Liberal Values Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought

Adam Serwer has an article at The American Prospect on What Right Wingers Mean When They Call Obama A “Socialist.” In the subtitle he writes, “Right-wing attempts to paint Barack Obama as a socialist aren’t just disingenuous. They’re rooted in a history of conservative smears against black leaders.”

There is no doubt a large element of racism in the right wing attacks on Obama, but calling him a socialist does not necessarily indicate racism. Just because the charge is ridiculous considering the influences of the University of Chicago on Obama’s economic views does not mean that racism is necessarily behind the attacks. After all, there are many conservatives who call all Democrats socialists regardless of race.

There are three traits which are common but not universal on the right. Racism is one, but is not the only source of their idiocy. Conservatives also tend to have distorted views of economics (including confusing Republican corporate welfare for capitalism) and tend to have very poor understanding of what liberals believe. This is largely caused by conservative pundits and politicians who typically base their attacks on straw men they have created which are quite different from the actual views of their opponents. As hard to believe as it may seem, there really are right wingers who believe all those talking points, including claims that liberals are socialists. They have zero concept of Obama’s actual economic views, or how in many ways Obama is really a fiscal conservative (as Andrew Sullivan pointed out earlier today.)

This is not to say there is not validity in Serwer’s post on the treatment of black activists, but only that being called a socialist could be due to the more generalized ignorance of conservatives as opposed to being due to racism.