Thursday, October 30, 2008
Kotz / Politics Is Anybody Buying the Whole "Socialism" Slur?
Posted by Pete Kotz on Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 5:23 AM
Comments (11)
Showing 1-11 of 11
like
dislike
Sadly, people do believe this; I have met them in Sumner County, spoken to them on the phone, and deleted their SHOUTING EMAILS.
This is in part because the echo of the Cold War is still loud in the memories of those old enough to remember the "duck and cover" drills. It's also because today's right wing chorus is so quick to shout the talking points of the week:
"Socialist-Socialist-Socialist!" rolls off those well-trained tongues as easily as Monty Python's "Spam-spam-spam-spam."
Some of us will find the courage to vote our hopes this time, and some will indulge in the old habit of voting their fears.
Pete, either you're acting naive or you really are deaf to the dog whistle.
Just as "Obama pals around with terrorists" means "Obama is a Muslim," "Obama is a socialist" means "Obama will tax you, the white middle class, and give away your hard-earned money to shiftless Negros."
just because government has already slowly turned the united states into a socialist nation does not mean we should just lie down and accept more of it
we should instead roll it all back and start over
Of course Hussein Obama is a Socialist! I've said it a hundred times on this blog - ALL DEMOCRATS ARE SOCIALISTS!
The term socialism is used to denote areas our government has no business in, such as redistributing the wealth of hardworking people to lazy bums. All the useful examples you give are things government should not be doing,
and indeed, the government has NO AUTHORITY to do them.
Remember that the bank bailout came about because of socialist programs which required banks to make loans to people who cannot afford to pay them back. You can see that unintended consequences follow good intentions. We have a real estate crisis and a banking crisis because we're counting money that just isn't there.
The term socialism is used to denote areas our government has no business in, such as redistributing the wealth of hardworking people to lazy bums. All the useful examples you give are things government should not be doing,
and indeed, the government has NO AUTHORITY to do them.
Remember that the bank bailout came about because of socialist programs which required banks to make loans to people who cannot afford to pay them back. You can see that unintended consequences follow good intentions. We have a real estate crisis and a banking crisis because we're counting money that just isn't there.
The extreme republican base needs to hear that they have an enemy. McCain hasn't addressed any problems going on right now in this country so he has to resort to name calling and a negative campaign because he has nothing else to offer. They need to hear Obama is a "terrorist" or a "socialist" when there is no real basis to these claims.
And Gilbert, what branch of philoshy is behind McCain's plan for the government to buy up predatory mortgages?
Sure Kotz, a local government financing a football stadium is socialist just like the federal government engaging in massive wealth redistribution on a national scale via "progressive" taxation and "entitlement" programs.
In the same way that a 10 mph breeze is just like a 200 mph tornado.
Again no answers just fear. When has fear not resulted in name calling,racism,ect..code red yellow blue orange purple,ect...
Brother Carmen, you're practicing some pretty serious revisionist history here. The banking crisis came about because of socialist government programs? That was only true in part with Fannie and Freddie. The lion's share of bad loans came from banks' subprime affiliates who simply thought they could make top dollar lending to high risk people who were stupid enough to sign paper locking them into high origination fees and interest rates. Ford at one point was making most of its revenue from subprime lending for cars. I don't think the government forced Ford to lend money so people could buy Explorers. Both sides were too stupid -- and greedy -- to figure out that these loans couldn't be paid back. And it's not just Wall Street. Even regional banks like National City and Regions are getting hurt. The "socialist" government didn't make them do it.
As for you, Brother Gilbert, you know both parties are loaded up with "socialist" activities. Look at the Republicans' massive wealth redistribution policies on everything from farm subsidies to research subsidies to giving away grazing, timber, and mineral rights out west. These are all taxpayer giveaway programs, where normal people are subsidizing the cost of business of some very large companies. Both parties spread the wealth, they just both think the other guy's way of doing it is worse.
