On Shatner...

To respond briefly to Ryan's post:

I think you missed my point.  Obama wants to make the "state" bigger, more controlling and more entrenched than it has ever been... that is the antithesis of what Marx was preaching.  He saw the end of the State as the ultimate progression of human society, with only the functioning structure of the "proletariat" and its infrastructure left to keep society running smoothly for all eternity.

Mind you, I don't disagree that Obama wants to fundamentally reshape the USA from what it was envisaged to be into something he thinks it should be... that could very well be the truth, and it is certainly true of many that Obama once held close to him (Wright, Ayers, et al), many of whom were (and are) extreme socialists.

Marxism isn't Marxism without the "pillars" though... and Obama can't possibly be seen to want to institute or impose those while in Office.  He is not going to encourage the violent overthrow of the established system, as Lenin and Trotsky understood Marx to be saying, nor is he going to seize and shut down the financial centers as Engels demanded happen before social progress could begin.

Liberal ideology says that with each gain made, the next gain is set in motion (politically speaking).  The infamous "slippery slope" wherein once in place, it is impossible to remove the liberal agenda from society's structure.  Social Security is a good example, in that it is NOT doing what it was intended to do in 1936, but is now so entrenched in the American society that to discuss removing it or revamping it is to flirt with utter loss of credibility.  The more dependent the populous is on the government, the stronger the government's position in their lives is, and the harder it is to change.

No amount of socialist agenda functions, however, if there is no "class struggle"... period.  If the conservative (read "classical liberal") agenda can focus on ending the imagined or exaggerated claims of class struggle in America (where even the poorest of American citizens has access to Internet, cellphones and the best healthcare on the face of the earth), and bring greater attention to the opportunity that exists as part of the very fabric this nation was made with, THEN the socialist, liberal agenda will have nothing to break against...

That's when things will start working again.