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I didn't write this -- and it was written over a year ago -- but it's interesting to note how much further toward achievment of these goals his initiatives have moved us, after only 10 months in office.

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How do Obama's ideas compare to the Communist Manifesto?

A comparison of Obama’s Ideas to the 10 Planks of the Communist Manifesto

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. (Obama is for more public use of private land by confiscation. Liberals around the country are confiscating private land for new public use.)

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. (Obama plans to rescind tax cuts and to raise taxes, no matter what he says.).

3. Abolition of all right of inheritance. (Obama wants to significantly raise the inheritance tax.)

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. (Obama will soon classify you as a rebel, just like his compaign tried to silence a Chicago talk radio show. Why not just make it official, Obama?)

5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. (Obama calling for strict regulations on banks.)

6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State. (Obama just loves the Chinese ports, trains, etc. That’s because he wants the government to take over this function.)

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. (Obama wants to penalize factories which want to move some operations offshore to participate in the global economy. What are his plans, confiscation)?

8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. (Obama is calling for a new “national commitment to service”. What Obama is not telling you is that it is compulsory.)

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country. (Obama wants several functions to be turned over to the government. For instance, Obama says he’s against the “fairness doctrine,” but he is for severly limiting ownership in the media as a way to control “conservative talk radio.)

10. Free education for all children in public schools. (Obama is for free education, but Obama is really for compulsory indoctrination of children in public schools by fighting school vouchers. You see, if you tax a family to death, then they can’t afford any school by a government school.)

According to the Communist Manifesto, all these were prior conditions for a transition from capitalism to communism.

"1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. (Obama is for more public use of private land by confiscation. Liberals around the country are confiscating private land for new public use.)" There's a difference between abolishing something and reducing it. Nobody seriously expects Obama to abolish private property. Note to the wackos: I'm hardly defending Obama here. If I point out that somebody raped a woman but didn't murder her, it's hardly defending the rapist, it's merely pointing out what's actually happened. "2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. (Obama plans to rescind tax cuts and to raise taxes, no matter what he says.)." I favor a flat tax, but even right-of-center economists favor a progressive tax. I might add that at the time Marx wrote, given the nature of early industrial/agricultural economies, a progressive tax system made a lot more sense, as it was simpler and cheaper to collect from a small number of wealthy landowners. All other factors aside, these taxes are passed onto the poor and middle class anyway, so whether a tax is progressive, flat, or regressive, the chief differences are in how the tax is extracted, not the amount of taxes taken out of the economy. "3. Abolition of all right of inheritance. (Obama wants to significantly raise the inheritance tax.)" Some of the most famous and influential economists, from Mill to Hayek, have advocated or at least admitted there was an argument to be made for abolishing or reducing inheritance. And there is an argument to be made. Not as much of one as there was in the earlier economies though. "4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. (Obama will soon classify you as a rebel, just like his compaign tried to silence a Chicago talk radio show. Why not just make it official, Obama?)" I have no doubt Obama will try whatever Chicago thug tactics he can come up with against his political enemies, but I hardly see him confiscating property like some tinpot dictator. "5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. (Obama calling for strict regulations on banks.)" Uh, sorry, but the Federal Reserve fulfilled this requirement decades before Obama was even born. "6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State. (Obama just loves the Chinese ports, trains, etc. That’s because he wants the government to take over this function.)" What he wants is beside the point. What will/can he actually accomplish? "7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. (Obama wants to penalize factories which want to move some operations offshore to participate in the global economy. What are his plans, confiscation)?" His token gestures to the unions of "fighting" out-sourcing as a feint and he knows it, and it has nothing to do with fulfilling a communist agenda. Not to mention that this item has nothing to do with outsourcing, it's part of the Marxist goal of nationalizing factories and getting rid of centralized populations (i.e. continuous population density across the country). How do tire tariffs accomplish that? Again, I'm not defending Obama in the least. I'm 100% in favor of free, unfettered trade, with no "trade agreements" to muck it all up. I disapprove of his token efforts to appease unions, but the reality is, any protectionist moves he tries to make will be minor, at best. "8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. (Obama is calling for a new “national commitment to service”. What Obama is not telling you is that it is compulsory.)" I agree, compulsory national service is slavery, and "paid volunteerism" is a phony waste of resources. But that by itself doesn't lead to communism. Singapore has the draft, and it's one of the freest economies in the world. "9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country. (Obama wants several functions to be turned over to the government. For instance, Obama says he’s against the “fairness doctrine,” but he is for severly limiting ownership in the media as a way to control “conservative talk radio.)" For one thing, what you said has nothing to do with item nine. For another thing, dictators and despots of all stripes try to control the media. That includes right-wing fascists such as Pinochet. "10. Free education for all children in public schools. (Obama is for free education, but Obama is really for compulsory indoctrination of children in public schools by fighting school vouchers. You see, if you tax a family to death, then they can’t afford any school by a government school.)" Even Adam Smith advocated free education. Of course, what communists mean by education is something different--they explicitly mean collectivist indoctrination. And I hate to break it to you, but John Dewey got that accomplished in this country decades before Obama was born.