Thursday, July 15, 2010

Wrong Argument

I hate this.  It's probably the main reason I never really cottoned to Hannity and some others -- though I'm sure he's a nice enough guy.  Even though I agree with most of their conclusions, a lot of times they have the wrong argument.

This morning, listening to Fox & Friends we had Juan Williams ... who is not beyond reason ... arguing the left side over this poll where 55% of those polled thought the word "Socialist" applied as a valid description of Obama.

Juan framed Obama's defense in terms of what he has accomplished, and the opposite side got sucked into that argument.

Juan's argument went something like this:  Well, he didn't completely take over the banks or the auto industry, and he "helped out" capitalist firms so he's a capitalist, not a socialist.

Never mind that true capitalists don't believe in the government bailing companies out.

Whether or not he's a socialist isn't determined by how much successful he has been in pushing his ideals through or even how much of them he's even tried to push through.  Whether or not he's a socialist rests on his ideology -- what he believes.  From his influences, his associations, and even his own words (when he's not spinning them to hide his ideology) .... he's clearly drenched in Marxist ideals.

So if you want to argue whether or not he's a Socialist (and if you ask me, socialism, communism, fascism, nazisim are all flavors of Marxism just as cherry, rasberry, and strawberry are all flavors of red Koolaid® - I won't split hairs over their technical differences) you need to start with influences, associations, and words and tie them to the incremental steps he's favored in pushing America in that direction.  The fact that he hasn't managed to turn the country into a complete Socialist model in two years doesn't mean that's not where he would like to see us go.

I always find it amusing when we level the Socialism charge against some progressive, other progressives come out of the woodwork to ... practically in the same breath ... tell us that 1) he's not, and 2) there's nothing wrong with Socialism and we're just "afraid".

I find this quite telling.   Let's see.   He's not a socialist, yet you support him and you support socialism.   I see.  Makes perfect sense.

1 comment:

tim said...

Same, same as to why they hate the Tea Party. Let’s see…smaller government, fiscally responsible, Constitutionalists…yea, if your against such that would mean…but your not a Socialist, OK..gotcha.

BTW, I give the morning crew a bit of slack as far as sticking to an argument. I get crazy when O’Reilly or Hannity gets snookered into that trap, they talk and devout more time to these topics and should know better. The morning crew, not so much.