Lest We Forget - The Dangers in the Cries of Socialism

Americans have a short memory.  "In the United States Senate, one of the things I observed in the early days - and it's still used - and that is that you take someone's argument and then you misrepresent it and misstate and disagree with it. And it's very effective. I've done it myself a number of times. But eventually, eventually people catch on." -Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington"  The cries of "President Obama is a socialist" is a perfect example of the tactic mentioned in Senator Kennedy's quote.  The Right has taken on a tactic of distorting the president's image and intentions with wild claims that his actions represent socialism.  Unfortunately it is working because the press, which is supposed to be a beacon of truth, has done very little to shine a light on the dishonesty of these accusations. Americans often fail to learn from their past mistakes.  That is why we had a second banking crisis, it is the reason for the slump in the auto industry, and it is the reason that the price of gas is exceedingly high.  Most of the cars in Brazil are fueled by sugar cane based ethanol.  A good many of these cars were made by Ford Motors Corporation.  Brazil plans to lower their dependency on foreign oil by switching entirely to ethanol.  The U.S. response?  Our response was to slap a 54 cent per gallon tariff on ethanol from South America.  Brazilian ethanol is least 20% cheaper than gas prices in America. I pointed out the ethanol/gas situation to point out how easily we forget about past hardships like the oil crisis we experienced in this country over and over again.  The only president who seem serious about attacking this problem is being labeled as a socialist.  He is being labeled a socialist because he wants the top .01% of American wager earners to be taxed at a rate of 35% like the rest (.99) of the wealthiest 1.0%  of Americans.  They are currently paying taxes at a rate of 20% while middle class Americans are in the 25% tax bracket. Now they are labeling him and the policies he is forced to undertake due to the follies of the past administration as "Socialism."  Well it seems like like we have been through this sort of thing with Joseph McCarthy in the 1950's.  Numerous citizens lives were ruined when McCarthy made numerous and largely unsupported and baseless accusations that labeled his fellow citizens as communist.  Here we are 50 years later getting ready to walk down that same road because some ill informed people were convinced that their security is somehow at risk.  "They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin, 1755, to the Pennsylvania State Legislature.