry, for saying this and reminding us all, we have a voice and it is not anti-patriotic to use it!

“…the flag doesn’t belong to any ideology. It doesn’t belong to any political party. It is an enduring symbol of our nation, and it belongs to all the American people. After all, patriotism is not love of power or some cheap trick to win votes; patriotism is love of country.”

I am only a Democrat because I had to choose a party in the last election in order to vote. I am more independent but I realize a vote for an independent is a vote thrown away. It will harm our country. I want not to elect someone I disagree with whole-heartedly by throwing away my vote.

“Years ago when we protested a war, people would weigh in against us saying, “My country right or wrong.” Our answer? Absolutely, my country right or wrong. When right, keep it right. When wrong, make it right. Sometimes loving your country demands you must tell the truth to power.”

We have been wrong in many policies, in many actions, in many ways over the past eight years (even before that, I am certain!) but we can accept our responsibility and stop the wrongs now. Stop torture, stop this make-believe war, stop mutilating our Constitution and justice. We can stop lining the pockets of the rich, starving the poor and alienating the rational. We can and we must!

This speech was profound and if you couldn’t see that, you were not listening.