Sunday, June 7, 2009

Right view WI: Chavez says it, so it must be true!

The people over at Right View Wisconsin are complaining once again about President Barack Obama. This time, they're concerned with what the dictator Hugo Chavez is saying about the president.

Chavez recently jested that Obama had moved more to the left than he or Fidel Castro.

What's interesting is two things: number one, while under the leadership of President Bush, our standing in the world didn't seem to matter much to these writers on the right; if a world leader was critical of his policies, it didn't matter because what he was doing was in America's best interests. Suddenly, it matters a lot to them, enough to warrant concern when a world leader makes a joke at our expense. And a joke about socialism is a joke that conservatives don't take lightly.

The second thing that's interesting is that, in the grand scheme of the American private sector, the percentage of private industry that we have nationalized under Obama is minimal; in fact, it's less than a quarter of a single percentage point. Check out this graph from the Atlantic magazine's blog:

What socialism looks like:


What's clear is that, under Obama, the percentage that we've become socialist -- that is, the percentage of the economy we have nationalized -- is minimal. Only .21% of the economy has been "taken over" by "Comrade" Obama; and while the right will deride any change of industry, we should take a moment to slow down and truly examine just how "horrible" things have gotten under a president whose ultimate aim is to PRESERVE capitalism, much like FDR did during the Great Depression.

1 comment:

  1. Mr. Walker,

    In recognition of your relative newness to blogging, let me offer you a kind word of advice. The people at RVW have problems with, shall we say, keeping things in proper perspective.

    Extreme and irresponsible hyperbole is the norm at that site. It is hard to take them seriously about much of anything.

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