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Red-baiting: the tactic you use when that's all there is left.....
Poor McCain. I really feel sorry for him.
In 2000, he ran contrary to his own party on some issues, and his own party eviscerated him for it. Karl Rove, via the Bush 2000 republican primary, pulled out one attack after another, destroying McCain's chances to be the Republican nominee that year.
McCain then steadily moves closer and closer to Bush and his right-wing power base, just in time to be tied to one of the most unpopular president's of all time.
McCain then manages to get nominated in 2008, and has to go head to head with Barack Obama - a candidate arguably even more formidable than Bill Clinton.
Now, after a poorly run campaign, 3 lackluster debate performances, and being outspent 4 to 1 in advertising, McCain is going back to the trusty Republican toolbox from the 1940's and 50's.
Red-baiting. This, for those that do not know, is a classic tactic of politics. When your opponent suggests any sort of government program to address any kind of problem, or when your opponent is in favor of rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy (that helped explode the deficit), accuse them of being "socialist." To clarify: raising defense spending is never socialist, even though the size of the government invariably increases, and private companies become completely dependent on government contracts (welfare). Spending government money to provide healthcare for people is, by conservative definition, socialist.
Why? Who knows. Probably because it was labeled "socialized medicine" in the late 1940's by the American Medical Association.
So, when a campaign resorts to redbaiting, it usually means they are extremely desperate, and on the verge of a major defeat. It also means they have no idea what "socialism" or "capitalism" are either. Definitions, anyone?
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar
Socialism:
In 2000, he ran contrary to his own party on some issues, and his own party eviscerated him for it. Karl Rove, via the Bush 2000 republican primary, pulled out one attack after another, destroying McCain's chances to be the Republican nominee that year.
McCain then steadily moves closer and closer to Bush and his right-wing power base, just in time to be tied to one of the most unpopular president's of all time.
McCain then manages to get nominated in 2008, and has to go head to head with Barack Obama - a candidate arguably even more formidable than Bill Clinton.
Now, after a poorly run campaign, 3 lackluster debate performances, and being outspent 4 to 1 in advertising, McCain is going back to the trusty Republican toolbox from the 1940's and 50's.
Red-baiting. This, for those that do not know, is a classic tactic of politics. When your opponent suggests any sort of government program to address any kind of problem, or when your opponent is in favor of rolling back tax cuts for the wealthy (that helped explode the deficit), accuse them of being "socialist." To clarify: raising defense spending is never socialist, even though the size of the government invariably increases, and private companies become completely dependent on government contracts (welfare). Spending government money to provide healthcare for people is, by conservative definition, socialist.
Why? Who knows. Probably because it was labeled "socialized medicine" in the late 1940's by the American Medical Association.
So, when a campaign resorts to redbaiting, it usually means they are extremely desperate, and on the verge of a major defeat. It also means they have no idea what "socialism" or "capitalism" are either. Definitions, anyone?
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar
Socialism:
1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar
Capitalism:
: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market
Hmmm.....nothing Obama has proposed fits the definition of socialism. But, for all you future master red-baiters out there, I have good news! Facts do not matter! All you need to say is that "candidate X is secretly socialist!" Luckily for you, no one can disprove a negative. So, Obama can never prove he's NOT a secret socialist, or a secret muslim, or a secret republican for that matter.
Likewise, McCain cannot disprove he is a secret nazi, or a secret communist, or a secret cross-dresser, or a secret ballerina.
Isn't baiting fun?
Luckily, McCain will realize that red-baiting doesn't work when he's making his concession call to President-elect Obama.
2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionar
Capitalism:
: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market
Hmmm.....nothing Obama has proposed fits the definition of socialism. But, for all you future master red-baiters out there, I have good news! Facts do not matter! All you need to say is that "candidate X is secretly socialist!" Luckily for you, no one can disprove a negative. So, Obama can never prove he's NOT a secret socialist, or a secret muslim, or a secret republican for that matter.
Likewise, McCain cannot disprove he is a secret nazi, or a secret communist, or a secret cross-dresser, or a secret ballerina.
Isn't baiting fun?
Luckily, McCain will realize that red-baiting doesn't work when he's making his concession call to President-elect Obama.
