Perhaps the most absurd contention that has arisen in the final weeks of the campaign is that Barack Obama is a Socialist or Communist, or some perverted combination of the above. If anything, Senator Obama is the anti-Marxist candidate; a true socialist would be well served to vote for John McCain. Obama’s slight revisions to the tax code would only serve to pacify the working classes by granting them increased buying power, thereby strengthening the capitalist system and delaying any sort of socialist revolution. Perhaps, however, after 12 or 16 straight years of republican rule in which income inequality increases exponentially and power is accrued by powerful corporations, the working classes would be so inflamed we’d actually be on the verge of a new American Revolution. The ruling class plays an important part in Marxist theory: goading the proletariat until a revolution is absolutely neccessary. In other words, things have to get worse before they can get better.

If Obama’s plan will indeed improve conditions for the middle class (a point which republicans barely even bother to refute), then we won’t see the neccessary class disparities, which in turn would inflame tensions and create class warfare, which in turn would lead to a socialist revolution, and finally to communism. Marx wasn’t a big government liberal, he encouraged class warfare. Obama’s plan simply pacifies the working class with a few meager handouts while masking the true capitalist injustices. A comfortable society is not a revolutionary society, and the entire democratic platform from congress on up to Obama is based on giving the middle class enough money so that they can buy comfort. Hypothetically, if Jane the teacher is making $5,000 dollars a more year under Obama than she would under McCain is she going to be more or less inspired to overthrow the oppressive, capitalist machine? Socialism doesn’t equal a marginally larger government with more social programs and taxes on the rich, it’s a wholesale philosophy that is first borne out of rage at an unjust class system.

True Marxism is first based on overthrowing the system or the structure and then altering the “hearts of men” over the course of time. It’s the old catch 22; how can the practical system itself be changed without first altering the general philosophy, but how can the philosophy be changed without first altering the system? Obama would encourage individuals (especially those in power) to be more magnanimous, caring, and generous and he believes that their hearts can be changed enough to eventually create a sort of ideal capitalist system. If he were a Marxist, he would see the ruling classes as irredeemable, and thus their ruling apparatus must be overthrown before anything can be truly altered or improved in the United States. Either Obama is a naive idealist, or he is a Marxist; he isn’t both.

John McCain and Joe the Plumber have attempted to prey on American fear and ignorance about socialism (which ironically used to have a positive connotation, thus the Nazi use of the world ”socialism” when their fascism was anything but), but thankfully it hasn’t gained much traction. Most Americans realize that a minor alteration to the tax code is a far car from class warfare and state ownership. If Obama advocates violent overthrow of himself once he’s elected, then I’ll start believing John McCain and Sarah Palin, but until then throwing around “socialism” is shameless fear mongering.