What are some opinions as to whether Barack Obama is a Communist?

Below are some representative opinions of some contributors:

• Yes. In order to determine whether someone is a communist you must look at their current actions, opinions and views, the choices they have made in the past, the friends with whom they choose to surround themselves and the groups with which they associate. Based on all these criteria, in my opinion, there is one clear answer on whether President Barack Obama is a communist or not, I think he is:

• No. Most would agree, that US President Obama is not a Communist. You can be assured of that by the fact that he was sworn in as President. The Presidential oath is a requirement in the US Constitution. A person who is legally authorized to administer an oath can swear in the US President, and that has traditionally been the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. In the United States Government, there are different Branches designed for checks and balances. The main checks on the Executive Branch of the Presidency come from the Judicial Branch of the Government. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. is the head of the United States Federal Court system. He is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who administered the oath of office to President Obama. Had there been any validated evidence that President Obama held any belief or philosophy that was Anti-American, that would not have happened.
  
  It is also true that the US Constitution entitles freedom of speech for individual citizens' opinions. These are opinions of individual contributors exercising that right, but note that not all contain factual information.

• Yes, President Obama has been a Communist ever since his high school days in Hawaii. He stated that a mentor to him in Hawaii was Frank Marshall Davis, who was a member of the old Communist Party USA. He writes in his book that when he was 'confused', he would seek out communist rallies with Marxist speakers.

• Yes. President Obama's original campaign talks about health care, tax, welfare, spending, and foreign relations policies all started at highly communist points. Since then, he has tempered his policies to address all criticisms, but I believe he still intends to carry through with his original, socialist and communist plans.

• No. Health care reform has been called for by Presidents and other government leaders from both political parties for decades. Its time is overdue. You have not heard complaining since 1965 about how Medicare is a communist or socialist Federal program. It is run by the government and has been successfully doing so since it began. Enrollees are happier with that health care plan than enrollees in any other health care insurance plan in America. President Obama's health care reform proposals are not an indication that he is socialist or communist, and neither are any of his other policies. Proposed health care reform is an indication that many prior Presidents, President Obama, and the majority of Americans, legislators, and health care providers know that the current system has failed and something more like Medicare's government-run health care program needs to be implemented for a broader portion of US citizens.
  

• No. The US President, Barack Obama, is neither a Marxist nor a communist. He supports lowering taxes for nearly everyone, rewarding hard work and innovation (i.e., capitalist principles), and removing tax loopholes. It has been proven by independent investigative journalists of several national and international news organizations that he never "palled around with" any communists.
  

• Yes. American capitalism is based on the principle that the harder you work the more you can earn. President Obama wants to raise taxes on high wage earners. This progressive tax is not fair, it penalizes hard work. The only fair tax would be a flat tax which President Obama feels is unfair. Same with capital gains taxes which President Obama favors increasing. Communism believes all people should earn the same. By increasing taxes on a progressive scale, this attempts to "even the field" of wages. Therefore, the more you earn, the more you are taxed.

• Yes. To get a fair answer you need to look at what Communism is. See: What is communism and compare that to President Obama's plans such as progressive taxes and universal health care and college. Given the choice, Capitalism works over Communism.
  

• No. Many people in America work very hard but are not in a position to earn more for that hard work. The more money you have, the easier it is to earn more money for thousands of reasons. That does not mean that the "lower" wage earners (those who make less than $250,000/year in the President's plans) have not worked hard enough, and it does not mean that they are against capitalism, they buy goods and support the system as consumers. Because someone has income of more than $250,000/year also does not necessarily make them hard workers. President Obama is not a "Communist" because he wants to see that become more fair, equality and fairness are not necessarily Communist principles. A recent study found that from 2002 - 2007 the top 1% of wealthy Americans captured 66% of American income growth.

• No. I'm glad we have President Obama to protect us from the fast talking shills paid for by some of the rich. A lot of good rewarding the "hard work" of Wall Street and banks did us. Is it a principle of capitalism to give tax breaks to the rich people the government bails out with the taxes from the poor and middle class?
  

• Yes. During his tenure as Senator, President Obama did nothing to regulate banks while Senator John McCain authored a bill to increase oversight. Under the leadership of Congressman Barney Frank, the Senate finance committee did nothing to protect us from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Frank Raines, the CEO who earned $90 million at Fannie now works for President Obama. We need protection from these kinds of people and President Obama hires them.

• No. It was an email hoax that falsely claimed Raines was made "Chief Economic Advisor" for the Obama presidential campaign. The person in control as President at the time of the economic crisis was not Obama, Frank, McCain, or Raines. The person in control during all those problems of deregulation and economic collapse was President George W. Bush, who had a surplus of funds on arrival to office and left with the largest deficit ever. The economic problems were something that President Obama inherited from President Bush.
  

• No. President Barack Obama is not a communist because all communists believe, first and foremost, in the abolition of private property and the erosion of property rights. If President Obama actually had serious plans to transition the US towards communism, he would start by abolishing the right to inheritance and by making all property subject to the laws of use and occupancy rather than ownership and the equal responsibility of all to work in a productive capacity. Instead, he's proposing a distinctly un-socialist plan for health care (which relies on the efforts of private companies to provide care). The only thing even remotely socialist about President Obama is his progressive taxation plan, which, quite frankly, isn't a position unique to communists. In fact, even Adam Smith, the founder of capitalism, believed that regulations on private industries were desirable and even necessary for his system to work correctly, because he knew that the accumulation of monopoly power would ultimately skew market forces in such a way that resulted in less freedom and prosperity for the majority of working people.

• Modern communists do accept some inequality - look at China. President Obama's politics are left wing by American standards, but right wing by the standards of most of the rest of the world.

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First answer by Fuzzmunky82. Last edit by D4est. Contributor trust: 645 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 5 [recommend question]