I can appreciate the fact that Republicans probably get a little tired of calling someone a “liberal.” It’s their own fault; they’ve used it too much and the word has lost its meaning.
Sure, the GOP had some fun with it in the ’80s and it worked against Mondale and Dukakis. “Liberal” became a dirty word, the left started running from it, and the right was happy. Fine.
The attacks had far less success in the Clinton era. Republicans did their best to label the Big Dog a liberal, but it didn’t stick. No one believed them.
Now, with John Kerry leading the Dems, the right — like a jukebox that only plays one song — seemed intent, at least at first, to use their “l word” barrage once again. If it was effective, no one noticed. Kerry’s up in the polls and positioned well for victory in November.
Leave it to modern-day conservatives to see how best to kick things up a notch. The right is no longer satisfied with the “liberal” label — they’ve decided it’s time for a new Red Scare.
Trent Lott got the ball rolling a few weeks ago.
U.S. Sen. Trent Lott today told an enthusiastic Neshoba County Fair crowd that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry is “a French-speaking socialist from Boston, Massaschusetts, who is more liberal than Ted Kennedy.”
Outrageous and over-the-top rhetoric? Not for Republicans in 2004; no one batted an eye. (It prompted me to wonder, at the time, whether conservatives and the media would be equally nonchalant if a Democratic senator were to call Bush a “barely-literate fascist.”)
But Lott’s slander was just the opening Red Scare salvo. Last week, Bill O’Reilly told the New York Times’ Paul Krugman, “You’re a quasi-socialist.” On the same show, he compared David Brock’s Media Matters to Fidel Castro’s communist regime.
Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), who some consider to be occasionally moderate, picked up on this theme yesterday in an attack hosted by the Bush campaign.
“It’s not John Kerry’s fault that he looks French,” Smith told reporters on the conference call arranged by the Bush campaign. “But it is his fault that he wants to pursue policies that have us act like the French. He advocates all kinds of additional socialism at home, appeasement abroad, and what that means is weakness for the future.”
I don’t know how to put this gently, but Republicans in America have officially lost their minds.
In their twisted worldview, a decorated war hero who enjoys broad support among hundreds of leaders from corporate America and has made business tax breaks a central feature of his economic plan, is not just “liberal,” he’s a “socialist.” The mind reels.
And please note, these aren’t just fringe activists popping off at The Free Republic. Some of these quotes come directly from members of the U.S. Senate and one of them was part of an official Bush campaign press briefing.
Maybe some enterprising young reporter could ask the campaign if the president is prepared to denounce his party’s “red scare” against Kerry. He should be; it’s indefensible.