I will consider Rory as credible on this if s/he tells me about the conversations regarding how the Bush Administration’s expanding role in our lives — through its PATRIOT Act, warrant-less wiretapping, and now ownership in the financial sector and mandate on banks to give loans when that goes against the banks’ business judgment — is an ongoing, legitimate issue when described as fascism.

My dad is extremely smart and is a Republican. Ditto my significant other. Ditto several of my friends. None of them put their concerns about Obama in terms of “Is he a socialist?” because they’re not morons. There is a smart way and a stupid way to question Obama/Biden about their economic proposals. The stupid way was illustrated by Barbara West and John McCain. The smart way has been illustrated by folks like George Will. West’s question could have gone something like this:

“Senator Biden, the tax plan your running mate advocates doesn’t just raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for government; it raises taxes on them to give money to the working poor. In combination with a bailout that has made Washington, D.C. the biggest player in the financial markets, with the president now ordering banks to make loans against their business judgment, this has many Americans worried about how much more the government is going to interfere with the private sector and engage in redistribution. How is an Obama Administration going to bring America back to its roots of limited government and free enterprise?”

The serious, smart Republicans I know who are troubled by Obama are not worried that he is going to have five-year production plans for factories or create collective farms in Kansas, which is why bringing up Marx is moronic. What they are worried about is his using the tax system not solely to provide public services, but to send a check to some taxpayers that is drawn on the wealth of other taxpayers. They are worried about giving a Democratic Congress and White House a huge stake in the financial industry, particularly given the degree to which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had their management and boards based on political patronage. They are worried about ever-increasing regulation that does not entail direct government ownership in the private sector, but hedges the private sector about with so many mandates on how to run businesses that it is stifled and uncompetitive in the global economy.

I don’t share all of these concerns, but they are concerns based on past experience with liberal politics and that are not wholly unconnected with Obama’s own track record and platform. Therefore, when someone voices these concerns, I take them seriously.

People who talk about Marx and socialism, however, don’t deserve to be taken seriously until they want to be serious.

I’ve seen this discussed on television, in the print/internet media (i.e., Christian Science Monitor) and even heard it while eavesdropping on some folks the other day.

There will never be a last word on this “socialist” issue, as it is perpetual.

Where? Where have you observed this discussion?

This has been another edition of Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions.

And I would imagine a lot of those people are part of the 24% who think Bush is doing a great job.

In other words, they are not swing voters.

b) There would be nothing wrong with it if he did

Don’t you mean a very real RETURN to socialism, since Obama is proposing the same tax rates we had under Clinton (longest peacetime economic expansion), and much lower rates than we had for most of the 20th century (Eisenhower: 91% top marginal federal income tax rate)?

If the economy under Clinton was socialist, my God, do I love socialism.

Most of these Americans couldn’t quite tell you what socialism even means. They think it means that we’ll have higher taxes for people who make more money.

Y’know…like we already have now. Look into that Earned Income Tax Credit that Reagan created. Find out what it does.

They hear it will turn our country into…SWEDEN!!!

But can anybody tell me what’s so terrible about Sweden? Have we been hearing for years and years about the turmoil and poverty and sate of emergency present in socialist Sweden?

Tempest. Teapot. Desperate, desperate, desperate.

That’s hilarious.

A lot of Americans are asking each other that exact question – whether Obama represents a very real trend towards socialism.

As in he could probably charm you out of your panties without much effort.

I used to think that Bill Clinton was charming.