Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Rush Leads A [Socialist] Revolution?

In today's Washington Post, Harold Meyerson reports on findings of the Rasmussen poll, which find that while overall Americans favor "capitalism" over "socialism" by 53% to 20% (rest undecided), among those under age 30, that ratio is only 37% to 33% (rest undecided). This leads Meyerson to speculate that partly this is due to the end of the Soviet Union, and the shift in terminology of "socialism" to mean the "social capitalism" of the Social Democratic parties of Western Europe. Or, as he puts it, "the left bank of the Seine in Paris does not invoke the same terror that Stalin's gulag did." I note that rather than "social capitalism," the much older term is "social market economy" from the German "sozialmarktwirtschaften," which was cooked up after WW II in West Germany by such Ordo-liberals as Walter Eucken, who, ironically, were friendly with Friedrich Hayek.

Meyerson goes on to speculate that besides the fading away of the Soviet threat, and the apparent capitalism of the still-officially "communist" China, another reason why younger people might have a more favorable impression of "socialism" than their elders is because of Rush Limbaugh and his cronies in the right wing nucase media. They have been loudly denouncing Obama as a "socialist," and his popularity ratings among younger people is much higher than the 60+% one finds overall in the US. So, by linking this very popular president among young people with the term "socialism" so deeply, Rush and company are leading the "socialist" revolution!

4 comments:

hapa said...

on this kind of issue, i only care about polls of "likely voters."

Jack said...

Unrelated question. Why when I click on Read more... does it then only say, "Hidden conclusion here."?

Otherwise, wouldn't that be the real joke of our times? Rush conflates Obama and the socialists. Obama's significant popularity creates a halo effect with regards to socialism. And Obama hasn't shown the least inclination towards any socialist policies. Granted that Obama has spoken in a positive way about the need for good and strong social programs. The irony of the thing is precious.

Anonymous said...

As an American born either 10 years too late or 10 years too early, I am celebrating this news. Thanks for bringing this welcome news to a socialist who came of age during the Apogee of the right-wing.

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

Jack,

Sorry, I do not know the answer to your question about Read More. Maybe the administrators can explain.

Yes, there are plenty of ironies in all this.

BTW, I misspelled the German word. It should not have the "en" on the end.