There is a new poll out today that peaked my curiosity. It is a Democracy Corp poll that found that 55% of likely voters believe that the word "Socialist" describes the President either "well" or "very well". At first glance I thought this is just another stupid poll asking a stupid question. Then I gave it more thought and what came to mind was somewhat disturbing to me. Follow me over the fold and I'll elaborate.
Democracy Corp Poll
Thomas Rhiel in an article at TPM http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/... says: "Have months of Fox News hyperventilating and right-wing fear mongering over our supposed socialist-in-chief finally paid off? A majority of voters now think President Barack Obama is a socialist, at least according to one new poll."
When you look at his comment on its face you say sure that's the reason but I have to say that I think it's more than that. Conservative talk radio and TV spend 90 percent of their time bashing the heck out of the left. Anything that they can find to beat the drum that Democrats with President Obama are bad for the country they have perfected. I am not even including Rushbo in this argument because he is so far off the cliff that it isn't even worth talking about but if you can ever stomach listening to the other side you will see as I stated that their shows are exclusively about bashing Democrats and big government and spending.
Now turn on "liberal" talk radio or part-time liberal TV (because we don't have are own cable station that is 24 hours liberal) and watch the contrast. The folks on our side like to hold the Democrats accountable and hold their feet to the fire so they spend at least half of their shows doing just this and then maybe the other half going after some ridiculous thing that the Republicans have done or are doing.
There is no shortage of Democrats that will go on Progressive shows and either agree or disagree with the Administration. We don't hesitate to call our President out if we think we need to whereas in contrast how often do you see this done by our opposition party? Not often at all and in the rare instance that they step out of bounds and say something to the contrary they swiftly go back on the talk or radio show and apologize.
Now if you have the opposition labeling the President a socialist through their echo chamber of conservative talk radio and cable shows as well as the tea party that our media loves to give a voice to by showcasing any and every event they have and then the left who will speak their minds and will at times in their critiques question the President character, by questioning whether he has a spine, whether he emotes, his leadership abilities, etc that means that only a quarter of the time is the media concentrating on the poor performance to date of the Republicans. Which leaves us constantly on the defense and with me not surprised that without a constant drumbeat from the left and the Dems in Congress showcasing the deficiencies of the right the void gets filled with nonsense like "He's a Socialist".
I'm not sure what the answer to this is because we are not Republicans so we will not be silenced in our dissent but we are going to have to find some way to show our dissent without it being all about our dissent or we are going to end up with a Republican House and a Republican Senate because I'm getting the distinct feeling that folks are buying the Republicans garbage.
Any suggestions?