Republicans call everything they don't like 'socialism' -- #2

[JHB]

Needs to be said every day. Need a bumper sticker argument? Here it is.

I'm resigned to the fact that most Americans don't "do" nuance about the word "socialism." I'm not out to educate people about what it is and isn't or what varieties of it there are. I'm not one, but I get called that by Republicans. I'm normally up for interesting debates, but this one is pointless. It's debating a brick wall, and the only thing to do is pry the bricks apart.

I'm just out to remind people that if you believe what Republicans today say counts as 'socialism' then we spent at least half of the 20th century as a 'socialist' nation. That's nuts, and it needs to be said over and over again.

The Movement Conservatism that became the Republicans' ruling ideology always hated social programs, but had particular venom for ones that worked. After all, successful ones argued for more, which to them was an abomination.

To them, it was all 'socialism' and 'communism'.

It hasn't changed much. If anything it's gotten worse as they've come closer to grabbing all the marbles: doing away with the last remnants of the New Deal and packing the courts with operatives who will make conservatively correct rulings.

They'll rail against "European socialism" as if they were talking about Warsaw Pact police states and not the same industrialized democracies that constitute the Free World that we used to be 'leader' of.

They invoked 'socialism' when Obama proposed a small increase in income taxes for people way up on the income scale. Taxes were higher for 6 of Reagan's 8 years, with a top rate of 50%, but somehow a change from 35% to 39.6% for taxable income above $400,000 counted as raising the red flag of revolution.

They can't win with their policies, so they scare. That's why the cultivated the base they did.

Anything that helps ordinary people is called 'socialist', conjuring the spectre of an alien ideology from a foreign land.


But checks and balances on the power of money and wealth aren't socialism. They are just that, checks and balances, and are as American as apple pie.


I don't have a cable news network. I don't have a radio show. I don't have Wingnut Welfare funding. But observing those over the years drove in the power of repetition.

So repeat:
They call everything they don't like 'socialism'
They call everything they don't like 'socialism'
They call everything they don't like 'socialism'

They call everything they don't like 'socialism'



and nobody, but nobody, is exempt from being accused of being a weak-kneed backslider. Everything they don't like is 'socialism'.



1976 book, from Reagan's bid to get Republican nomination instead of Ford

[greymattermom]

1. They have to say "socialism" now

because Russian and Chinese are good things to them. So, no more better dead than red stuff, because that meant Russia to most folks.

[JHB]

4. "Get their marching orders from Moscow" is a Republican gig these days. nt

[JHB]

2. I appear to have been joined by Norman Ornstein...

...who has a bigger platform than I.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[procon]

3. It's also a lot of projection, too.

Republicans actually love socialism when it comes to corporate welfare. Who do you know that can both pay zero taxes and get back million$ in tax refunds as a bonus?

The government approved tax cuts for the fabulousltby rich allows a fortunate few to bribe their favorite politicians to write bills ordering a massive transfer of wealth upwards, from the have nots to the have mores.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. corporate, republican socialism!

https://www.salon.com/2016/12/27/taxpayer-funded-capitalism-here-are-the-biggest-corporate-subsidy-deals-of-2016/