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