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By Mike Cuenca | August 17, 2003
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Recently, I wrote in and complained that the whole country and its
media had swung to the far right and that anything to the left is
condemned as evil by associating it with socialism or communism. This
past week, one writer who responded to my more recent mockery of the
conservative mindset has helped me make this point.
He trashed the left by playing the "socialism" card. But he also wrote
that he's 79 years old and attended KU on the GI Bill -- a social
program. He then likely bought a home with VA-guaranteed financing -- a
social program. He's likely receiving Social Security -- a social
program. And he's likely taking advantage of Medicare -- exactly the
kind of social program he condemned Sen. Clinton for promoting. He
trashes socialism without, apparently, understanding just how much he's
personally benefited from it. (A pretty good example of a lack of
"integrative complexity.")
Since the McCarthy era, any political
position or program that benefits the people has been condemned as
socialist or communist. Since the Reagan era, anyone or anything
considered "liberal" has been successfully demonized to the point that
politicians are terrified of the label. By attacking populists as
"liberal," conservatives have manipulated the electorate by scaring
them off of anything that might actually make their lives better.
It's
long past time that we unmask conservatives for the mean, selfish and
greedy bunch that they are and move our nation and world toward a more
responsible, humane and compassionate state.
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Originally published by the Lawrence Journal-World.
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