Just because Saul Anuzis has left the Michigan Republican Party doesn't mean that we can't still kick him around a little bit.
According to The New York Times for Monday (April 20, 2009), Republicans have given up calling President Obama a "liberal" or even a "socialist" because those names no longer sound bad enough. So he's switching to calling Obama a "fascist," not because Obama really is a fascist, but because Saul thinks it will make people think Obama is bad.
The story says:
"We've so overused the word 'socialism' that it no longer has the negative connotation it had 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago," Mr. Anuzis said. "Fascism — everybody still thinks that’s a bad thing."
Sure, Saul says he doesn't really mean that Obama is a "fascist," only that what he does is "fascism."
Either way, it's not a tactic that is likely to find much appeal with independent-minded voters.
1 comment:
I wonder if people see the humor here, that a socialist isn't a fascist. To call someone a socialist because of their beliefs/actions, and then to call them a fascist for those same beliefs/actions really indicates the speaker is uninformed on at least one of those ideologies.
Look at the Spanish Civil War, and you see that it is between the fascists & the communists. That would be difficult if they were synonymous.
Fascism is identified as the "third way" (the first two being capitalism & socialism). So if the right finds that portraying President Obama as a socialist isn't working how they want, it makes sense that they stoop to claiming fascism. If there was a "fourth way", they would accuse him of being that as well, whatever it takes for self-identified capitalists to dislike our President.
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