Why I Support Obama: A Socialist's Stance

It would seem like there would be little reason for someone in the far left end of the spectrum to support Obama. He is conservative on many issues and still is, at heart, a capitalist. Given that, why would I support him?

The reason isn't a very specific one. It's more lofty and idea oriented than policy oriented. I support Obama because of the rhetoric and the feeling of unity. This may seem strange coming from someone who doesn't like Democrats or Republicans.

Unity isn't enough though. I want a president who can inspire people and empower them. I want a leader that can get people motivated to bring about change in their own communities. Whether in the workplace or in the schools it is people who need to start acting out and interacting.

Obama is that president. Policy wise I don't like him much at all. In essence he doesn't go far enough. When it comes to community involvement and people empowerment, however, I think he is the top choice.

I believe that if Obama is the nominee and is subsequently elected as President he will bring about much change in the realm of politics. I believe he can sell progressive ideas to the masses and make them not only sound good, but make them achievable.

While he isn't fighting for a single payer healthcare system I believe he can get Americans comfortable with the idea of universal healthcare. While not for total amnesty I believe he can open Americans to more immigration reform.

Out of all of his policies I praise him most for his positions on technology and ethical reform using technology. Essentially he wants to open up government to people using the power of the internet, improve broadband support, and provide all key government documents online in open formats with creative commons licenses.

He even consulted Lawrence Lessig on that.

Given all of the above I can support Obama. As I've stated it goes far beyond specific policies; it goes with who can ease Americans into a more progressive vision and unify them behind it. He's going to engage people in every possible way and he's going to open up government far more than I think any other candidate in the field can do. I find Hillary Clinton far too divisive and too much like a "run of the mill Democrat" for me to throw support behind her.

There is a lot more to a candidate than policy. After all, a president can only do what congress passes. A president needs to be able to call people to attention and to enable them. All the experience in the world can't make someone able to get things done. Inspiration can motivate people.

So as it stands, this Socialist will be voting for a Democrat for the first time in November if Obama wins the nomination of the Democratic Party. If Hillary Clinton wins the nomination I'll be voting for a third party candidate like I normally do, so it will be a vote hardly missed.

•  Have to remember that FDR

  didn't run as a great progressive.

  by gracchus on Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 08:05:34 AM PDT

  •  Right

    I'm a believer in sequential change in politics to eventually reach a place we need to be at. FDR did a lot of good things but there was a lot of backlash.

    That backlash is probably coming to an end soon and we can begin again focusing on human needs.

    That said I'm more for slowly getting people used to the ideas and making it something acceptable than forcing it or trying to coerce public opinion.

    Just won't happen.

    by Zotnix on Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 08:12:09 AM PDT

    •  American leftists

      have to be patient. We have good ideas, but these ideas have to be generally accepted and enacted democratically.

      by gracchus on Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 06:44:20 PM PDT

•  Lessing gave a rousing

  endorsement for Obama.

  by Robinswing on Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 08:17:41 AM PDT

  •  It's no wonder,

    His technology plans are absolutely wonderful. It brings a new level of transparency to government and it is something we've been needing for a long time.

    by Zotnix on Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 08:20:57 AM PDT

•  He grows the Left and gets new people

  involved in the process.  Plus it appears that unlike HRC corporate America  only has a few fingers up his rear end rather than its whole arm.  Reason enough for this Socialist.

  by Kab ibn al Ashraf on Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 08:20:30 AM PDT

•  Out of curiousity,

  which issues Obama is conservative on?  Reading his platform, where is the conservatism.  Name 3 issues.

  by Drgrishka1 on Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 08:24:28 AM PDT

  •  Well,

    It is a matter of perspective. I'm on the far left so any number of his ideas are conservative to me.

    His healthcare plan calls for a reduction in premiums of $2500 per family per year. He also calls for subsidizing healthcare costs for low income families.

    I find this conservative because I want and support a single payer healthcare system and the nationalization of private hospitals. I also support a strong union of doctors and nurses being set up for control of this structure.

    He only supports "helping out" with school with a $4,000 tax credit. I support nationalization, direct teacher control, and full public funding for everyone to attend up to at least 2 years of college.

    He doesn't support gay marriage. I support either: 1.) Full marriage rights for all homosexual couples and polygamist institutions or 2.) Federal ban on marriage being recognized and instituting civil unions for everyone.

    As I've said above though, it's a matter of perspective and "how far" one will go. I go much further than Obama so his stances are conservative to me. However, I think he is an excellent candidate to help push us in that direction.

    by Zotnix on Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 08:52:50 AM PDT

    •  Well, then you probably should say

      "conservative as compared to me."  Otherwise words don't have any meaning.  We use words like conservative, liberal, or moderate to denote a position on a socio-political spectrum.  Declaring (without qualification) that Obama is conservative is simply incorrect.

      by Drgrishka1 on Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 11:09:45 AM PDT

•  I agree with you entirely, as noted in ...

  ...On February 5: Obama:

  For me, as a Popular Front Democrat, a radical democrat – small and capital "d" – politics have always been about far more than elections and legislation. Political parties are only a means to ends, one of which is implementing reforms that originate and are fought over, sometimes for decades, outside the electoral process. Politicians too are a means to ends. They aren’t messiahs. You pick the best one you can within the constraints of the two-party system and of the nominating process and cross your fingers that, if said candidate makes it to the Oval Office, progress will be achieved on most or many or at least some of the issues that matter to you, and there will be no significant back-sliding.

  But you never forget for an instant that your choice is a politician. You are destined for disappointment if you do. Supporters transformed into idolators who attach all their cherished dreams of change to a politician who must inevitably make alliances and compromises will be very disappointed indeed.

  I have reservations, misgivings, worries about Senator Obama. But tomorrow when I cast my ballot, I’ll vote for him. I’ll jettison my doubts and accept the key themes of his campaign: hope and change. I hope he’s willing to go far in shaping a post-Cold War, post-9/11 foreign policy that tosses aside the pernicious myth of American exceptionalism and overcomes the denial that America has an empire, which is not a good thing for the world, or America. I hope to see him go far in separating himself from the corporate forces that influence (and frequently direct) government policy at home and abroad. I hope the changes he initiates for dealing with global warming and health care and prison reform will be a match for his spell-binding oratory. I hope he will avoid falling prey to the myth that race in America has been transcended and that he will renew the fight against racism in its many guises. I hope that he will let no day pass in which he does not seek ways to do something about what John Edwards so rightly labeled the two Americas. I hope he will be braver as a President on gay rights than he has been as a candidate.

  Of course, I know that, if elected, he is unlikely to go as far as I would like in any of these arenas. – just as no President will ever do.

  Nonetheless, as wu ming wrote Sunday in a Diary that said so much so well:

  ...the very campaign that [Obama] is running is changing our political reality, right under our feet. I have seen so many people that I know be moved by his words, this campaign. You see it in the tens of thousands of people showing up to his speeches. You can see it in the millions of newly registered voters and the unexpectedly high youth turnouts in the primaries so far. We are at a watershed in American politics, as a younger, more liberal, more diverse generation starts to move into the electorate, and Obama is catching the edge of that wave, and playing to it. As we have seen in South Carolina, where Obama outpolled several Republican candidates put together, the very electoral math in this country could change as a result of the energy he's tapping into and nurturing. Just as how a lot of the laudable changes of the 1960s were spearheaded by people inspired by Kennedy but doing the work at the grassroots (often, ironically enough, with little help or occasional resistance from the not-as-liberal-as-portrayed Kennedy), so too I suspect that if Obama is the Democratic nominee the social movement he's encouraging may well transform this country, quite regardless of what bills he ultimately signs into law.

     You see, it is the congregation, not the preacher, where the real potential for change lies.

  Indeed. If Obama wins come November, it will be up to that grassroots, that congregation, not only to hold his feet to the fire, but also, and more importantly, to press forward the extra-electoral politics which the Freedom Riders employed to bring real hope and real change to America nearly half a century ago.

  As Frederick Douglass once said, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress."

  by Meteor Blades on Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 09:47:56 AM PDT