Saturday, February 28, 2009

European-style Socialism in America


Western socialism is as scary as the public library, the postal service, passenger trains, subways, public parks and other shared public spaces. Are you scared yet? How about universal health care, regardless of age, race, gender or size of bank account?

Since the days of Reagan, I've styled myself as a libertarian socialist -- a person who believes in pooling public resources, stressing effective diplomacy over elective wars, etc., all the while protecting privacy and civil rights in general. How scary is that?

Yet if one listens to "conservatives" or whatever the badly dressed (and even worse coifed) yokels of "the Right" call themselves, socialists are painted as even scarier than "liberals."

Oh well. Can't enlighten or please everyone. Judging from the buffoonish "conservative" crew assembled together at the Conservative Political Action Conference in DC, there's little need to. Instead of finding the light, at least for now they've managed to hoist themselves with their own petards.

Today's Rune: Strength.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Socialism, like religion, is an opiate of the masses. We are all equal in God's eyes, or Obama's, if you believe in God or Obama.--The Professor

the walking man said...

I'd prefer to see them hoisted with the same rope they have hoisted the middle class into the trees with.

Although having their own spears rammed up their collective ass is a good image as well.

Sidney said...

Don't forget to throw volcano monitoring into that mix of socialism.

Anonymous said...

YOU WOULD THINK FROM THEIR RHETORIC THAT THE GOP HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MESS WE ARE IN. THEY OFFER NOTHING TO SOLVE ANY OF THE PROBLEMS WE FACE. THEY MAKE LIBERALISM A DIRTY WORD. CONSERVATISM, THEIR BRAND, IS NOTHING MORE THAN "KEEP THINGS AS THEY ARE SO I CAN KEEP MY STUFF". IF RUSH IS THE VOICE OF THE CONSERVATIVES THAN JESUS MUST BE WEEPING. I SEE NO COMPASSION OR LOVE OF COUNTRY, ONLY POISONOUS GAS COMING FROM A BUNCH OF GAS BAGS.

Johnny Yen said...

When it's socialism for the rich, it's called "free enterprise." When it's socialism for the working stiffs, it's evil.

The New York Times Magazine has a great article about Newt Ginrich today. The GOP is staggering about, looking for something to grab for, and in desperation, some are looking to this goofball.

The article pointed out that the Democratic party of Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson worked with Eisenhower for eight years, and thus undercut the GOP in the end. The current GOP doesn't seem to have that kind of sense. They're increasingly isolating themselves.