Opinion of Barack Obama

[Leftbehind]

Just another (at best - that's undeservedly granting his motives one where he isn't directly opposed to our interests) useless liberal the left is lumbered with. Probably wouldn't bother voting if I were an American: the vote for the lesser evil tactic adopted by the left is profoundly self-defeating.

[Leftbehind]

Massive FF for me. I'm sorry TNF, leftbehind, but it's the united states, he can't be completely progressive because he would lose. He passes Healthcare, and just for it, he deserves a FF.

1) There's a significant spectrum between what he's enacting, what he could afford to enact, and my ideal. It's safe to say Obama's nowhere near what he could afford to enact.

2) His healthcare bill completely sidesteps the main problem with American healthcare.

3) Even if turbo-neoliberals were more popular than social democrats in America, in a two party state unpopular parties routinely see government because the public are desperate to get rid of the incumbents. If liberal caretakers are the best the American left can hope for from the current strategy, they might as well just retain - and convince America of - the benefits of social democracy.

[Leftbehind]

1. DC Al Fine has like a 1.39 S rating.  Sure, it's pretty right wing for this forum, but I wouldn't go as far as to call him a "social conservative".

DC Al Fine plainly is a social conservative.

[Leftbehind]

1. DC Al Fine has like a 1.39 S rating.  Sure, it's pretty right wing for this forum, but I wouldn't go as far as to call him a "social conservative".

DC Al Fine plainly is a social conservative.

Not at all by American standards, which I will always be the first to criticize.

I wasn't intending to criticise his stance - just clarify it. He can probably do it better, but I'd be surprised if he didn't self-identify as one.

[Leftbehind]

To clarify: I'm a social conservative but it tends to inform my thinking on economic issues more than anything else.

Interesting. Can you expand on that? Fear of atomisation/community breakdown etc, or?

With the exception of abortion, I don't really care about GOP socon issues, which is why I show up as a social centrist on the atlas test.

IIRC you've said before you're opposed to gay marriage, but don't really advertise it to avoid the protracted arguments that'd ensue. Beyond abortion and gay marriage, what socon issues do GOP grandstand over (obviously immigration, but excluding that) that you're not interested in?

Besides one can be a socon and defend civil liberties.

Yeah, I wasn't seeking to defend that point - just found it odd it was being questioned whether you were a socon.