Meet Roxanne Walker…The South Carolina Broadcasters Association named Roxanne Radio Personality of the Year in 2002. She has been honored for her political opinion commentary by the Greenville Chapter of Women in Communications.
Roxanne resides in Taylors, SC with her husband Alan and the best dog in the world Allie.
Unwinding the “Obama is a Socialist” Spin
Statements that President Obama is a “socialist” don’t fly with the Socialist Party, USA. Billy Wharton, the Socialist Party’s co-chair, says Obama is far from being a socialist, and that labeling Obama a socialist “clearly means that people don’t understand what socialism is.” Most socialists believe that consumers and workers affected by economic institutions should either own or control those institutions, but Democratic socialists are more interested in protecting ordinary people from unregulated capitalism through progressive taxation and regulation. Many institutions in the U.S. are already socialistic under that definition: Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits, public education and Pell grants for college students all have socialistic origins. Card-carrying Socialists scoff at the idea that the newly-passed health care reform is “socialized medicine.” They wanted national single-payer health insurance with a government option, but new law doesn’t have any of those features. Instead, it just strengthens private health insurance companies by delivering 32 million new customers while giving them no incentive to change, Wharton points out. Some point to the Wall Street bailout, actually started under the Bush administration, as socialist, but government failed to nationalize the troubled banks, instead just giving them money with few or no strings attached. And what about the bailout of the Detroit auto industry? Just having a stake in it doesn’t make it socialist, according to Frank Llewellyn, national director of the Democratic Socialists of America, “If that was true, you would say that we have a socialist army. The government owns the army.” Obama is “trying to save capitalism from itself,” not trying to change into a new system, Llewellyn says.
Roxanne Walker
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SC Democratic Party-FIRED UP-READY TO GO!
On Saturday, April 24th I attended the SC Democratic Party Convention with my good friend Elizabeth Teel. I look forward to the state party convention each year as a chance to commune with progressives, review our slate of candidates and generally get politically fired up. This year was no exception. The ride down to Columbia gave me a chance to learn more about my lovely and talented friend and we both enjoyed the barbeque stump meeting and gubernatorial debate which followed the general convention. Although the turnout was a bit smaller than in years past the crowd was diverse and enthusiastic. US Congressman John Spratt said the crowd looked like South Carolina and I would agree, young and old, black, white and brown. We were united in our support for our President and our party and that’s a powerful feeling.
The Heritage Classic at Hilton Head Island
I’ve been golfing for a number of years but began taking the sport more seriously last year. As a result I’ve gotten more interested in professional golf as well. I had the chance to attend my very first PGA tournament when our friends Dave and Donna Blamey invited us to accompany them to the Heritage Classic at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island. The Heritage began in 1969; the first winner was Arnold Palmer who took home a $20,000 grand prize. This year’s winner will receive over a million dollars. The field for this event is a bit smaller because it takes place after The Masters and some of the big guns like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson skip this smaller tournament. But the Heritage boasts its share of luminaries including Sergio Garcia, Jim Furyk, John Daly, K.J. Choi, Stewart Sink, Davis Love, Mike Weir and Greenville natives Lucas Glover and Bill Haas.