Because of the automobile and bank bailouts, many are saying that President Barack Obama is a Socialist.  A local paper reported that a socialist revealed that Obama is in fact not a Socialist.  These are the reasons sited but first listed are proclaimed Socialists.  These socialists include scientist Albert Einstein and author Jack London..  This is not to say that Obama would be among the famed socialist listed because these reasons as stated by a local socialist as reported in the Virginian Pilot are reasons why Obama is not included in this group.  Here are the five reasons Obama is not a Socialist.

1.       People who call Obama a socialist are “way off base” as it is to call other Democrats by that name.  Democrats are the recipient of the socialist title and especially Obama but a Democrat can not be a Socialist.  “Socialism places the control over the mean of production with all.”  The government is seeking to reform health care to cover the 47 million uninsured but does not seek to control over all production. Socialist believe that doctors and nurses should be government employees. Obama has stated that the government is not in fact trying to control health care or the employment of doctors and nurses to make them work for the government.  Obama  sees that there is a need for health care reform and the no action at all will not be good for American in the 21^st  century.

2.       Socialism is not the government bailing out automobile industries and banks as many perceived.  Socialism is not government control of corporations because socialist believe in worker control as explained by one local socialist reported in the public news media.  The government bailout and the bank bailout is an effort of private industry as a result of the recession. Socialists believe that the economy should be governed  by public agencies and cooperatives.  That sort of policy has not surfaced in the Obama administration. The bottom up political strategy that Obama speaks of is not worker control, control by public agencies or cooperatives but an effort to get the country back to its economic strength.

3.       Although many anti-tax rallies claim that socialism is at work in this country, the local  socialist reports that Obama is “absolutely not” a socialist.  The socialist who was speaking publicly said that he did not consider  Obama a liberal.  He said that if Obama was a socialist then Obama would be “all about single-payer  Medicare for all.  Obama would not have included the public option in the health care form that has been deleted from the health care package. 

4.       Obama is not a socialist because his interest was not be to protect the “free market” when Wall Street needed bailing out.  Regarding protecting of its citizens, socialists believe that war and a strong military should be condemned because they divert valuable resources.  President Obama has increased the war fund to cover the war in Afghanistan and believes in a strong military as the history of America dictates.

5.       A prominent political science professor at a major university said that the term “socialism” emerged during 2008 when the government began bailing out banks.  Many people considered these bailouts as socialistic policies.  He states that the root word of socialism means basically a “fear of government.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt also experienced a backlash of the socialist term when he was dealing with the Great Depression and also during the Great Society programs.  The political science professor stated that the fear of government of “socialism” dates back to debates between Jefferson, Hamilton and Madison about the role of centralized government.  The republicans have not chosen to use the term socialism as a political attack against Obama because the tactic would be unfounded and would not apply to the Obama administration.  Most Americans think that the socialist term is too radical and does not have credence.