| Vikki said: I did word that rather poorly. Obama is in many ways more conservative than the likes of Reagan. His aggressive foreign policy, mindless use of drones that kill civilians, the zero tollerance policy when it comes to whistleblowers, persistence of the war on drugs, pandering to republicans, not taxing the rich their fair share, lowering taxes in general, letting corporations run rampant with the abuse of their employees, not closing Guantnamo, keepin US troops in Afghan, and his general lack of true progress show that he is definitely not a progressive. Despite the ridiculous assumptions of being a "socialist" or "progressive" he is neither |
Most of these things aren't "conservative", either.
But most of rhese are inevitable consequences of big Gov't, which is something that I think many liberals/progressives need to understand. Expanding the size of Government to meet certain needs... nationalized healthcare, strong green legislation, welfare, well-funded education... it has the consequences of a Government that does many of the things you've listed above.
The problem is compounded in the US, versus the EU, due to the extraordinary amount of wealth that the US Gov't can extract from its population. The Governments of Sweden and the Netherlands, for example, are confined by the fact that they cannot afford the global war on terror, the NSA, Afghanistan, etc, without severe and noticeable pressure on the quality of life of their citizens.
This is exactly why people in Europe should be opposed to expansion of the EU. If the EU gets the power to tax citizens directly, we're just going to be dealing with a USA 2.0
