I came across this today from the War Room at Salon.
RNC members to Dems: Change your name to "Democrat Socialist"
A fair portion of the Republican Party seems to think that the way out of the ditch is to close its eyes and pretend super-hard that the year is 1954. Hence, it seems, their attempts to explain patiently, again and again, that there is a socialist in the Oval Office. This is, of course, not exactly a novel strategy. Not only does it predate Barack Obama’s election (it may be hard to remember how Joe the Plumber got famous, but this was it), it actually predates his birth, too.
It seems hard to imagine that the best use of Republican National Committee members' time is, as Greg Sargent reports, pressuring their chairman, Michael Steele, to adopt the following resolution:
RESOLVED, that we the members of the Republican National Committee call on the Democratic Party to be truthful and honest with the American people by acknowledging that they have evolved from a party of tax and spend to a party of tax and nationalize and, therefore, should agree to rename themselves the Democrat Socialist Party.Sargent spoke with RNC vice chair James Bopp, who told him that Steele has said "on several occasions that he agrees with the substance.”
But, in addition to seeming a little bit like absurdist theater, Cold War-style red-baiting just doesn’t seem all that effective. Pew pollster Andrew Kohut notes that he has detected the slightest uptick in respondents identifying Obama as a socialist -- from 13 of 742 in February up to 20 now. That’s a jump from 1.8 percent to 2.7 percent.
Perhaps more significant, however, is that rather than damaging Obama by tagging him with red paint, it's possible that the GOP is just making “socialism” more popular by identifying it with a well-liked president. A Rasmussen poll from earlier this month shows that capitalism only beats socialism 53 percent to 20, and among adults under 30, the split narrows to 37 to 33.
(Special thanks to Gabriel Winant via the War Room at Salon.)
UPDATE TO POST: For anyone interested, here is a link that may help to understand Fascism, Mussolini's Doctrine of Fascism.
11 comments:
Well, if you think this is absurd, the Republicans are out to re-brand fascism as a left wing ideology. Not even kidding. One of them even wrote a book about it. I read that interview of the author, and it's quite evident he's pretty confused. He contradicts himself multiple times in the interview, I can't imagine the contradiction that is his book. On the bright side, he admits the fact that he's a "revisionist" historian. Go figure.
It's like 1984, double speak, double think.
A World Quite Mad - The author, Jonah Goldberg, is himself a fascist. I guess he never checked Webster's for the real definition of the word.
At least he has the balls to admit he's a revisionist historian.
Maybe he should try reading Mussolini's Doctrine of Fascism, then he'll know what it's all about.
I have a link to it in the sidebar under "'smore blogs" if you care to check it out.
A CNN reporter was interviewing a Tea Party participant during one of the gatherings. The Tea partier just kept repeating over and over and over: "Obama is a socialist."
The reporter kept asking: "Why?"
Response: "Because he is."
I was practically screaming at the TV: "Ask him what socialism means! Ask him for a definition!"
Parroting boobs. That's all these Rethuglicans are...
I think I saw the same thing, skyewriter....and I think I was yelling pretty much the same thing, with a large quantity of cuss words thrown in.
I regard myself to be most accurately described, in terms of my political philosophy, as a "European Social Democrat."
It's quite quixotic to think Little Lord Lodenpantz would actually read anything that might remotely disturb his moronic equilibrium...
If you use a cell-fone, check this out!...Scroll down
cheers, frenz
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Thanks for pointing out the link to Mussolini's Doctrine of Fascism.
One thing that sticks out for me in it is:
"Therefore life, as conceived of by the Fascist, is serious, austere, and religious; all its manifestations are poised in a world sustained by moral forces and subject to spiritual responsibilities. The Fascist disdains an “easy" life (6).
The Fascist conception of life is a religious one..."Now, does that sound like us "godless" liberals, or the religious fundamentalists? Hmm... I do wonder.
Some more tidbits that are relevant:
"[Fascism] is opposed to classical liberalism..."
"Fascism is therefore opposed to Socialism to which unity within the State ... is unknown"And one last one... gee, I wonder who's pro war nowadays? Was that... Republicans that were banging the drums of war... noble pursuit... something something... WMDs in Iraq... yeah.
"It therefore discards pacifism as a cloak for cowardly supine renunciation in contradistinction to self-sacrifice. War alone keys up all human energies to their maximum tension and sets the seal of nobility on those peoples who have the courage to face it."
I have always maintained that Mussolini crafted 'fascism' on the model of the 19th Century Roman Catholic Church.
Yeah, Woody, there's a big difference between a Social Democrat and a Democrat Socialist, but I don't think the Rethugs can tell the difference...mainly because they don't know what social is, until they want their SS that is.
A World Quite Mad - I thought you would find that very useful.
As soon as I heard about this on the news (Olbermann of course) I had the exact same thought as you, Grandpa Eddie: If the democrats are to be renamed as socialists, then repukes should be accurately renamed as fascists.
Here's what I think: they are so stung by us calling them fascist over the last several years that they had to copy us and start with the socialist thing.
They're so original, aren't they?
Shea - Yeah they're original all right....about as original as the worn-out, failed policies they keep trying to say are new year, after year, after year, after year......
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