"spreading the wealth"

Socialisms All-Stars

It seems that Faux News and the McCain campaign are, in the last days of the election, trying to rebrand Barack Obama as a Marxist style socialist.

On Monday, a reporter in Florida asked Joe Biden about Obama's "spreading the wealth" asking him how he could defend that statement as anyting but marxist socialism. Biden dropped the ball by asking "is this a joke?"

It was not. It was an opportunity to clarify, and seriously broaden the discussion.

It seems that even over a decade after the end of the cold war we still can't have a national discussion about socialism without invoking hysteria.

Listening to Fox News you'd think Karl Marx himself had risen from the grave and was possessing Obama's body.

The repugs are down in the polls and some are even already calling the election for Obama (dangerous). The Republicans are desperate.

I read an interesting quote on a blog last week. I think it was on Wonkette, or SadlyNo, or maybe a comment to a story of Cnn or some other major news site... I can't remember, anyway, the quote went something like this:
"When Democrats lose an election they get depressed, when Republicans lose and election they go insane" which is what I feel like we are seeing.

Seriously people, Karl Marx and socialism are the least of our current worries.

Marx was wrong about a lot of things- mainly his belief that people would do the right thing if given a choice... ha ha. WRONG.

Some would chosse to do the right thing, but most will cheat and lie and steal and become hopelessly corrupt. Thus the failure of 20th Century experiments in Marx's ideas such as Lenin's Bolsevik Revolution, Stalin's Soviet Union, Fidel Castro's Cuba- all corrupted by the top tier officials, all regarded by history as failures. (China and Vietnam are special cases).

Does any reasonable person really believe Barak Obama is going to try to implement a 20th Century style Socialist system on America? Apparently right wing nuts do.

Only an ignorant fool and wacked in the head Republicans would entertain such nonsense.

The ruling Republicans of our current regime are hopelessly coruptthemselves, and are desperate to stay in power..... now that's what really dangerous and scary.

Their policies have failed. Reaganism is DEAD, yet they blam democrats for their failures in an attempt to distract. The question remains will the American public be stupid enough to fall for it ... again?


While Marx was wrong about a lot of things, he was right about some too.

Including the idea that unregulated capitalism, seeking ony to enrich itself and grow at the expense of all else would lead to it's own self destruction. Hello! Economic meltdown anyone?

The unfettered corruption of the financal sector in the hands of deregulation obsessed Republicans proved Marx's theory, and we barely escaped global disaster... by nationalizing the banking system.... so, now, who has the socialist tendencies? Didn't McCain vote for the bail out to? HYPOCRITE!

Besides,Socialism shouldn't be a dirty word.
Look at the more successful socialist governments in Europe like Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Holland, to name a few- they have the lowest crime and the highest living standards in the world. Why? because SOCIALISM, they way they implement it, works.

It can work, but one size does not fit all.

One reason those governments have been successful is that they have relatively small populations to accommodate.

Their methods would not work here in the same way because our population and sheer size is too big to manage.

Why are the Repugs so scared of the "S"? Well, most are stinking rich and afraid we the people may take their hoard. Hoarding wealth and class over people used to be called elitism... not anymore, now it's patriotism.

And why are they so eager to deregulate and give corporations tax breaks and more power? because they reap the benefits, they sit on the boards and hold large amounts of stock, are paid generously for congressional favors and consulting.....classic corruption.

One particularly effective rovian tactic the Republicans are using with abandon is to accuse your opponent of what you yourself are doing, and lie boldly about it.

The legacy of Reagan is deregulation and greed, the legacy of Bush I & II is incompetence and corruption.

Not to say the democrats don't have their share of flaws.... the rigid two party system we have is itself a relic of the 20th century that we, sadly, are still saddled with.
But for the republicanas to say Obama is a socialist is to try to discract for their COLLOSAL failures.

Remember back in 2003 at the beginning of the Iraq war... duing the "shock and awe" phase? When coalition forces were closing on on the airport and Government buildings... how Saddam's offical (I forget his name) kept claiming on TV that nothing was happening?
It was surreal.... and he kept it up right until the American soldiers hauled his demented ass off to jail.

what is playing out on the political stage here, now is much the same. The jig is up for the Republicans and they will stop at nothing to stay in power...

It's pretty pathetic when you cry election fraud at new and recently registered voters. But's always been the Republican philosophy... The the book about everyone but violate the law with impunity everytime you can possibly get away with it.

shame on them.