The Radicalism and the Liberalism and the Socialism.
From a Letter to the Editor in The Oregonian (Letter Writing is the, um, twentieth century precursor to Political Blogging):
You have to wonder how many of these dancing, cheering Barack Obama supporters have a clue as to what he stands for.
What a sad indictment of our electorate that some are so eager to overlook his many flaws — his radical roots, his extreme liberalism, his socialist economic policies, and his utter lack of experience or achievement.
After 16 years of inching our way toward socialism, Obama, Reid, and Pelosi will blast us like a cannon toward it.
Our founding fathers must be spinning in their graves.
— Scott Robertson, West Linn.
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Yes, but aren’t “radical”, “liberal”, and “Socialist” basically synanoyms for Mr. Robertson of West Linn? Also, why doesn’t this reign of Socialist terror drift back to, at least Bush I — who I’m guessing if he was around back then with political thoughts Robertson would have deemed as betraying the Reagan Legacy.
In other news, “Joe the Plummer” apparently grew up with his parents on welfare. I recall the House debates over the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, as Clinton endorsed it in its third try. It was highly personal, with Congress critters on each side digging into their childhood experience of being poor and either watching the Welfare Safety Net help them out during tough times or with their parents proudly riding roughshot and being True Independents. In the course of Politics, you can pluck out any number of honest lessons to different directions: The “son of a poor Immigrant” Al Smith swerved rightward because he viewed Roosevelt’s New Deal program as a detriment to the capitalist system that allowed him to succeed in life and work his way up to — well, losing a presidential race in 1928. Roosevelt, growing up rich, had a sense of noblese oblige. Both positions make sense, as well the poor supporting a robust safety net and the rich opposing it. In Oregon’s most recent Senate race, some mileage was achieved with reports that Gordon Smith bought some golfing equipment for a million dollars. I never understood why I was supposed to care, though I understood the purpose: more confusing was the RNC’s ad on behalf of Smith that had Merkley eating a hot dog — which reports are surfacing that Smith’s initial reaction was a sort of “NOOOOOOOOO!”
But Joe the Plummer’s 15 minutes are at an end. I guess he’s going to punt a book out — watch your Remaindered shelves. The Country album appears to have been an Urban Legend of sorts. How he compartmentalizes his curious philosophy remains a sociological study, probably not worth driving at. I am still lost at his “Natural Law Party” membership.