Myths/Obama is a socialist

Myth: Barack Obama is a socialist; the Obama administration advocates socialist policies

Myth

Examples

• "After eight years of Obama-style socialism, we need to shrink government." — George Pataki ad: "What Matters" - No Distractions! (video)
• "Obama is a disaster because he’s an unmitigated socialist..." — Ted Cruz

Reality

You've got to be kidding me.

“

Look, there’s no reason for “socialism” to serve as a synonym for “stuff Republicans don’t like.” It’s an actual word with a fairly specific meaning, involving public ownership of the means of production.

And it in no way reflects the Obama era. After corporate profits reached all-time highs, the stock markets reached all-time highs, and the sharp drop in the unemployment rate was based almost entirely on private-sector job growth, I thought to myself, “Well, at least they’ll stop calling Obama a ‘socialist.’” But here we are anyway, hearing the same nonsense.

Have we considered the possibility that Republicans literally don’t know what “socialism” means? Isn’t it plausible that knee-jerk partisans have relied so heavily on the word for so long that they simply have lost track of its definition?

Cruz complained last year, “Right now, the top 1 percent in this country … earn a higher share of our national income than any time since 1928.” I’m curious: does the far-right senator believe those are economic conditions created by “an unmitigated socialist”? Or does Cruz believe the president is just really ineffective in implementing his socialist vision?

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—Steve Benen