tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3801227671293876432.post1975218020884849397..comments2023-12-22T04:37:54.991+00:00Comments on Obama London: Socialism - By RequestObama Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02652619223311941390noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3801227671293876432.post-84193470555665355542009-04-20T16:42:00.000+01:002009-04-20T16:42:00.000+01:00A couple of points that build on your comments on ...A couple of points that build on your comments on the right's embrace of branding their opponents as socialists:<br /><br />1. I think the harm to the GOP as a party was more immediate than your analysis of longer-term message alienation from younger voters suggests. The whole "socialism" thing came out of nowhere late in a presidential campaign, and on behalf of a candidate who was already seen even by many of his likely supporters as an erratic geezer. By dredging up an attack that sounded like ancient history, and by doing so as a late-campaign non sequitur, the GOP reinforced their candidate's two greatest weaknesses in the public mind. John McCain: Crazy Old Man was the real message that the "socialist" attack gave independent voters in 2008. <br /><br />2. However, somewhere between a sixth and a quarter of the electorate eats that socialist shit up. And while that may not be enough to win a presidential election under normal circumstances, a sufficiently motivated one-sixth minority can win control of the House of Representatives in a midterm election. The "Republican Revolution" of 1994, for example, won control of Congress with the votes of about one-sixth of registered voters. <br /><br />3. Remember, the right is fundamentally informed by authoritarianism, so the most committed rightwingers really do believe that there must be some deliberate mover behind all events, whether seen or unseen. The "socialism" attack is of a piece with other rightwing paranoia about Obama that allows the authoritarian mind to explain Obama not as a politician with genuine appeal to a large and like-minded American majority, but rather a trickster who has pulled the wool over the eyes of citizens too lazy to see through the smoke and mirrors to Obama's true identity as a foreign, socialist, Muslim infiltrator. Conservative policies, whatever they happen to be on any given day, are self-evidently correct, or else the authorities who reveal policies to conservatives wouldn't be telling them to think that way, so the fact that the great mass of citizens disagrees is not due to deficient policies but to the personal popularity of the opposition's leader(s). This idea that if one could simply eliminate one or two leaders of the opposing party and the public would instantly fall in line with conservative policies is much more comforting to the authoritarian mind on the right than the reality that three-fourths of their fellow citizens have examined conservative ideas and found them wanting.Scott Rogershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02070845485371644742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3801227671293876432.post-32521272684847237082009-04-20T13:34:00.000+01:002009-04-20T13:34:00.000+01:00ooo, thanks for this!!! I really enjoyed hearing y...ooo, thanks for this!!! I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on socialism. <br /><br />I particularly found the quote mentioning the fact that those who are crying it (Hannity, Beck, etc) are the ones who are creating it intriguing.<br /><br />Hope your back is better.christinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15684406902770257042noreply@blogger.com