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Baraka_Guru · 04-27-2009, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roachboy

taxation without representation is meaningless in this context if it is supposed to refer to the actually existing state of affairs in the actually existing united states.

[...]

the right cannot face anything about the reality *they have made for themselves*...

[...]

if you corrupt the integrity of argument, you undermine the process itself. you gut it. there's nothing left.

if these "conservatives" were interested in democracy, really, they'd be interested in being coherent.
that doesn't seem a priority.

Is this yet another example of this?

Quote:

GOP fights over labeling Democrats as Socialists
Posted by Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian April 23, 2009 14:32PM
Categories: Democrats, Republicans, culture, politics and economics

I think it's safe to say that Republican activists and officials have been pretty harsh in their criticism of President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress. But a group of Republican National Committee members claims that GOP Chairman Michael Steele hasn't gone far enough.

Twenty-three RNC members - including two from Oregon and one from Washington - are sponsoring a resolution that puts the Republican Party on record charging that the Democratic Party is "dedicated to restructuring American society along socialist ideals."

The resolution further calls on Democrats to "rename themselves the Democratic Socialist Party."

Steele is resisting the resolution and there's been a lot of debate in the blogosphere about whether this Republican faction is pushing their party into name-calling that will only alienate average voters.

But the backers of the idea are quite convinced that they can turn voters against Obama and the Democratic Party by repeatedly tagging them as socialists who support radical income redistribution and the nationalizing of major business sectors.

Obama "wants to move this country toward socialism but at the same time doesn't like the label," said Solomon Yue, a Republican National committeeman from Salem and a co-sponsor of the resolution. "We feel very, very strongly that we have to stand up" and tell voters what he is doing, he added.

However, Oregon Republican Chairman Bob Tiernan, who is close to Steele, said the resolution is sponsored by a group of dissidents who mostly didn't favor making Steele chairman in the first place. And he said Republicans are better off avoiding trying to call Democrats bad names.

"The name-calling and labeling doesn't help much," said Tiernan, who predicted the resolution would fail when brought before the 168-member RNC.

Jim Bopp, a prominent GOP activist from Indiana, is the chief moving force behind the "socialism" resolution and two others that sponsors are angling to put before the RNC at its May 19-20 meeting.

"Just as President Reagan's identification of the Soviet Union as the 'evil empire' galvanized opposition to communism," Bopp wrote in an email to RNC members Wednesday, "we hope that the accurate depiction of the Democrats as a Socialist Party will galvanize opposition to their march to socialism."

The other resolutions urge members of Congress to give up asking for earmarks and praises opposition to "all further 'stimulus,' bailout and reckless spending bills."

Jeff Kent, an RNC member from Washington, is chief sponsor of the socialism resolution, which was also co-sponsored by Donna Cain, an RNC member from Rogue River, Ore.

According to Politico, Steele wrote in an April 8 memo that he agreed Democrats were "marching toward European-style socialism," but he said the resolutions "will accomplish little than to give the media and our opponents the opportunity to mischaracterize Republicans."

Meanwhile, Politico quoted Democratic spokesman Hari Sevugan as being particularly dismissive.

"I'm going to pass on marketing advice from folks who hadn't fully thought out the implications of using tea bags as a brand. But what's clear is that when you're devoid of leadership, devoid of ideas and your only answer is to say 'no' to change, it's not surprising that angry, fringe elements take center stage at the Republican Party."

GOP fights over labeling Democrats as Socialists - Jeff Mapes on Politics