How Far Left Have The Democrats Pulled?

The other day The Washington Post published an article stating 'Barack Obama, conservative'.

/Llllllooooong pause.

Yes, they can and yes they did. They changed and moved those goal posts. 

Now.

The idea of taking a position claiming Barry is conservative is quite astonishing onto itself. 

For starters, if one recalls way back when he was still a candidate, it was well know he was the most liberal (ie progressive) politician in the United States based on his voting record.

Then comes the way WaPo framed their specious argument. Namely, the DNC has pulled so far left (Pew, The Economist and NYT have all come to the same conclusion), this somehow makes Obama a conservative. I suppose relative to the Democrat party, sure, he's 'conservative'.

He's just 'right' of the current crop of leftists but he's still a progressive. Nothing he has ever said or done suggests to me he is a conservative; or classical liberal or anything along those lines.

It's often claimed Hitler and Mussolini and the parties and ideologies they founded were 'right-wing'. 

But upon closer examination, the fact is Mussolini was a socialist throughout his life and editor of the socialist magazine Avanti! while Hitler and his minions often said they were socialists.

Both were collectivist, at the end of the day, in their o outlook but were to the right of Marxism, communism and socialism. 

See the games people play?

None of these leaders are liberal in the classical sense.

Obama in particular held NO conservative thoughts or values. He constantly railed against Fox and Rush Limbaugh. He held non-conservative views and interpretations of history (eg. his comments on The Crusade were just typical (and lazy) progressive talking points). He rarely - if ever - spoke of the individual as their own agents to prosperity and liberty choosing instead the state can provide happiness as he did with Obamacare when he claimed, among other things, 

He also made a false-moral claim that at some point make enough money and then turned around earned himself multi-million dollar book and TV deals. He spoke of rising sea levels and the need to do something about climate change (committing America to the Paris Accords without Congressional backing) only to purchase a $15 million estate on Martha's Vineyard.

He took Catholic nuns to court for not bowing to his demands their organization (s) give out contraceptions which goes against Catholic religious orthodoxy.

His own appointees made clear where they stood on the issue:

"The phrases 'religious liberty' and 'religious freedom' will stand for nothing except hypocrisy so long as they remain code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance," Castro, a Democrat appointed by President Obama, said. 

He added: "Religious liberty was never intended to give one religion dominion over other religions, or a veto power over the civil rights and civil liberties of others."

Catholics are bigots and that's that.

That's a progressive world. Not a conservative one.

I've spent the last 20 years of my life basting in classical liberal, conservative and libertarian thought.

I don't know what Obama is. Clearly, he doesn't know who he is philosophically because he never possessed any real principles. 

Economically, he was nothing more than a spendthrift Keynesian. There was no ground breaking 'Obama doctrine' anymore there was one in foreign policy.

Where Trump is lampooned for taking a wise non-interventionist posture in foreign affairs, Obama spent his entire tenure at war even smashed up a country like Libya alongside his war-mongering sidekick Hilary for no apparent reason. 

And he got a Nobel Peace prize for this? Not to mention his drone killing of American citizens without due process.

He recently spoke out against 'cancel culture' which I found to be a bit rich since his rhetoric did very little to deal with the rise of the intolerant left (from OWS to BLM to Holder's perjurious acts) during his tenure. He even enforced Title IX rules on campuses. He was only for gay marriages when it was safe to do so and pop culture rewarded him as if he was some sort of advanced thinker as his appearance on Ellen showed. 

Obama went with the tide to keep him in power, to build his brand and to cash in.

I do know one thing.

He's no conservative. 

He's yours Democrats and progressives.

Keep him.