The Socialist States of America? Not so fast

Indiana RNC member James Bopp Jr. wants the GOP to “rename the opposition the ‘Democrat Socialist Party.’ ” Bopp notes that, “The goal of the Obama administration has become … obvious — to restructure American society along socialist ideals.”

Well, is he right? Do we need to get out our duct tape again to keep socialists out of our living rooms?

There are a lot of people tossing around the “S-word” these days, so let’s go right to the source. The Socialist Workers Party of America has published a list of economic demands. How’s Obama doing?

» “We demand the immediate withdrawal of the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement.” Nope.

» “We call for worker and community ownership and control of corporations within the framework of a decentralized and democratically determined economic plan.” Nope, except for GM, I guess.

» “We call for a minimum wage of $15 per hour.” Nope, still $7.25 federal, $5.15 in Georgia.

» “We call for a full employment policy and a livable guaranteed annual income.” Nope.

» “We call for all financial and insurance institutions to be socially owned and operated by a national banking authority.” OK, we sort of own some banks, but that really started with Bush, so it doesn’t count.

» “We call for a steeply graduated income tax and a steeply graduated estate tax, and a maximum income of no more than 10 times the minimum.” Obama wants to raise the top personal income tax rate by three points. One can hardly call that steeply graduated. From $250,000 a year up to infinity, it would remain 39 percent.

There are nine more planks in the Socialist Workers Party economic platform, including canceling all Third-World debt; shutting down the world bank, IMF and WTO; creating a National Pension Authority; and ending corporate welfare. Obama did not campaign on any of these, nor has he made a goal of any one of them.

On other “pinko” issues, Obama has come out against gay marriage, legalizing pot and amnesty for undocumented aliens.

So Obama is not waving red flags and agreeing 100 percent with avowed revolutionaries just yet. But he still has us on a slippery slope to socialism, right?

A moderate group of socialists that advocates the adoption of European-style government social welfare programs in the United States is the Democratic Socialists of America. I’m a member. The biggest thing we want is single-payer national health care. Obama has taken this off the table.

The second biggest economic issue among us “Prius-socialists” is NAFTA. Obama promised to renegotiate NAFTA to add labor and environmental regulations. He has broken this promise already.

The truth is that Obama is a centrist Democrat. Personally, I like him. He is keeping his head, as all about him are losing theirs. That makes him a man, according to Kipling’s famous poem, and it’s good enough for me.

But I know socialists. I’ve partied with them. Trust me, this guy is no socialist.

I wish he was. I think single-payer health care would save me thousands of dollars every year and get my family much better health care. I think the rich should pay a lot more in taxes so I don’t have to. I hate the fact that the most effective unions in America represent obscenely rich professional athletes, while honest workers are being laid off and have nobody to stand up for them.

I could be wrong. Maybe it’s part of being a superpower that we reward those who are already rich and keep the working class down. Maybe we should have no government programs at all and eliminate all taxes. I look forward to hearing such arguments made intelligently by Republicans. All of us are waiting for a reasonable leader to emerge on the right to explain why unregulated capitalism is so vital to our national interests.

Nobody has stepped up, certainly not Mr. Bopp. The only adult in the room right now is the president, so he’ll continue to have my support. At least until I get to vote for a real socialist.

David Clark, an attorney, lives in Sugar Hill.