McCain Needs Stronger Message on Taxes
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, McCain, TaxesI’ve been hard on Barack Obama’s tax plan. But I wish John McCain would stop referring to the Obama plan as socialist. It’s not bold enough or broad enough to be considered socialist. You want socialism, check out the $700 billion bank bailout. Of course, both candidates voted for that.
McCain, for all his independent leanings, has had an aversion to discussing issues on their true merits. Calling something “socialist†is as helpful as calling it “yucky.†It’s a pejorative without a concrete definition. If McCain wants to make taxes the issue that will propel him over Obama, he needs to explain why the Obama plan is a bad long-term solution and how his own plan is not only better for the wealthy but will help the less well-off lift themselves up.
And he needs to leave the “trickledown†at home. We need to be creating opportunity through systems of loans, retraining, relocation help, etc. Just waiting for the money to rain down is not a solution for the modern era. Obama, for all the faults of his plan, is at least addressing modern problems. McCain is just addressing his base. Give us some straight talk, senator. Stop it with the lazy attacks.
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October 21st, 2008 at 9:58 am
Rovian politics may be coming to an end, but how badly have we been hurt because of them? Last night, I witnesses a fight in a restaraunt that began with “YOU SOCIALIST!!” I write more about it here:
http://www.lynnespinoza.com/2008/im-right-youre-wrong/
October 21st, 2008 at 10:17 am
I think this is a problem of teaching an old dog new tricks (forgive the perjoritive). I don’t think McCain understands the subject enough to explain it; he’s said so himself. I also don’t think Obama started this campaign as an expert in economics, but he at least shows an intellectual curriosity and an ability to learn that McCain does not.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:08 am
According to the American Heritage Dictionary ( a book Sara Palin could love, right?), socialism concerns
So as Alan says, the bailout is pretty close to that. At least for the time being. Possibly longer, unless you are young enough to still have faith in the notion of “temporary” government solutions. As Alan points out, neither guy is eager to acknowledge the socialistic aspect of this, regardless of how necessary they each viewed it.
Various forms and levels of income redistribution are a well-known and long-standing aspect of democracy as democracy manifests itself in the real world. That’s all there is to it. Game, set, match.
Calling it a yucky name teaches us nothing. All that matters is making folks clear about the specifics of various proposed policy changes so that they can support or oppose them on the basis of they would DO, not on the basis of what ideology they allegedly represent.
But this sort of last-minute desperate invocation of long-standing partisan boogeymen is traditional. especially if you are trailing badly. They’re quadrennial halloween caricatures. Stereotypes. Finishers. All of the following political ghosts will have been called up from their graves before the election passes:
The socialist.
The commie.
The war monger.
The weak-willed pacifist.
The robber baron.
The uncaring evil corporatist.
The feminazi. The gun worshipper.
The rural religious clinger.
The latte liberal.
The book burner.
I could go on and on. One thing though Alan. I know that you’d be delighted to see McCain come up with a comprehensive, detailed, and sensible economic approach and patiently sell it over the next few weeks. But you can’t really think that doing so would turn things around, can you? IMO, the only thing that could do so now is the discovery of something nasty that for whatever reason sticks.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:34 am
I’ll start calling Democrats socialists when they start advocating the abolition of private property and total government ownership of the means of production. I don’t think the right has actually ever bothered to study up on what socialism is…
Here’s a start though… it’s called the dictionary:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism
Maybe after learning his proper ideological definitions, McCain can then study up on economics and criticize Obama’s tax plan while providing a concrete argument against it, instead of dismissing it as “socialist.”
October 21st, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Oh, hell no. He lost his chance at all of that when he spent his summer denying that the economy was in bad shapes. Even if he did suddenly whip out a brilliant plan, it’s far too late for it to affect the election. The media probably wouldn’t even cover it except as a “McCain changes courses … again” story.
It’s almost like Kerry who had plenty of rote criticisms of Bush’s Iraq strategy but no coherrent strategy of his own. You can’t win a presidential election if you aren’t solid on the biggest issue.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Agreed. Let’s leave the socialist rhetoric at home.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:04 pm
McCain Needs Stronger Message On Taxes…
Asserts Alan Stewart Carl, a moderate blogger: “I?ve been hard on Barack Obama?s tax plan. But I wish John McCain would stop referring to the Obama plan as socialist. It?s not bold enough or broad enough to be considered socialist. You want sociali…