These days, the most familiar refrain heard from the Republican camp now ably manned by Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber involves any number of words with “socialism” before them or after them. It’s become a curse word of sorts, hurled by the disenfranchised like so many 3-year-olds with so much rage and so few words with which to express it. Signs, bumper stickers, T-shirts, mudflaps, spittoons, all adorned with the word “socialism”—sometimes even spelled correctly.
And any time any footage of these “nutters” (coined by Joe Klein) is shown, inevitably it’s an angry, shaking, Appalachian-looking person who is basically screaming a lot of random words strung together, punctuated with utterances like, “my life” and “my doctor” and “my choice” and “my pipebomb” and “fatback.” I’m not trying to be TOO judgmental here, but sweet crikey, have you gotten a gander at the people that make up the Republican “face” these days? But I’m sure that’s all just a coincidence (or media selectiveness), right?
Of course, one can’t escape the sneaking suspicion that 100 out of 100 of these people have no idea what socialism is or means. So perchance a “Word of the Day” is called for?
Socialism (noun): "Any of various political philosophies that support social and economic equality, collective decision-making, and public control of productive capital and natural resources, as advocated by socialists"
Jumpin’ jimsonweed jeezus. No wonder everyone is so scared, huh? Where in the hell is there any room for concepts like “equality,” “collective,” “public” and “resources” in a country such as ours?
Of course, one can’t rule out the distinct possibility that the entire religious right-wing establishment has been dummified by eight years worshipping at the altar of the biggest jackleg in the history of politics, W; it’s certainly not outside the realm of reason to suggest that he’s made his entire party stupider through sheer force of osmosis. And now that they’ve been relegated to the sidelines by an *gasp* African-American, the tantrum is akin to a toddler closing his eyes, plugging his ears and screaming “Socialism! Socialism! Socialism!” over and over again while rocking in the fetal position in the corner.
But these geniuses always have one really big arrow left in that quiver, don’t they? Call it deceit, truth-twisting, misperception or whatever … the reality is that it’s lying. And now that Republicans are out of power, they're hitching their wagons to borderline-retarded ex-beauty pageant contestants and pill-popping, racist blowhards. So if these “leaders” make up something called a “death panel” or suggest that Barack Obama “ain’t from here” or even compare him to Hitler because he would dare to suggest a better healthcare alternative, the nutters eat it up like a newly Geo’d squirrel in front of their trailer park. And that’s how an unfounded lie gets uttered by an idiot and repeated by the brainwashed, uneducated masses until it becomes a “fact.” These, after all, are the same people who refuse to watch “Fahrenheit 911” or “Sicko” because the fat guy from Michigan who no likey the president made it, dismissing as a “lie” a movie they’ve never seen before.
For years, the religious right stole elections, destroyed civil liberties, pissed away money and invaded countries based on personal vendettas. Now, someone from the other side of the aisle offers up an alternative for a health care system that everyone agrees shit the bed about 20 years ago—and now there’s moral indignation? Really? Because the cult on Fox & Friends brainwashed people enough to get them to turn them into a line of parrots who simply repeat whatever animated dildos in bowties serve up from whatever compound shelter they’re currently broadcasting from? What are rational people really supposed to make of all this? That apparently "socialism" is only OK to try to impose on the countries that we arbitrarily invade without cause?
Look, I don't claim that the Democrats have come up with some magical healthcare reform without any holes; hell, I'll be the first to admit that that's impossible. There are bound to be holes, and for crissakes, I'm sure we're all relatively well aware that it's not going to be dandelions and puffy clouds for everybody -- there's going to be a lot of people who simply don't like it. But shouting random words like "socialism" and "death panels" and "I'mnotlisteningI'mnotlisteningI'mnotlistening" every time a Democrat steps up to a microphone makes you look like a Weeble-Wobble in a "Deliverance" remake.
Joe Klein put together a pretty compelling article about the state of the Republican party recently, noting the hypocrisy and double standards with insights like, “The same people who rail against a government takeover of health care tried to enforce a government takeover of Terry Schiavo’s end-of-life decisions.” Klein concludes that the right-wingers are becoming a party of nihilists, something I know a little bit about (*fill in your own “Big Lebowski” joke here*).
What have we degenerated into here? People who can’t spell Obama, much less grasp a complex and value-soaked political theory like socialism, leading the charge against a proposal they’ve neither seen, read nor heard? You have the most distracted and most unabstract folks that our fine land has to offer trying to grasp an abstract concept -- and that just can’t end well. Don’t worry, though, you tired, you poor, you wretched, you weak, you racist, you citizens; socialism isn’t going to gain traction within our borders.
After all, we can’t be having all kinds of “social and economic equality,” can we?
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