It should be pretty obvious by now that the McCain campaign’s latest line of attack against Barack Obama—that he’s a socialist—is an empty, only-for-show tactic. Yet another ridiculous claim in a long line of ridiculous claims during this campaign.
Hendrik Hertzberg of the New Yorker has an article this week discussing this. In the article is the quote from the 2000 version of John McCain I cited in my Sarah Palin post last week:
YOUNG WOMAN: Are we getting closer and closer to, like, socialism and stuff?. . .
MCCAIN: Here’s what I really believe: That when you reach a certain level of comfort, there’s nothing wrong with paying somewhat more.
Hertzberg also adds this:
Of course, all taxes are redistributive, in that they redistribute private resources for public purposes. But the federal income tax is (downwardly) redistributive as a matter of principle: however slightly, it softens the inequalities that are inevitable in a market economy, and it reflects the belief that the wealthy have a proportionately greater stake in the material aspects of the social order and, therefore, should give that order proportionately more material support.
He also discusses the spreading-the-wealth of the oil company profits in Alaska, making Sarah Palin a socialist, too, and then quotes the socialist governor:
A few weeks before she was nominated for Vice-President, she told a visiting journalist—Philip Gourevitch, of this magazine—that “we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.”
“Collectively.” Let’s check the dictionary, shall we? Socialism:
any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
Collective ownership, just like in Alaska where they “collectively…own the resources.”
And of course, let’s not forget the government’s $700 billion (+) bailout plan that McCain voted for and the government’s partial nationalization of some banks. That’s not socialism, McCain campaign?
This socialism charge again Obama is simply another vaccuous attempt by the McCain campaign at throwing something at him in the hopes it will stick and do some damage to him. On the tax issue, since McCain is always happy to talk about taxes and how Obama will raise them, why not turn Obama’s “spreading the wealth” comment into a serious discussion on altering the tax policies of the United States if he truly is against the progressive tax structure that spreads wealth around? McCain can’t do that because he has jettisoned all seriousness he had remaining a long time ago.
(Nod: Talking Points Memo)