The simplest things make the right go nuts.
ALSO: Let’s assume this poll is right (it probably isn’t), what does that say about conservatism and the repeated assertions despite the evidence that America is a “center-right” nation?
For the record I’m a diehard capitalist I just think capitalism doesn’t work without oversight.
I think there’s a fairly simple explanation for this. After 30 years of labeling any policy label to the left of Attila the Hun “socialism,” the strategy is starting to bite conservatives in the ass. When regulating exotic financial instruments or marginally increasing the tax rates on the richest 10% is called socialism, it stands to reason that people will start to think that maybe “socialism” isn’t such a bad thing.
Disregarding Rasmussen’s lousy polling record, the idea that 47% of American’s DON’T say that capitalism is better than socialism could be several things.
Perhaps it’s an unintended consequence of the right wing’s nearly eight year glorification of America’s socialized military and socialized fire departments.
Perhaps it’s a recognition that after 9/11, America’s NATIONAL response was more important than the right wing’s venal corporatist response.
Perhaps it’s the recognition that it’s better to be able to call a socialized police force instead of having to pay Xe Blackwater mercenary corporation.
Perhaps it’s a recognition that the right wing corporate government no longer serves the American citizens.
Perhaps it’s a recognition that unregulated capitalism just wiped out the 401K’s that the right wing sold American workers, while, if they had been invested in US government bonds, they not only wouldn’t have lost money, they would still be receiving small gains in interest payments.
Perhaps, now that people are significantly poorer, theirs a recognition of the value of socialized transportation networks (buses and trains) and socialized schools and libraries (they let your borrow the book for free??!!).
Perhaps it’s a recognition that predatory, unregulated capitalism kills people (poisoned air, water, food, children’s toys, even pet food).
Perhaps it’s an acknowledgment that America has had a mixed economy* since it’s founding.
Most likely, Scott Rasmussen was paid by some right winger to get the results that would rile the right wing extremists into even nuttier behavior.
*A “mixed economy” includes both capitalism and socialism and it’s what America has thrived under for most of it’s history (except for the times when unregulated, predatory capitalism was unleashed by the right wing and the US ended up in a Great Depression and now the current Great Recession).
“…I just think capitalism doesn’t work without oversight.
Exactly. Why is that so damned hard to understand?
See what happens when news outlets keep repeating a word or a particular phrase, like, “America is becoming socialist?” The people start to warm up to it. Not like they’ll convert or anything, but they no longer see it as a four-letter word.
And Oliver: the current GOP views regulated capitalism as socialist. These Followers Of Friedman see anything less than anarchistic economics as oppresive.
“now that people are significantly poorer, theirs a recognition”
theirs => there’s, doh
Hey, OLIVER, any thoughts on a “preview button?”
And while off topic: how about considering a FAVICON.ICO (the 16×16 pixel bookmark icon)?
I think a green O would be cool, first letter of the site, your name, and the green could represent Kryptonite.
Hey, OLIVER, any thoughts on a “preview button?”
Dude, seriously. Don’t be handing out web site design advice.
I went to your site again yesterday. Thanks alot, pal, now I got epilepsy.*
*kidding.
“America is becoming socialist!”
I think the appropriate response is “And?”
These Followers Of Friedman see anything less than anarchistic economics as oppresive.
True. I’ll say it again. Mogadishu is a Free Market Paradise.
Pryme points out something I’ve been wondering about.
One of the unintended consequences of the right wing’s anti-marketing of Obama (who is arguably a conservative centrist) as a “socialist” this last year, is that a lot Americans listened to Obama, and as he has always been moderate, even a little conservative, the right wing’s attempt to use “socialism” as an attack began to have the opposite effect.
A lot of people looked at Obama as a potential “socialist” and discovered he was a decent, thoughtful, moderate guy who even shared some of their conservative values.
The right wing inadvertently made what they claimed was “socialism” seem decent, thoughtful, moderate and even a little conservative.
The sum effect has been that the right wing marketed and sold America socialism.
It’s kind of like those ‘just say no’ commercials that actually encouraged people to say ‘yes.’
I still don’t trust a Rasmussen poll. But even that Rasmussen poll, if wrong, might have the unintended consequence of changing attitudes about socialism in America.
The negative side is that the right wing extremists may become even more dangerous in reaction.
It’s what reactionary’s do.
As Jesse Taylor observes,
To this pretty much dead-on analysis, I will only add the following observation. My favorite scene in Alexandra Pelosi’s HBO documentary “Right America Feeling Wronged” is where she talks to a pudgy blonde Southern teen in a white T-shirt on which is the hand drawn message “Say No to SOCILISM”. When Alexandra tells the boy that he doesn’t even have “socialism” spelled correctly he plaintively asks if she has a Sharpie marker handy to correct it, before going on to explain what socialism is in his view. The following is my best transcription from memory:
So if a jacked up teen who is clearly very exercised about the issue can’t even summon a coherent definition of socialism, nor even point out what else it’s halfway between, how many other Americans who aren’t even as excited as this kid could be expected to do so?
As you type, your post shows up underneath the reply box…
“As you type, your post shows up underneath the reply box…”
hmmm, I have Firefox NoScript running which is probably why I never saw that.
Thanks for the link, Rheinhard, Jesse Taylor is taking a much broader and more thoughtful historical view than I had considered.
LOL, ““Say No to SOCILISM.””
On a more sober note, that “he plaintively asks if she has a Sharpie marker handy to correct it” is socialism at it’s most basic: A strangers child being provided the tools to better themselves.
Gee, if only America had a well run socialized edumakational system or something.
As for capitalism, HBO seems to be missing a potentially huge online market.
HBO could take their shows, wait a week or a month after they’d aired, chop in a bunch of paying commercials, ala hulu style, post them online, and they would profit from a steady stream of eyeballs going to their HBO.com website.
I don’t have HBO, will never have HBO and would never buy the HBO show you just mentioned. But I would watch it online and suffer through extra commercials to do so.
Free Bill Maher!!
No underpants gnomes required. Just commercials and ! profit!
It’s probably not accurate.
LOL, yo mama’s almost speechless.
that “he plaintively asks if she has a Sharpie marker handy to correct it” is socialism at it’s most basic: A strangers child being provided the tools to better themselves.
I saw that movie. Never thought of it that way, but spot on.
“For the record I’m a diehard capitalist ”
Have you read James Galbraith’s “The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too” ?
Any conservative who’s ever driven their car on a road or highway that they didn’t privately pay for is a socialist.
Jaim: “Any conservative who’s ever driven their car on a road or highway that they didn’t privately pay for is a socialist.”
Any conservative who bought a product that was once delivered on a road or highway that wasn’t privately paid for is a socialist.
Hell, the internet is socialism.
Every successful country in the world uses socialism, it’s just a matter of balance. Too much government control is bad (U.S.S.R.) but so is too little.
We are seeing the effects of the latter right now.
So, in a truly capitalist society, it would play like this.
You spelled socialism wrong!.
I did? Do you have a sharpie?
Sure. 8 bucks.
Oh, um, okay. Now how do you spell it?
That’ll be another 5 spot.
Why isn’t military spending considered “socialist” by Republicans? (I refuse to call them conservative.) It’s public taxes paying for an ostensible public good, right?