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…

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?

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.

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.”

Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy.

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.

http://www.lynnespinoza.com/2008/im-right-youre-wrong/