Socialism of a Democrat

The media controls many things in the lives of most Americans. If every news station were to cover the same story, saying the same thing, then most of America would believe what the news said even if it was actually a total lie. As far as political campaigns go, the news and other media seem to control just about everything, especially during a presidential election. It’s hard for me to think of how I would be able to get information about the candidates if it weren't for TV, newspapers, and internet articles and I'm sure it would be the same for most people. However, because nearly everyone relies of media to give them the information about the candidates, it also means that the media is given exceptional amounts of power. One could even say that it is really the media that decides who the next president will be.

While reading though some of the articles on the political blog site Bipolar Nation, I came across a post titled “Masking His Socialism,” which quite bluntly claimed that presidential candidate Barack Obama is in fact a socialist. I thought that it was a ridiculous idea, at first, but the article did have many good points. Socialism is defined as “any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy,” which is basically a step between capitalism and communism. Of course anything having to do with communism is automatically labeled as evil by the American people, this was obvious in the way that the article was written. The entire tone of the article seemed to say that Obama being a socialist would be the downfall of America if he were to be elected. This was especially evident with the way the article compared Obama getting elected with Fidel Castro being elected. Not that I feel having some one like Castro would be a good thing for our country, but I wouldn't go as far as to say that Obama is just like Castro because he is a socialist. I think it’s hard for anyone to see a man like Obama becoming a fascist dictator, especially when he wants less money being spent on the military and more money being spent on schools and health care. The article actually uses the idea of spending more money on school as a negative by saying, “I mean, for crying out loud, he wants to recruit an ‘army of teachers.’ I’d prefer an army of soldiers,” which also makes mention to the fact that the author does have an affinity towards having a military-based country. A few lines later he quotes from another article saying, “And when the young leader said, ‘I will be for change and I’ll bring you change,’ everyone yelled, ‘Viva Fidel!’ But nobody asked about the change, so by the time the executioner’s guns went silent the people’s guns had been taken away,” which sounds like a reference to the way Castro militarized his country, which the author just criticized Obama for wanting the opposite.

I try to take the media with a grain of salt when it come to political issues and I feel that this blog is a good example of why. Too many media figures have agendas and seem to care very little about supplying the country with the truth.

Kenitz, Dan. "Masking His Socialism." BipolarNation.com. 09 Sep 2008. 14 Sep 2008.

"Socialism" The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.