THE OPPOSING BULLIES CRY SOCIALISM

The Republicans have sunk to Middle School tactics, that of calling names. Like the Middle School age children, the names called, like 'your mother wears Army boots' are totally meaningless, just as calling President Obama a Socialist lacks substance. They don't realize that, in calling him names, they only display their own meanness and ignorance of history and facts.

Merriam-Webster defines Socialism
"Pronunciation: \ˈsō-shə-ˌli-zəm\ Function: noun Date: 1837

1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods 2a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property 2b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state 3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done"

It was in 1884 that Count Leo Tolstoy continued his personal confession in “My Religion” - he found in the principle of nonviolent resistance (which he called “non-resistance”) the key to understand the Gospels, a new understanding of his life and of modern society in his age. Nonviolence became the ethical basis for his doctrine of Truth Force which has later been developed by Mahatma Gandhi in his “Satyagraha” philosophy and Dr. Martin Luther King jr. in his concept of Soul-Force.

Instead of name-calling (though asking this is as fruitful as spitting into the wind), if the Republicans had any really useful ideas that the media would pick up on, rather than the whining they are calling forth, Congress might actually get some productive work accomplished rather than the little they had achieved while in the majority for the last eight years.

Ohio's Robert Ney went to jail for his backing of Ambramoff and Stanford. Clearly he is not alone among the House and Senate of people who pushed the country in the wrong direction. However, despite the loud-mouthed bullies, some work did get done productively...as long as it did not step on the toes of the Fundamental zealots. Senator Feinstein has summarized many of the positive changes made in 2008.

Now that we have a President who is extremely intelligent and trained for the job, the bullies are spending all their time name-calling and being obstructionists. Sadly, it is probably because they can do nothing else. Perhaps the electorate will, by the next elections to the Legislature, vote on their actual records rather than the lies they spin campaigning. It is refreshing to see and hear that Obama is bringing to fruition many of his campaign promises. Likely, he would put them all into effect, with only the changes that wisdom and closer study, when all the facts of a situation are presented when decisions must be made. A candidate never has all the facts, and especially wouldn't have had them during the secretive 'Cheney-Bush' administration.

Now, if the bullies will take the time to understand the difference between social democracy and socialism, politicians might establish a bit more credibility...though for some, I believe, it is a lost cause.

For more on this subject, read a blog by Pulitzer Prize winner Saul Friedman.