The 'Socialist' Scare (Marcus / WaPo)

[struggle4progress]

By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, October 22, 2008; Page A19

... There is an ugliness to the McCain campaign's closing days. Sarah Palin talks about "pro-America areas of this great nation." Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann pronounces herself "very concerned that <Obama> may have anti-American views." Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich, ordinarily much more sensible, says, "With all due respect, the man is a socialist" ...

There are two equally worrying aspects of the toxic fallout from the McCain campaign's closing argument. The first is how much harder it will be for the next president to unite a divided country in the way that both McCain and Obama say they want. Ominous talk about socialism and welfare, about pro- and anti-America, threatens to make that task harder, no matter who is elected.

The second is the long-term damage to the ability to move beyond the stale "no new taxes" debate and have an adult discussion about how to raise the revenue the country needs to make investments for the future, even as it provides for an aging population ...

McCain is running a campaign both uncivil and uncivilizing -- one I expect he will rue, win or lose.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/21/AR2008102102254.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[life_long_dem]

1. Remember Upton Sinclair? I'm not advocating anything here,

I just thought this was interesting reading material.

Of his gubernatorial bids, Sinclair remarked in 1951: "The American People will take Socialism, but they won't take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan to 'End Poverty in California' I got 879,000. I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out-flank them."<10>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upton_Sinclair


End Poverty in California
The EPIC Movement
THE LITERARY DIGEST asked Upton Sinclair, Democratic candidate for Governor of California, to contribute the current article on the “outstanding issues of the forthcoming campaign and the fundamental problems confronting the country to-day.”

http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/sinclair.html