Obama The Socialist?? Obama The Elitist??:- The Hypocrisy of John McCain
Am I the only one that has realized the humongous, gargantuan and unequivocal hypocrisy and ludicrousness of the McCain/Palin ticket's newest bestest favorite campaign tactic? You know the one that the mainstream media, as they are wont to do, have picked up faster than a giant magnet to tire iron. The big "S" word that shall not be spoken in this our beloved free market economy.....SOCIALISM (for dramatic effect please imagine scary horror music while reading last sentence).
I mean granted, hypocrisy is nothing new to McCain/Palin. These are, after all, the same individuals that try to paint the African American candidate that grew up, at one point, on food stamps and now owns one house and one car as an an elitist. This notwithstanding the seven houses, thirteen cars and private jet owned by John McCain. Oh did I mention that these same non-elitist "real Americans" have been outed as spending $150,000 on clothing and accessories for Sarah Palin and her kids? This after attacking John Edwards for getting a $400 haircut? Its a good thing none of us are paying attention to theses things huh?
So clearly hypocrisy is the order of the day. However, with this new "S" word meme, McCain has waded into the depths of unadulterated, bold-faced, "I don't care that my hypocrisy is obvious" levels. Consider these points:
- The argument that allowing the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy (which have NOT resulted in more prosperity, but instead more disparity) to expire and giving tax cuts to less wealthy working families is "socialism" is not only inaccurate but an irresponsible characterization of simple tax reform.
- Using Obama's phrase of "spreading the wealth around" as proof positive of his socialist agenda is farcical. America uses a progressive tax system whereby the more you make, the more you pay in taxes. The whole point behind progressive tax policy is wealth distribution. So if we use senator McCain's logic, the U.S is already a Socialist state.
- If we apply Senator McCain's logic even further, as a means of identifying the most socialist state executive in the U.S., you wanna know who that is? You guessed it: Governor Sarah Palin. A major part of Governor Palin's job as Alaska's chief executive is to oversee its oil exploration and revenues. One of the main reason's Ms. Palin is so popular is that she...that's right...REDISTRIBUTES the oil revenue by taxing oil companies who make high profits so she can send relief checks to the citizens.
Apparently it's OK for the republican governor to be a "damned socialist". I often wonder if the simplest explanation is that they are just so myopic, so tactical and less strategic, that they just don't realize that they are guilty of almost everything they have accused. Surely they can't just think they can get away with anything, in the age of "the Google" and "the internet". Can they? In the 2000 elections, John McCain himself held the same position on taxes that Obama currently has. He was firmly against the Bush tax cuts on the basis that they were ill-targeted (at the wealthy who don't need them, rather than the middle-class who do). He believed that the wealthy should have continued paying the taxes they paid under Clinton. Now, that very same position, is Socialism??
Did we not just pass a bailout bill that would basically nationalize our banking system? Did John McCain not vote for said nationalization? Is nationalization not...well...a form of socialism? How is that McCaign can actually make this charge so forcefully, and have the media run with it, in the face of all of this? Surely even partisan republicans realize the hypocrisy of it all. What am I saying.
The republican campaign continues to remind me of a well known quote from Adolph Hitler: by means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell and hell heaven; the greater the lie, the more readily it will be believed. What great luck for rulers that men do not think (and no, I'm not comparing McCain to Nazis).
What great misfortune for John McCain, that we do think.
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I think it goes beyond hypocrisy to political schizophrenia.
The campaign is obviously being tugged reactively from one extreme to the other.
I can't wait to read the NYT expose on Sunday.
October 22, 2008 9:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Schizophrenia is probably the word I would have used if I had only thought of it at the time of writing. I know by now this should not be shocking...but it is to me. And its not the FACT that he seems incapable of recognizing his own hypocrisy, its the shear volume and the fact that the media do not immediately call him on it (maybe thats my naivety talking)
October 22, 2008 10:34 PM | Reply | Permalink