I don’t really believe that, but John and Sarah seem to.

The McCain campaign’s favorite line of attack this week is that Barack Obama’s plan to roll back the Bush Tax Cuts and give new tax cuts to the middle class is socialist. This came after Obama made the comment that it was time to “spread the wealth.” I’ll willingly admit that this was very unfortunate wording from a candidate who rarely makes verbal blunders. But poor wording is all it was.

First of all, if opposing the Bush Tax Cuts is socialist, then McCain was socialist for most of Bush’s time in the White House. He apparently saw the light once he started running for President…funny how that works. I guess he was enlightened by the Republican base of CEO’s with billions of dollars and rednecks with delusions of billions of dollars.

The other leg of Obama’s tax plan is cutting taxes for Middle Class families. I’ve never heard a Republican argue that less taxes is socialist.

So is Obama socialist? No. at least not because of his tax plan. One could make the argument that his healthcare proposals lean toward socialism, but that is not what the McCain campaign is arguing.

And McCain’s not socialist either. But Sarah Palin might be. She routinely touts the fact that while governor she helped the state government take stricter control of the oil industry in that state. She then took a portion of the profits from those oil companies and sent her constituents checks. Socialist? very. Bad? not necessarily.

American society is in no way free of socialism. We have public schools, public roads, fire and police departments, social security- all things that could be considered socialist, and no one suggests getting rid of these things, save for a few leftover Ron Paul supporters. I’m of course not advocating a socialist state. I think it’s important to recognize the tremendous wealth that capitalism has brought to our country. However, when “socialism” is discussed in American politics it is rarely a true policy discussion, but rather a meaningless ideological hot button used to scare the masses.

And unfortunately, that’s exactly how it’s being used here. McCain is probably going to lose. If people vote based on hope for the future, McCain is definitely going to lose. It seems the Democrats have the monopoly on hope this year. The Republicans are just hoping to maintain their monopoly on fear. With this kind of ideological baiting, it seems they probably will.

Always Useful, If Not Relevant

It’s always funny to me to hear people who have grown cynical of American politics say that Democrats and Republicans are not different enough.  In fact, to anyone paying attention, they are quite different.

My original choice for the Democratic nominee for President, John Edwards (not even ashamed), ran on the concept that there are two Americas and that to progress we must move past this divide.  Barack Obama adopted a similar message of reconciliation between the culturally divided areas of our nation.  

This is where the party differences that I referenced earlier come in.  The Republicans now agree that there are two Americas, but they don’t see that as a problem.  In fact, it’s quite useful around election time.  This past week we listened to a Congresswoman from Minnesota talk about the Pro-Americans and Anti-Americans in Congress.  We watched Sarah Palin explain how people from big cities weren’t “real Americans” like those from small towns.  We heard from the McCain campaign about “real Virginia” and “fake Virginia.”  By the way, I learned from John McCain’s brother that Fake Virginia can also be referred to as “Communist Country,” you know, if you’re going for something more tactful.  

This found me conflicted, not just from a political standpoint but also on a personal level.  I realized I’m not sure whether I’m a real American or a fake American.  I’m from a small town in the South that votes heavily Republican, so that should give me real American status, right?  But then Robin Hayes, a Congressman from North Carolina, informed me that “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and accomplish and believe in God.”  I’m a liberal.  So I guess I hate real Americans? But I believe in God…  although people who work and achieve do kinda piss me off… hmm… if only there were some sort of list to tell us who’s anti-American…I wonder if anyone’s ever tried that.

This represents a major philosophical difference between the two parties.  You can go with the Democrats and try to find common ground amongst the obvious differences in our hugely diverse nation, or you can go with the Republicans and stick with yer own kind. I personally find that categorizing people based on shallow regional stereotypes is much easier than actually trying to understand people of different backgrounds, which is why I’m voting McCarthy/Palin ‘08!

First of all, I’m not writing about the Vice-Presidential debate. I was tempted, as anyone would be, but after seeing everything else that has been written about the debate, I knew I wouldn’t be able to say anything original. Actually, Sarah Palin sounded really intelligent, and I hope she runs our country one day. That would be original.

Campus today has been abuzz with talk over the Presidential debate that will occur tonight right down the street at Belmont University. I had fairly low expectations for the last debate, and unfortunately, I was right. The debate was pretty dull. Barack talked about change and George W. Bush. McCain talked about experience and war and blah blah blah. Despite desperate pleas by the moderator, the two did everything they could to avoid interaction with one another. Basically, anyone who’s been following the campaign could have mapped out exactly how that debate would go before it ever even began.

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Republicans have long been banking on the stupidity of the American people to win elections…and it’s been working out quite nicely for them. Whether the argument is “those crazy liberals will raise your taxes”, or something more subtle like “vote for us or the terrorists will blow your house up”, the strategy is generally the same: reduce the debate to the lowest common denominator, God forbid the American people have to think. Read more »