Monday, October 27, 2008

Breaking News: Obama is a socialist, Ethan still voting for him

There's a tempest in a teapot brewing over in right-wing land over this quote from Obama on a 2001 radio talk show:
"One of the I think the tragedies of the Civil Rights movement was because the Civil Rights movement became so court focused I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change and in some ways we still suffer from that."
If you think that the word 'redistributive' means he's a socialist, well, sure, game over, he's a socialist. But then you probably think FDR was a socialist, too, and I think that he and Ronald Reagan were the two greatest presidents of the last century.

The simple fact is that all of society benefits when there's a floor at the bottom and no ceiling at the top. FDR built the floor, and fifty years later, Reagan fixed the ceiling problem. Now, 25 years later, it's time to repair the floor, and in 20 or 30 years, some new Reagan can come along and fix the ceiling which by then will no doubt need repair.

I'd have voted for both FDR if I were alive and Reagan if I were of age, and I'll be voting for Obama and no doubt for Reagan's future successor to come. Management is mostly about pragmatism, and oversight of management is mostly about choosing the right guy for the problem. FDR, Reagan, and Obama are all that guy, and I'm looking forward to contributing my small voice to the process of choice in a week's time.

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