Quote:
Originally Posted by Splitter
We swung about as far left as we have ever been thanks to Bush's second term and are pretty far down the road to socialism.
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Interesting you should mention Bush second term. The leftmost mainstream newspaper here in Norway, the Klassekampen ("the class struggle", yeah, they are really leftists) usually run some in-depth analysis of world events. What they surprisingly pointed out was that Bush Jr. ran unprecedented social reforms in his second term, actually putting him "left" of Clinton on many domestic issues (to the degree that left and right has any meaning in US politics). This surprised me, who (like most Europeans) viewed Bush Jr. as barely able to stand and talk at the same time and thoroughly in the pockets of big capital interests. It only goes to show that the world looks very different when seen from the other side of the US borders.
As for "pretty far down the road to socialism", I think a bit of travelling would do you good. I would say if Obamas administration has moved the US an inch or so closer to socialism, there are still a good couple of yards to go before you are there. Take a stroll here in Europe, and you will discover the wide ranges of social democracies that lies on the long lines from an American style corporate capitalism to actual Socialist countries. Not that there are any real socialist countries left here. Beer's on me should you visit!