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Monday, October 20, 2008

The Universal Negative

posted by on October 20 at 13:49 PM

More bad publicity for the neoliberal program (near total dependence on the market, weak state, weak tax system, weak regulations):

Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse.

But that is not surprising. What’s surprising is the new effort on the right to connect socialism with Obama. And it’s not a matter of whether this accusation is true or not but, bizarrely, that the very tools Bush is currently using to save the economy are in essence socialist tools. This can only mean one thing: socialism for many Americans has a meaning that’s extremely limited. For the (less than) average American, the word “socialism” mirrors the word “welfare” (public housing, food stamps, public transportation, and the like). Cut programs for the poor, you are not a socialist; authorize the government to take control of huge, private financial institutions, you’re still not a socialist.

One other thing. Obama has become the universal negative for the far right. He is an Arab, a Muslim, a Negro, a commie, a socialist, a terrorist, a radical liberal (he wants five-year-olds to learn about sex), and elitist snob. We instantly see the problem: there is no coherence in this collection of evils. Being Muslim and pro-choice are not consistent. Nor is being a watermelon-loving Negro consistent with being cosmopolitan or an Arab. This confusion, this lack of coherence finds its reflection in McCain/Palin’s inability to shape one clear and consistent criticism against Obama. The next line attack? Obama is lazy and needs to “go get a job.”

RSS icon Comments

1

i never did understand why the phrase "corporate welfare" didn't take off. it's a great, elegant sound bite. even now, nobody is using it. if not now, WHEN!?

Posted by ellarosa | October 20, 2008 1:46 PM
2


My opposition to Obama is singular. He's not ready to lead.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Posted by John Bailo | October 20, 2008 1:54 PM
3

yeah, we know how you feel, john. and we really really care. you are what's left when all the smart people abandon your party like rats from a sinking ship of fools. check out this article on the topic from the la times recently: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-brooks16-2008oct16,0,4661274.column

Posted by ellarosa | October 20, 2008 2:00 PM
4

Good points - Thanks.

Posted by MEC | October 20, 2008 2:01 PM
5

Charles why don't you differentiate between corporate welfare and socialism? The tools for these political programs are NOT identical.

Posted by Trevor | October 20, 2008 2:02 PM
6

Up until now these cognitive disassociations have served the Republicans very well. A good example is screaming about ACORN while working quietly behind the scenes to disenfranchise voters. Except now, the scope of the disassociations is so great not even completely stupid people can ignore them, so they are no longer working. But old habits die hard, which is why the party in power excoriates their opponent for the very behavior they are indulging in, fully expecting to get away with it.

Posted by Westside forever | October 20, 2008 2:03 PM
7

Regarding that next attack line - "Obama is lazy and needs to go get a job.” ... Palin essentially used that when she bashed him for being a community organizer.

Posted by Joe M | October 20, 2008 2:20 PM
8

Anything the government does to help rich people, even if it means handing them sacks of unmarked bills purloined from taxpayer funds, is pro-capitalist because it's pro-rich people. Everybody should aspire to be rich, because that's the American Dream. And everybody should vote for tax breaks for the rich because that means when they themselves become rich, perhaps next week, they will benefit from those tax breaks. People who don't support tax breaks for the rich clearly have no plans of becoming rich themselves and are thus anti-American, as well as being lazy and shiftless.

Anything the government does to help poor people is socialism.

Posted by flamingbanjo | October 20, 2008 2:21 PM
9

btw, a "jabailo" posts comments on Crosscut as well, and I'd doubt Mr. Poe would be reading Crosscut, so the John Bailo = Mr. Poe rumors are just that, I fear. FWIW

Posted by mackro mackro | October 20, 2008 2:22 PM
10

John: I know you are just a comment troll, but could you please at least try to be a LITTLE creative?

You could, for instance encourage people to vote McCain "just for the taste of it" or tell us that he "brings good things to life", or maybe lament that you can't decide whether he tastes great, or is less filling?


Posted by Damien | October 20, 2008 2:28 PM
11

John Darling, I don't accept your premise that Obama is "not ready to lead". But even if it were true, isn't "not ready t lead"
better than "no longer able to lead" (McCain) or "intellectually incable of ever learning how to lead" (Palin)?

Posted by catalina vel-duray | October 20, 2008 2:32 PM
12

Obama is not ready to lead, nor will he ever be.

Obama is primary an analytical type...a professor. He speaks well. He thinks well. But he makes bad decisions. He chooses the wrong people. He forms weak alliances. His timing is not right.

It has nothing to do with any of the things being argued about. It is simply the executive decision making skills that he lacks...

McCain has these skills. Palin has these skills.

I would choose a person who knows how to manage two people at a lemonade stand, and make it work, for President, before I would choose the professorial, well spoken, always right in principle but never in action type of person such as Biden or Obama.

Posted by John Bailo | October 20, 2008 3:02 PM
13

For more on what right-wing psychopaths mean when they use the term "socialist," read this short and spot-on piece from the Prospect: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=is_john_lewis_right_after_all

Posted by Matthew | October 20, 2008 3:17 PM
14

John Bailo is ready, willing and able, to follow his leader, Big John McC, straight through the Gates of Failure into the River of Shame.

Posted by John Bailo, the genius of Kent. | October 20, 2008 3:28 PM
15

Reading #12 makes me wonder on which planet the author is living. It must be in an 'anti-universe', where everything is the opposite of the reality that most of us are experiencing here: dumb is smart, a divider is a uniter, sour is sweet...

John, Sarah Palin might be able to run a lemonade stand at a neighborhood event, but has it ever struck you that running a country might be something completely different? And that she clearly doesn't have a clue as to what that involves?

Posted by M'thew | October 21, 2008 1:27 AM
16

For negatives, I remember getting jumped awhile back for saying that if Mr Obama were elected, I would be nervous that he'd be perceived as JFK was: a tyro in the interational arena. I mentioned that Nikita Khrushchev met Mr Kennedy in Vienna, looked him over, and then built the Berlin Wall and moved missiles into Cuba.

Well! Seems like I have good company ... Mr Obama's running mate Joe Biden agrees with me.

"Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking," Biden said two days ago--here in Seattle, to boot. "Remember I said it standing here, if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. And he's gonna have to make some really tough -- I don't know what the decision's gonna be, but I promise you it will occur. As a student of history and having served with seven presidents, I guarantee you it's gonna happen," Biden continued.

He went on to say: "I’ve forgotten more about foreign policy than most of my colleagues know, so I’m not being falsely humble with you. I think I can be value added, but this guy has it. This guy has it. But he’s gonna need your help. Because I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, ‘Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?’ We’re gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I’m asking you now, I’m asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. Remember the faith you had at this point because you’re going to have to reinforce us.”

In other words, prepare for another crisis. Maybe even another 9/11, or at least an attempt at something like it. But please don't blame the man who will be in office, as you blamed the man in office when 9/11 happened. I've been saying--not here, I admit--that in the first year, not necessarily six months, of an Obama administration we would see just such a thing happen. Overseas, they already know what Mr McCain would do if we were attacked. They're not so sure about Mr Obama.

Posted by Seajay | October 21, 2008 11:53 AM
17

@16: So we need to always elect hawks, because otherwise the leader of Russia or (insert name of current bete noire here) will think our leader is a pussy and do something horrible. Even if those hawks then proceed to do things that make us less safe. Even if those hawks proceed to sell our economy down the river to our number one rival. Even if those hawks are so bellicose and diplomatically incompetent that they start new conflicts that could easily be avoided. Even if they spend us into the ground like our once-and-future rivals in Russia did with their own military adventurism.

Your reasoning is left over from the Cold War, and it was flawed then. The idea that terrorists would refrain from attacking because there is a Republican in the Oval Office is ludicrous. The idea that having a loose cannon in charge makes us safer is dangerously silly.

I've had a lifetime of this boogie-man nonsense and I ain't having it any more. I want competent leadership, not a protection racket.

Posted by flamingbanjo | October 21, 2008 2:21 PM

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