Economist Brad DeLong notes that the Republican strategy of calling Obama a socialist is a dud, mainly because the word isn't as scary as it used to be. (Though this doesn't stop some out of touch idiots from trying.) Folks of a certain age recall when it seemed there was no difference between calling someone a "socialist" and a "communist." But now that communism is no longer an existential threat, and the most familiar socialist countries are in Western Europe, it's hard to get real worked up when Mitch McConnell shrieks about the "Frenchification" of America.
"Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure which is better. Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided."
Having lived in a country in which the socialist party has ruled off and on for the past thirty years, I can attest that I've never been sent to a re-education camp. When I'm sick, I go to a doctor for free. Four weeks of vacation is standard. The streets aren't full of desperately ill homeless people. Mass transit is fantastic. Life in a socialist country is pretty good, folks. America could do a lot worse than moving toward a system where me-first individualism is tempered by a bit more collective compassion. Maybe now that a lot more Americans are feeling the terror that comes from living without a safety net, more will see that it's worth giving up the McMansion and Hummer and paying a little more in taxes to take better care of the least fortunate among us. We all come out ahead in the long run.
Update: I've just come across a more thorough discussion of this issue here. Money quote:
"To me, the most sensible and pragmatic capitalist is a skeptical capitalist, one who recognizes the enormous power for good in the system but also recognizes that it is ultimately just a patchwork of conventions, laws and mores, cobbled together by disparate people with vastly different aims, and existing always in an uneasy tension. That, to me, is a simple statement of the reality of life, of human systems and their imperfections. It’s not a socialist screed or an endorsement of some sort of anarchistic future. Yet in the context of American political and philosophical conversation of the last decade, it’s tantamount to carrying Mao’s little red book."
