(no subject)

[jfb]

I don't know much about John Edwards, but in Slate last Friday, William Saletan accused him of "the most interesting thing anybody in this race has said so far": An argument that Bush is anti-capitalist, pro-taxes, soft on crime, and unpatriotic. I haven't read the actual speech, but the analysis is great.

Comments

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

I'm not buying the argument (or implication -- by Slate, at least) that Bush is a "pinko" because his policies are as "dangerous" as socialism.

It's an interesting tact, but it seems like it might do more to alienate the left than persuade the right. (And the apathetic aren't likely to notice.)

[artname.livejournal.com]

Hey Erik noticed, and they don't get more apathetic than that,

[jfb.livejournal.com]

What?

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Well, I think "pinko" was hyperbole. But I think the idea behind it was not "because he's dangerous"--after all, motorcycles are dangerous and nobody calls them Reds.

Edwards doesn't do anything like claiming that Bush is a socialist. He does, from what I can tell, accuse him of being anti-capitalist, mainly in two respects: The Bush administration is coddling corporate criminals who are "subverting the values and rules of capitalism" (Saletan's words). And its tax policies punish people who work to get ahead.

I'm not sure how you think Edwards will alienate the left with this--you just don't lose many votes in contemporary America by being in favor of capitalism. And explicitly drawing a distinction between the capitalism he supports and the cronyism he doesn't should help with the voters, although it won't help him any with the big-business financial donors, but they were just going to give to Bush anyway.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

Well, I think "pinko" was hyperbole. But I think the idea behind it was not "because he's dangerous"--after all, motorcycles are dangerous and nobody calls them Reds.

Well, I really wanted to quote something, but the connection was made in such a convoluted way, I couldn't mention anything verbatim in my reply.

I'm not saying Edwards said "pinko" or even "socialist"; I was reacting to the Salon piece. I just didn't get the connection between being pro-corruption with being "pinko" or socialist. (Or, if the connection they're thinking of is what I suspect it is -- that socialism is inherently wrong -- then I disagree.)

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Right. I think when Salon used the word "pinko" it was using hyperbole.

The article claims that Edwards portrays Bush as anti-capitalist, and "as bad as" (Saletan's words) a socialist. Edwards's description of socialism is not "bad" but "radical and dangerous"--there, I suspect, is your point of contention with Edwards. Bush, he says, is also radical and dangerous--and on that I'd have to agree with him.

But Saletan doesn't claim that Edwards portrays Bush as a socialist. He's just an extremist of a different stripe. ("Pinko" shows up only in the subhead, which is used as an attention-getter for points that are made clear in the article. I think it's a bad subhead.)