Quote Originally Posted by steelish View Post
So you think how someone is raised has absolutely no bearing on how they turn out or what they believe in? He continues to live/think the way his parents did.
People are no doubt influenced by their upbringing but it can go either direction. Some people rebel and are the opposite of the parents, others follow in the footsteps. My point was we should discuss Obama's politics not the politics of the parents or what church his mom went to.

Angela Merkel - chancellor of Germany - was raised in communist East Germany and an active member of socialist political parties. By your logic with her socialiast background and leanings Germany should be in chaos but Germany is doing a lot better than USA.

Jack Straw - UK Home Secretary - is a socialist whose father was imprisoned as a consciencous objector in WW2. Yet Straw and his pal Tony Blair made UK the only power to join repulican Bush to invade Iraq and Afghanmistan. America had no problem with Tony or Jack's socialism.

You see it in such black and white terms. Anybody who wants fairer wealth redistribution is a socialist, a socialist is a communist and communie bastards are the enemy. I don't see it that way. In the UK the entire Labour party are socialist, Sweden has cradle to grave welfare programs and Canada, as Lion points out, has socialists policies. These countries are not in chaos and manage to tick over okay.

To address your question. No Obama is not a socialist. He would be laughed out of a socialist convention. He would be considered right wing in Europe. Yes he has been influenced by socialist thinking and the poverty and corruption he has undoubtely seen in Africa and Asia. Yes some of his policies and thoughts are closer to socialism than those of the Republicans but that does not make them socialist.

Quote Originally Posted by steelish View Post
No, but he is the first President to completely ignore the majority.
Wow - you guys are lucky. In UK all our Prime Ministers ignore the majority. This is how it works. You get a majority vote by hook or by crook and then when you are in office you claim you have the mandate of the people and do whatever you want to do. Then fours years later the people vote you out or decide that maybe it was not so bad after all and at least you are the lesser of two evils and vote to keep you. That's politics in a two party system.