4 ms·

So Bush was also a socialist?

• Doji 11y ago
  Bush + Obama eschew privacy. Bush + Obama wage wars on terror. Bush + Obama spend shit loads of money. Bush + Obama bail out large corporations. I don't really care what word you want to use to describe them, but whatever word you pick, it applies to both of them.
  • jkestner 11y ago
    This is a point that needs to be beaten into our collective heads to get past the WWE-style "competition" fostered by the two parties, and start talking about the ideas. Unfortunately, every time we get close to that realization, the parties bring out "The next president will appoint several Supreme Court Justices that will have a decades-long impact" knowing that we'll swallow the lesser of two evils. I regret to say that worked to make me vote major-party the one time (Kerry, ick), but we have to think even longer-term to break out of this two-party cycle.
• bcheung 11y ago
  It's not one or the other. Bush was neither a socialist, nor a libertarian but he was definitely pro war and had special interests in the middle east.
• adventured 11y ago
  The US Government nearly doubled in size during his time in office, with his party having significant Congressional power, and he didn't try to stop any of it. He helped create vast new agencies that are extremely expensive to maintain. He created Medicare Part D. He launched two sizable wars, and expanded the military dramatically. At a minimum, Bush was/is a fan of big, intrusive government. The more accurate description might be to say he's a proponent of really big government. He's very far away from being a proponent of small government or Capitalism.
• bcheung 11y ago
  Why is it assumed that anyone that doesn't like Obama must like Bush? They are both in favor of huge spending. They both support wars that we probably don't need. They both are in favor of the Patriot Act. They both spend tax payer dollars towards their own crony special interests.
  • guelo 11y ago
    The deleted parent comment said that Obama supported the Patriot Act because he is a socialist. But the Patriot Act was originally Bush's law.
    • greenyoda 11y ago
      "But the Patriot Act was originally Bush's law." The Patriot Act received broad bi-partisan support in the wake of 9/11. It passed in the House 357 to 66 and in the Senate 98 to 1,[1] which means that a very large majority of Democrat legislators voted for it (including then-Senator Hillary Clinton). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act#Details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act#Details
      • guelo 11y ago
        Sure but most of the opposition was from the Democrats. It just irks me that libertarians think they invented civil liberties when it has traditionally been a liberal issue, for example with the ACLU. War, police powers, law and order, three strikes, the drug war are not "communist" ideas, capitalist conservatives have always been the biggest proponents of these idea.
  • cpursley 11y ago
    Yep, and there's an even more precise term for this political ideology: National Socialism
• hga 11y ago
  Most certainly a socialist of a modern type, unquestionably a collectivist. Even more an international than national socialist, although obviously not a communist.
  • guelo 11y ago
    If Bush was a socialist then the word has lost all meaning besides "not pure libertarian enough for me".