Where are you on the political compass?

[Leadified]

SamuelRSmith said:

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

Do you mean neoliberalism? Which is true, it's a form of modern day conservatism as you describe it, but there exists hunderds of other conservative ideologies. A traditionalist government or a nationalist government are still "conservative" and can have economic policies that oppose neoliberalism such as for example the Estado Nova regime in Portugal. 

There is a very big misconception by people in this thread that neoliberalism means conservatism, which is false. Obama's neo-Con and right wing corporatism are what put him where he is.