About the "S" as in "Socialist" word

The impact of that word isn't all that great these days. Even small numbers matter in this election, but still...my thought is that "socialist" only triggers people in the Republican base that are likely to turn out for McCain no matter what anyway.

20 years ago in high school when a lot of us were afraid of the USSR and communism, i don't recall any serious fear of West Germany, France, Canada or Britain's "socialism" and this was 20 years ago! Now there are only remnants of that type of hysteria which was fading even 20 years ago.

A final thought: when I hear someone call somebody a "communist" as an epithet, it's like calling somebody an "okie". Sure, it's clearly a putdown, but it's so out of date it has lost almost all its meaning by now.

:shrug:

:shrug:

Social Security.

Unemployment Ins.

Workers Comp.

It's last real achievement was Medicare under LBJ.

Need I say more?

there was a communist movement in the USA in the 1930's that was widely accepted, the New Deal essentially preserved laissez faire capitalism to a large degree as an alternative to far more radical changes that could have happened.

i guess there's one nice thing about going to high school in the Bay Area. :think: