Tag the Donkey with the S-Word

President Obama was at the Chicago Bulls game on Friday night in the Windy City and the crowd erupted when he entered the auditorium. The crowd was noisy with cheers and enthusiasm and he waved at the crowd before he sat down to enjoy the game. It’s great to see him out and about on the weekends rather than isolated at Camp David, and dressed casually too.
Okay, it is becoming obvious that our new President is organizing a pretty progressive overhaul of our government and society. My attitude about it is: Go for it! The Republicans on the other hand are saying this Obamaian project threatens the American Dream and they are shouting,” It is socialism on the march.” They have dragged out the old negative tag of Socialism and are trying to attach it to the tail of the donkey. Rush Limbaugh also brought out the charge of “class envy,” trying to stigmatize the Democrats with that tag too. Well, for all practical purposes, class warfare has begun. Happily I can report that the President enjoys the good will and confidence on the majority of the American people. These black tags are a bit out of date and won’t stick to the degree the Republicans are hoping for.
Last week Rachel Maddow had Tim LaHayne and James Jenkins on MSNBC. They are the co-authors of the LEFT BEHIND series of 16 novels about The rapture and the Anti-Christ, books that have sold to the tune of 65 million copies—a truly amazing number. LaHayne brought up how he views Obama. He too thinks he is bringing a form of socialism to the country, although he would not call it that. But LaHayne does see him as giving sovereign power to the government over most aspects of American life; he wants to take from the haves and give it to the have-nots; and in general transform what conservatives have built over the past 30 years, starting with Ronald Reagan. On the other hand, since Obama says he is a Christian, he too will be swept up in The Rapture, which confuses matters.
The so-called advance of Socialism and conservative bitching about it, and “the Bush-Obama spending spree,” were hot topics at the CPAC gathering in the Nation’s capital this past week. Newt Gingrich is still the leading intellectual of the group and he said Obama wants to establish an “American version of European Socialism.” Other voices wailed about the state of affairs. Speakers like Boehner, Huckabee, and McConnell all issued dire warnings about our slide toward perdition. For some reason McConnell felt compelled to say he’d rather spend time with Rush Limbaugh than the likes of Paul Krugman and Robert Reich. To each his own. Rachel Maddow was willing to give these people some respect, but she said she had to draw the line at Allen Keyes remarks about Obama a couple of days ago. He called the President a “radical communist” which is ridiculous. He is one conservative who is around the bend and can’t be taken seriously.
The conservative movement has shrunk to between 20 to 25% of the electorate and they are still stunned that they lost the election and thus lost their edge with the Democrats. As power slips away and their values lose credibility with the American people and as they witness the tsunami of the Democrats Center-Left coalition starting to roll, they don’t know where to turn. There is no Ronald Reagan on the horizon, just a host of middling talents.