For more than 20 years, conservative thinkers and activists have tried to dupe Americans into thinking there is some left-wing conspiracy lurking in the shadows of our land. During the 1980s and 1990s, the conservative movement was relatively successful at scaring a lot of people, mostly white people, into thinking that African-Americans, feminists, gays, lesbians and environmentalists were on a mission to take America into purgatory and even worse, the bedroom of Karl Marx.

Although the tables have turned and Democrats, not Republicans, are the head politicians in charge, conservatives continue to use a tired strategy that alienates them from the American public and prolongs the national quagmire of the Republican Party. In what appears to be a desperate attempt to stay relevant, conservatives insist on portraying President Barack Obama as some left-wing bogey man who plans on turning America into a communist state; that he is a new symbol of biracial fascism in America.

According to this myth, one need look no further than his health care agenda for proof of his hidden vision for America. This is American conspiracy thinking at its most desperate level. This kind of thinking simply does not work. America is nowhere near becoming a socialist country. Many centuries have to pass before America looks like Cold War-era Russia, Cuba or China.

The notion that Barack Obama is a leftist (on the down low) is laughable. America was built on capitalism. Capitalism is woven into the cultural DNA our nation. Apart from left-wing caricatures, there is very little about Obama that is anti-capital. His bid for the White House, his Ivy League education, and the sales of his books all rest on the grave of Adam Smith. During his campaign, he focused exclusively on the plight of the American middle class. In fact, his middle class focus made him an endless target of critics who charged (and continue to charge) him as an elitist.

Real socialism is anything but elitist. Furthermore, by having an economic team, led by economist and former Harvard president Larry Summers (who is closer to the right than Obama) Obama poses no threat to America’s free market system. In these early years of his presidency, Obama’s greatest challenge is to repair capitalism and get the car back on the road. If he is able to do this during his first term, then conservatives will have to swallow their criticisms and find another strategy and another bogey man to unite and strengthen a party that is desperately seeking its soul.

Ronald B. Neal is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Claflin University in Orangeburg. His area of research is religion, politics and culture. He earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and sociology from Florida International University in Miami, a master of divinity degree from The Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta, and a doctorate in religion, ethics and culture from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. He is currently writing a book on the political and religious philosophy of Benjamin Elijah Mays, a legendary theologian and educator.

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