But Mo-om! He's a SOCIALIST! I don't WANNA play with him!

[My friend Adam's blog gets way more comments than mine. I responded to this one:

What about socialisim is your favorit thing? Because when the MESSIAH is elected welcome to socialisim in a big way! Tell me is OBAMA really your candidate of choice! Convince me why I should vote for him! (typos hers)

. . . with this.]

Socialism is a doctrine that calls for public (rather than private) ownership or control of property and natural resources. So, for instance, a factory that produces cars would be owned by--and distribute its profits and losses to--the people who contribute to the functioning of the factory. Barack Obama doesn't support things like this, because he is not a socialist. He is a capitalist. All capitalists (except some libertarians) support taxation.

Both Obama and McCain support taxing people. They just have different philosophies on how to go about it. Obama thinks your income should be taxed more as you make more, and that the middle class and the poor should get some tax relief (AKA, pay less). One argument for this is that the poor and middle class tend to spend a larger percentage of their income and save less, so cutting their taxes increases the amount of money flowing back into the economy through their purchases. Some people also think this is fair.

Under McCain's plan (I found this on his website), he would cut some taxes--the capital gains tax rate, the corporate tax rate, and taxes for the top income bracket--that tend to favor people who make more money than average. One argument for this is that heavily taxing top income brackets may dissuade people from making more money, since they keep less of it and can pass less down to their children; and also, that taxing investment gains discourages people from buying stock. Some people also think it's just unfair to tax people more as they make more.

To be clear, both Obama and McCain support some taxation, which is, in essence, redistribution of wealth: we pay taxes, and in return we get some percentage of the social services the government provides to everyone as a whole. They go about it in different ways, but the philosophy is the same: we pay taxes as members of a society, and we get something in return. Obama and McCain do differ in what they think we should get back, and in what they see as the proper role of government in providing social services. But neither candidate supports seizing the GM factories and giving ownership of it to the workers. That would never, ever fly in this country.

I support Obama, and I am not a socialist. I believe in free markets, but that markets fail and government regulation can help prevent that. I believe everyone should have access to primary health care and a good education through 12th grade. I think it's silly to provide subsidies for business if you're not also going to provide subsidies to individuals. I hope that this country's economy remains competitive internationally, but I think that will come from innovating--something we're historically good at--and not from propping up industries that can't compete. I also believe in property rights, in keeping the government out of my bedroom, and in making lots of money.

I won't try to convince you to vote one way or the other. My tax discussion above was as unbiased as I can manage. I don't know why people say Obama is a socialist; I do know that makes the real Socialist Party in this country very unhappy. They don't like to be misrepresented. And they have someone running for President too. His name is Brian Moore, NOT Barack Obama.

Message creep?

Here's a video of some eloquent McCain supporters:



Check out at 24 seconds where the argument against Obama is, "His middle name is a terrorist's name!" Followed by, "He takes money from terrorists!"

See how conveniently the link to Bill Ayers--a 60 year old white dude--has meshed with the H in BHO to make Obama sound like an Al Qaeda operative!

I know many McCain supporters have valid, rational, and even clever reasons for supporting him over Barack Obama. I respect that. The shouters in this video do not qualify. "Vote McCain, Not Hussein"? Do us all a favor and stay home on the 4th.

(HT: Matt Yglesias.)

BHO

I'm sorry, but when did having the middle name "Hussein" become not only a disqualifier for public office but also a badge of terrorism? My name means "shadow of the world" in Farsi. Well shit, then I must be the devil.

Coincidence

From today's TP:

In his column this week, Clark Hoyt, the NYT ombudsman, notes a finding by Politico that "Obama" has appeared six times in NYT crossword puzzles since January 2005, while "McCain" hasn't appeared once. Political bias on the part of crosswords editor Will Shortz? Nope. "Obama is a godsend for crossword constructors because the name is short and has three vowels out of five letters," Shortz said. Hoyt notes that "McCain", with its successive c's, is much harder to work with. No pun intended.

It has to be said

John McCain is running a bastard's campaign. I don't want to think he's a bastard, but he's not really leaving me a lot of choice here.

"[Barack Obama] made time to go to the gym, but cancelled a visit with wounded troops...."

That's a line from McCain's new ad, "Troops." (Here: click on the tab "TV Ad: Troops.") The thing that makes me use the word "bastard" is that the basketball footage in the ad is from Obama's visit with troops. He's in a gym surrounded by military uniforms! Of course, the footage as used in the ad is so blurry that it's hard to see the men and women standing around him. I have no idea if that was deliberate, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Whispers

Talking about the satirical Obama New Yorker cover, Matt Yglesias says:

I found the image to be neither especially funny as satire, nor especially outrageous as bad satire. The problem, though, is that the actually existing whispering campaign against Obama is so severe that it doesn't really admit of satire-by-exaggeration.

I've been reading Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead before bed. Whisper campaigns are one of the situations where her crazy reality actually becomes true, where her drooling beast comes to life. Take this exchange, for instance:

Me: Hey man, what do you think of Barack Obama?
Whisper Campaign Victim: Oh, well, isn't he a Muslim?
Me: What? No! He's Christian dude. Don't you remember his reverend making all those headlines a while back?
WCV: Well, yeah, but I still think he's a Muslim.
Me: What?! Why do you think that?
WCV: His middle name's Hussain, isn't it?
Me: Sure, but what does that have anything to do with it?
WCV: And didn't he go to one of those madrassas, where they teach you how to blow up American soldiers?
Me: Dude, most schools in Indonesia are Muslim, and CNN even said that story was false. Seriously, you still think he's Muslim?
WCV: He feels like a Muslim.
Me: We're talking about a fact! What do feelings have to do with it?
WCV: You can have your opinion, and I'll have mine.
Me: I give up.

If you don't believe something like this is possible, I've got a cabbie down in Key West that I'd like you to meet.