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Why 'Socialism' Evokes No Fear (Barf Alert)
RealClearPolitics ^ | October 11, 2007 | Joe Conason

Posted on 10/10/2007 11:02:53 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Once among the most frightening epithets in American political culture, "socialized medicine" seems to have lost its juju. Today that phrase sounds awfully dated, like a song on a gramophone or a mother-in-law joke or a John Birch Society rant against fluoridated water.

Yet despite that antique quality, the old buzzwords appear regularly in columns, press releases and speeches. Rudolph Giuliani, Mitt Romney and the rest of the Republican presidential pack run around squawking about socialism whenever anyone proposes health care reform. Syndicated columnist Robert Novak warns that the federally financed, state-run Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is essentially a socialist conspiracy. So does President Bush, who has threatened to veto a modest increase in that program's funding because he doesn't want to "federalize health care."

Although the red threat still triggers an autonomic reaction among GOP true believers, the rest of the country no longer twitches to that high-pitched, far-right whistle. Most polls not only show enormous majorities favoring extension of coverage to every child, but substantial support for a radical change in how we pay and administer health insurance -- including the possibility of a single-payer system.

Why doesn't the traditional propaganda work any more? Perhaps the demise of the Soviet Union and the withering of Communism in China have had a delayed effect on public attitudes here. Both the Russians and the Chinese have turned more capitalist than the West, abandoning their former systems without substituting modern protections. The ex-Communists are more of a threat to the health of their own societies than to us.(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: areyouareddupe; china; communismkills; democratparty; democrats; georgebush; gop; health; healthcare; hillarycare; hillaryclinton; howtostealanelection; medicine; nationalhealthcare; presidentbush; republicans; russia; schip; socializedmedicine; sovietunion; stalinisttactics
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How many lies can he fit on one page?
1 posted on 10/10/2007 11:02:58 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It is still called “dirty politics” and a “smear campaign” that smacks of “McCarthyism” to call someone a Socialist for their avowed policies.

The word is only “harmless” to USEFUL IDIOTS. The lesson of 100,000,000 dead in the name of Communism is a lesson that cannot be taught in our schools. It is poltiically incorrect thanks to the Socialists.


2 posted on 10/10/2007 11:07:37 PM PDT by weegee (NO THIRD TERM. America does not need another unconstitutional Clinton co-presidency.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"...the Chinese have turned more capitalist than the West, abandoning their former systems"

Communism is both political and economic. A better description (one used in a metal supply trade mag) would be Market-Socialist. Another would be State-Capitalism...and both are becoming to mirror the West too.

3 posted on 10/10/2007 11:09:30 PM PDT by endthematrix (He was shouting 'Allah!' but I didn't hear that. It just sounded like a lot of crap to me.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Although the red threat still triggers an autonomic reaction among GOP true believers, the rest of the country no longer twitches to that high-pitched, far-right whistle.

"I would think that if you understood what Communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees, that we would someday become Communist."
1970 - Jane Fonda of Hanoi Jane notoriety at a discussion with students, at Michigan State University,
4 posted on 10/10/2007 11:14:42 PM PDT by weegee (NO THIRD TERM. America does not need another unconstitutional Clinton co-presidency.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Commie terrorist supporters for Hillary BUMP

5 posted on 10/10/2007 11:18:42 PM PDT by weegee (NO THIRD TERM. America does not need another unconstitutional Clinton co-presidency.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
[”This corporate model is more expensive and less efficient than the government plans that provide care in every other industrialized nation.”]

If it is more expensive it is because it operates modern hospitals equipped with cutting edge equipment, the best doctors and staff. Medical science is evolving so fast in the U.S. there is often a gap between what the treatment costs and what the insurer can pay. If the government takes over, things will be more efficient in a bureaucratic way of measure. But the patient will be handed a number, get less treatment and will not select his doctor or hospital. The best doctors and staff will leave to join the high-dollar private hospitals.

6 posted on 10/10/2007 11:39:15 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee ("A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.")
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To: weegee

I try not to let folks get under my skin. I don’t like the idea of hating someone. Generally folks aren’t worth your attention or disdain. There are however exceptions to every rule, and my exception is Jane Fonda.

Jane may have had it tough. I don’t know the particulars. IMO she probably had it better than most. She ran off to Europe at some point, met a devout jackass and the rest is history. This guy turned her like Hillary’s inner-city priest (at least I think he was a priest) turned her.

Jane turned into one of the most misguided women in the history of our planet. In a war that was terribly hard on the combat troops on the ground in Vietnam, Jane chose to dispise them. She chose to admire the propagandists from the North, and aid them in their treachery. And she did so at the expense of men who were tortured for years and abused constantly.

She professed to care about ‘humanity’. I’m not sure whose humanity, because it sure wasn’t the humanity of her fellow countrymen. The North Viet Cong did not adhere to the Geneva Conventions. They tortured our men. They used every vile digusting abusive trick in the book on them. They mamed and killed them. Then Jane dropped by Hanoi to press the flesh and generate propaganda against her own nation. And more importantly, she actually found a way to make things worse for our POWs. How I do dispise this bitch...

Jane chose to side with the north. She spent a lot of time championing it’s cause and trying to destroy her own nation’s cause. It didn’t matter one whit to her that her own nation was simply trying to keep millions from having to fall under communism’s boot-heel.

Jane knew she was right, and her nation was wrong. And when Jane got her way, two million Cambodians died (half it’s populace) and about a million more South Vietnamese.

Oh Jane was quite the humanitarian. She damned us for trying to block communism’s spread through Asia. She aided the enemies of the United States and South Vietnam. She was Ho’s ho. If ever there was an f’n s—t, Jane Fonda’s face appeared just above the title.

Three million died Jane. Three million humans were slaughtered due in no small part to your personal intervention.

In the scheme of things, Jane and about 100 other die-hard war protesters and agitators cost the United States the war in Vietnam. But that’s really a superficial explanation for what truly took place. The United States wasn’t really defeated. The people of South Vietnam were just sentenced to death, the rest to live their lives under a totalitarian regime for generations to come.

Jane jet setted off into the sunset, and millions paid the ultimate price. Nice work Jane.

I wonder if this subliminal bitch has any clue how many millons of people she nearly single-handedly murdered.

Ramsey Clarke, Abbey Hoffman, Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda... the list isn’t all that long. Many brainless were led by these names. If there is a God, and I’m fairly sure there is, this is one women who never spent ten minutes mourning the losses she contributed to, that will one day have to account for what she helped inflict on humanity.

I’m no saint folks. Compared to this woman, I’m part of the Holy Trinity.

Jane, here’s to judgement and justice. That day is coming.

In the overall skeme of things, I may not make it into heaven. I’d like to think I will. But if I don’t there will be one pleasure awaiting me, and that will be seeing Jane where she belongs.


7 posted on 10/10/2007 11:51:20 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Hillary has pay fever. There she goes now... "Ha Hsu, ha hsu, haaaa hsu, ha hsu...")
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To: weegee

That’s probably because Scandinavia and Western Europe aren’t exactly charnel houses right now.


8 posted on 10/10/2007 11:56:26 PM PDT by RightCenter
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Really, what we need to do is start making Socialists fear...I mean everything, from breathing onward. On that premise, we shouldn't fear socialism nor socialist. They should fear us.

We need to drive them into the seas. Either coast will do nicely, thank you.

Socialists are each and every one, enemies of the Constitution, the state and every free thinking man and woman. It's not a matter of tolerance, it's a matter of disposal.

9 posted on 10/11/2007 1:36:19 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: RightCenter
No, they just regularly involuntarily suicide the elderly and those near death to keep costs down.

Retirement homes are unsanitary, ensuring that the elderly get sick and die sooner.

There are no open death camps, just quiet ones from official negligence and unofficial administration of lethal doses of morphine.

10 posted on 10/11/2007 2:11:12 AM PDT by rmlew (Build a wall, attrit the illegals, end the anchor babies, Americanize Immigrants)
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To: Caipirabob

Agreed.

Socialists need to keep 100 miles away from all of us.


11 posted on 10/11/2007 2:49:37 AM PDT by Enduring Freedom (Socialism, thy name is Woman)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
My Blue cross policy went up from 160 dollars per month to 430 dollars in the past 3 years. Socialized medicine does not invoke the fear that it used to because something needs to be done. The way it is set up now doing nothing is the Conservative-Republican substitute for socialized medicine. We need an alternative to both doing nothing and socialized medicine. Something has got to be done. This Bush thing of not doing anything has got to stop. We need a leader.
12 posted on 10/11/2007 3:25:38 AM PDT by bilhosty
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Why ‘Socialism’ Evokes No Fear”

This article should have been titled “American Ignorance Reaches New Heights”.

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.


13 posted on 10/11/2007 4:10:29 AM PDT by PreciousLiberty
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Why ‘Socialism’ Evokes No Fear”

This article should have been titled “American Ignorance Reaches New Heights”.

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.


14 posted on 10/11/2007 4:10:33 AM PDT by PreciousLiberty
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Mr.Conason:

“Socialized Medicine” still sounds deadly to me. It will sound deadly to the majority of Americans when they are truly educated, when this battle is again engaged - as it was in 1993-94.


15 posted on 10/11/2007 4:19:01 AM PDT by AFPhys ((.Praying for President Bush, our troops, their families, and all my American neighbors..))
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To: AFPhys

He may be right - that the word “socialism” has lost its power to evoke fear. In 1993-1994, we had just witnesses the collapse of socialist regimes around the globe, but that is now almost 15 years ago. In eastern Europe, they are running away from socialism like the plague - the ex-communist regimes are competing with eachother in lowering tax rates. Hillary is following the tactics of the British Fabian Society whose purpose was to advance the socialist cause by gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary means. For them, the collapse of avowed socialism was a short-term setback, but in time may prove to be boon, if it allows them to pursue the same goals without being tied to the socialist millstone. The Fabians help found the British “Labour” Party and now are calling themselves “progressives.”


16 posted on 10/11/2007 5:34:59 AM PDT by NKStarr
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To: rmlew
There are no open death camps

I've heard of "damning with faint praise", but this is the limit!!!

Btw, I agree with your point - see my tagline.

17 posted on 10/11/2007 5:45:58 AM PDT by headsonpikes (Genocide is the highest sacrament of socialism.)
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To: weegee

A lot of Americans are socialist, who seek government “aid” for nearly everything, and believed Fonda though they did not realize it at the time.


18 posted on 10/11/2007 11:27:46 AM PDT by Theodore R. ( Cowardice is still forever!)
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To: PreciousLiberty
This article should have been titled “American Ignorance Reaches New Heights”

Americans who ignored President's Regan's wise observation that America cannot socialize doctors without also socializing the patients are indeed ignorant. Perhaps it is their ignorance that causes socialism to be their wont.

19 posted on 10/11/2007 1:57:33 PM PDT by MosesKnows
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

All Liberal policies are fueled by a human temptation to be irresponsible.

Socialized medicine is almost the ultimate step in that direction. I don’t have to be responsible for what I eat, drink, smoke, poke, or inject, if cures are free.


20 posted on 10/11/2007 6:07:02 PM PDT by H.Akston (Mein Kamf - My Struggle - My Jihad)
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