21st Century McCarthyites charge 'socialist' instead of 'communist'

The election of Barack Obama did wonders to resurrect soft McCarthyism in our political discourse. While the majority of Obama's critics weren't even around sixty-five years ago when Senator Joe McCarthy started charging that just about anyone who disagreed with his political views was a communist, they have somehow internalized the Master's Voice when it comes to criticizing anyone who supports Obama's economic and social policies as being a 'socialist'. Even before his election, the right began calling Obama, his supporters and his vision for a fairer, more inclusive society, socialistic. They do so with no shame that they are mis-using this word to poison the political discourse. Call the president a socialist, call his policies socialistic and denigrate any of his supporters as fellow traveler socialists and you don't have to construct sensible, reasoned arguments to support your position. Those folks have no position other than fear and loathing. If they are the affluent, they use the socialist charge to further their goal continuing the greatest redistribution of wealth to the affluent from everyone else. If they are affluent wannabes, they latch onto the socialist charge to prevent passage and implementation of any policies, whether the Affordable Care Act, raising the minimum wage or immigration reform, which don't further their endless quest to join that exalted status.

The folks who bandy about the socialist charge to further their political agenda are reprehensible. They may not be causing any of their targets to lose their job or commit suicide as the victims of Senator McCarthy's 'communist' charge experienced. But the corrosive effect they have on the public debate is destructive of a democracy which requires truth and decency and compassion to solve the momentous problems that confront us.