Walks, quacks, votes like a socialist
Responding to McCain’s sole zinger line in the final debate, “If you wanted to run against George Bush, you should have run for president four years ago,†Obama compared McCain’s voting record with the White House position and pointed out that McCain voted with the Bush White House 90 percent of the time. Then Obama repeated that old line “And if it walks like a duck….â€
In a now well-known interview, Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, laughed off a question about Obama being a socialist. Well, there are very few admitted socialists elected to office in this country. And to my knowledge, only one avowed socialist elected to any national office in the last 30 years, Bernie Sanders from the state of
I started to wonder how close Obama’s voting record was to Senator Sanders, since the closeness of McCain’s vote turned him into George W. So I went to the website of the U.S. Senate and found the Senate roll call votes here. Both Obama and Sanders are freshmen Senators in the 110th Congress, so it makes their voting records easy to compare.
In one crucial respect, their voting records are quite different. Senator Sanders missed only 6 out of 655 votes held in the Senate in the 110th Congress, voting over 99% of the time. Obama, on the other hand, had voted only 36% of the time in 2008 and slightly less than 54% of the time in the 110th Congress (2007 and 2008 combined). Of course, Obama ran for president and Sanders did not. Still, by August 3, 2007, Obama had already missed more votes in the U.S. Senate than Sanders had by October of this year. And there weren’t any primaries to run for before that August date.
After excluding the many votes that Obama did not cast and the few that Sanders could not cast, there were 348 votes where both voted. Of these 348 votes, Obama voted with Sanders 320 times, or 92% of the time.
Certainly, Obama’s redistribution policies and his proposed takeover of the U.S. health care system, his agreement (like McCain and Bush) to take over banks and help out the auto industry, his plan to take away the secret ballot from workers for union representation elections and his proposal to lift the minimum wage to one that compares to what the French have (which has led to widespread minority youth unemployment and riots there), all show that
Obama has the socialist walk and quack down pat.
With a voting record that matches the voting record of an avowed socialist, how can Obama deny being a socialist? Bernie Sanders doesn’t.
-MC
November 1st, 2008 at 12:47 am
We who think that George W. Bush has been a great president object to the way that the so-called Republican John McCain has treated George W. Bush, a great president, a true conservative, and a great man.
In this interview with the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper, McCain treats Bush worse than Obama has. See http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/23/mccain-lambastes-bush-years/
Why vote for McCain?
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:29 am
Upon further review, I think this reasoning is a bit misleading.
Suppose I go to the Nicholls cafeteria. I really like lobster and everyone knows I like lobster. I am “lobsterian”. But there is no lobster from me to choose from at the cafeteria. So I eat cheeseburgers, the second best alternative to lobster.
Another person also eats cheeseburgers, because they really like cheeseburgers, at least better than lasagna. Who knows if a cheeseburger is their absolute first choice, but say its close.
Then someone comes along and notes that our eating selections are perfectly correlated. Would it be correct to suggest that 2nd person is a lobster lover? Is that not the argument that is being made here?
Is it correct to say that Sanders voting record is one that represents socialism? Or would a better interpretation that both constrained socialists and (unconstrained?) liberals vote the same way?
Presumably, a single socialist would not get to vote on a socialist agenda (no lobster). Sanders does not control what items he gets to vote on (picks between cheeseburgers or lasagna). It seems to me than it is a second best situation for Sanders.
For giggles, I went to the 2007 Congress ADA scores, a cheaper alternative to the more thorough roll call voting analysis. Only 20 votes.
I counted up everyone that voted “with” the ADA for at least 95% of the time (as did Sanders). By that definition, there would be “socialist” senators in at least 16 states, including 2 in WI, VT, RI, MI, and one in a bunch of other states. And I didn’t even count Obama and Clinton, who would have been there if they had voted more often.
Maybe a bit over the top – but I’m not sure I really buy the argument you make.
Also – do you know how often Sanders voted with McCain?
–CT
November 3rd, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Hi Chad,
Take a look at how all this started, and how my post begins. Obama came up with the “votes like a duck, must be…” line in describing how much like McCain, as well as the “He voted with the President 90% of the time, so he must be…” hurdle. If you notice, all I do is apply the same reasoning to Obama in voting like an avowed socialist. The same lobster/cheeseburger story can be told about McCain and Bush. All I am saying is that if McCain is like another Bush, then Obama, by the same yardstick that Obama put forward, must be a socialist.
Of course, what makes Obama really a socialist is that his “pragmatic, non-ideological policies” are rather socialist–very ideological. Getting rid of the secret ballot for union votes to give unions the ability to intimidate workers is rather socialist. Federal control of health care (with limited suppliers of health care services, increasing demand while keeping prices down will only lead to governmental rationing) is certainly socialist. Obama’s $11 minimum wage, which is then indexed to the CPI, will give us French size minority youth unemployment, an “army of the unemployed” bigger than any army of unemployed that Marx discussed, ready to take their place in the new Civilian Security Force that Obama claims will be as big as our current military–that sounds socialist as well.
By the way, I do not know how often McCane voted with Sanders, but for the ADA’s (Americans for Democratic Action) 20 key votes in the Senate, Sanders had a 95% ADA score in 2007 while McCain’s was 10. Sanders lost 5 points because he voted against a bill by Sen. Kennedy and supported by Bush to overhaul immigration. McCain voted with Kennedy and the President on that vote. McCain voted with Sanders only once of those 20 votes. But, like Obama and Clinton, he missed a lot of votes as he was out campaigning.
-MC
November 3rd, 2008 at 6:20 pm
rrichardson Says:
“November 1st, 2008 at 12:47 am
We who think that George W. Bush has been a great president object to the way that the so-called Republican John McCain has treated George W. Bush, a great president, a true conservative, and a great man.
…
Why vote for McCain?”
Perhaps one reason is that, while he is not your lobster choice–as Dr. Turner above puts it, he is at least a cheeseburger, and cheeseburgers are far more appetizing than socialist liver.
-MC