# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1247
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24922 "2015-10-17T06:28:35Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Well, if you’re going to call yourself a socialist you get to own the history of the word. Sanders should call himself a “social democrat”, but he’s obviously not smart enough to even know what he’s campaigning on. He also seems unaware that the nations he seeks to emulate are nothing like his campaign platform. Good god, do you really need it pointed out there is a major difference between someone being a socialist who is running for office in a democratic republic and someone who is a socialist taking office in a totalitarian dictatorship? Francois Mitterrand was a socialist and I don’t recall any genocide taking place in France during his years as a democratically elected President of the Fifth Republic. I realize Randy Paul is just pandering to the GOP base but I actually expect more sense from you. I can’t really say why I expect it but I do. Silly me apparently. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24923 "2015-10-17T06:52:05Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It should be noted that Chris Matthews also compared Sanders to Mao: > > [Thom Hartmann - News & info from the #1 progressive radio show | News. Opinion. Debate](http://www.thomhartmann.com/bigpicture/why-chris-matthews-comparing-bernie-mao-tse-tsung) > > Simple solution: drop the label. The label is tainted. Thanks for the note that reminds to many liberals why [“Tweety”](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/02/20/460450/-I-just-told-MSNBC-why-Chris-Matthews-is-known-to-bloggers-as-tweety-Bird-or-tweety-for-short) is not really respected by many on the left side. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24924 "2015-10-17T07:39:46Z")
Kolak, I understand the differences. I just wonder why you’re surprised that the word socialist would be associated with Mao and Stalin in the eyes of a lot of Americans. Socialism is a dirty word here. Exploiting that is just politics. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24925 "2015-10-17T07:45:37Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Kolak, I understand the differences. I just wonder why you’re surprised that the word socialist would be associated with Mao and Stalin in the eyes of a lot of Americans. > > Socialism is a dirty word here. Exploiting that is just politics. It is actually exploiting ignorance. But we know that you will never educate your peers about it, as you do not want to be voted out of their island. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24926 "2015-10-17T07:57:23Z")
Democrats would never do that! Perish the thought! ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24927 "2015-10-17T08:15:53Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Democrats would never do that! Perish the thought! Tap dancing around what the Republicans are doing with their ignorance in the form of propaganda with the matter at hand is not a good reply. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24928 "2015-10-17T08:32:48Z")
Complaining about Rand Paul defining socialists wrong is weak tea. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24929 "2015-10-17T08:55:58Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Complaining about Rand Paul defining socialists wrong is weak tea. Specially when he is not going to be the candidate for the Republicans, it does however show the type of voter that people like Paul does know that Trump and Carson are attracting right now. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24930 "2015-10-17T08:56:44Z")
The type of voters who don’t like socialism and aren’t too concerned about distinctions between socialists who just want to take your property and those who want to kill you? That’s a majority. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24931 "2015-10-17T09:11:39Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The type of voters who don’t like socialism and aren’t too concerned about distinctions between socialists who just want to take your property and those who want to kill you? > > That’s a majority. As noted you are then now swimming in the ignorance, not fighting it. In my experience that same type of voter also is attracted to the idea that a coup in the USA can be a good idea. > **[Poll finds almost a third of Americans would support a military coup](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/11/military-coup-some-americans-would-vote-yes)** > > Online survey shows 29% would support possible takeover while 41% said they could not imagine supporting such an event ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24932 "2015-10-17T09:16:20Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Kolak, I understand the differences. I just wonder why you’re surprised that the word socialist would be associated with Mao and Stalin in the eyes of a lot of Americans. > > Socialism is a dirty word here. Exploiting that is just politics. :dubious: I wonder if anyone online has a list of historical American socialists. > **[Category:American socialists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_socialists)** > > This category lists people who have, at one time or another, been active members of the Socialist movement in the United States. It should not be taken for granted that inclusion in this category implies that figures necessarily were or continue(d) to be socialists. > This category has the following 11 subcategories, out of 11 total. > The following 200 pages are in this category, out of approximately 376 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. Are Americans in general put off by the likes of Eugene Debs? W. E. B. Du Bois? Upton Sinclair? _Lucille Ball? Dorothy Parker?_ I expected Martin Luther King, Jr. to be listed. Or Bayard Rustin. Well, they were friendly to “democratic socialism,” anyway. There is a type in any country who despise socialists: the rich elites who burn £50 notes in the faces of beggars. So what? There is in the USA a second type: an anti-communist, fearful of religious persecution and/or having to (gasp!) pay taxes. I don’t know how common it is outside the USA for middle-income types to have such a ridiculous knee-jerk reaction against the very word “socialism.” Anyway, the rich toffs who sneer everywhere at socialism (as well as at democracy, labor, and equality) can be dismissed as a peculiar special-interest class. The other type of anti-socialists are misguided, and it’s high time their foolishness is confronted head on. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24933 "2015-10-17T09:31:22Z")
I don’t think Americans would have elected any of those people in any era. Americans’ reaction to socialism is just as irrational as Europeans’ reaction to any political philosophy labelled “American”. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24934 "2015-10-17T09:35:42Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The type of voters who don’t like socialism and aren’t too concerned about distinctions between socialists who just want to take your property and those who want to kill you? > > That’s a majority. No, the vast majority of people want something that is actually socialist. They just are ignorant about what the word means. The majority of people support public schools, public roads, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps (even if they are concerned about abuse), etc. Also, way to make your opponents right. You do this a lot. You have a leg to stand on, but then you pull it out from under you because you’d rather attack. You had a point when you started talking about how “socialism” is an American boogeyman. Then you piss it all away by acting like you believe in boogeymen. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24935 "2015-10-17T09:54:24Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > In my experience that same type of voter also is attracted to the idea that a coup in the USA can be a good idea. > > [Poll finds almost a third of Americans would support a military coup | US news | The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/11/military-coup-some-americans-would-vote-yes) That’s fucking stupid. Thinking you could never support a coup is actually the stupid or immoral decision in that scenario. If our government so breaks down that the constitution is being completely violated, a revolution of some sort would pretty much be necessary. You’ve got a complete government breakdown at that point. I mean, they said they couldn’t even imagine a situation where they would support a coup. That’s scary. No matter how locked out of the government they get and how bad said locked out government acts, they would not support the only action available to fix the problem. Either they lack imagination, or they are surprisingly more jingoistic than I thought even Americans were. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24936 "2015-10-17T10:03:10Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > No, the vast majority of people want something that is actually socialist. They just are ignorant about what the word means. The majority of people support public schools, public roads, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps (even if they are concerned about abuse), etc. > > Also, way to make your opponents right. You do this a lot. You have a leg to stand on, but then you pull it out from under you because you’d rather attack. You had a point when you started talking about how “socialism” is an American boogeyman. Then you piss it all away by acting like you believe in boogeymen. I’m not sure public schools are socialist anymore than a store that isn’t owned by the government is capitalist. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24937 "2015-10-17T12:11:25Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I don’t think Americans would have elected any of those people in any era. Er, several of the American socialists on **foolsguinea** ’s linked list **were** in fact elected to political office by Americans. E.g., Pennsylvania state legislators Darlington Hoopes and Lilith Martin Wilson, Wisconsin state legislators William Aldridge, Thomas Duncan and several others, and Wisconsin US Representative Victor Berger, to name a few. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24938 "2015-10-17T12:39:33Z")
**adaher,** it sounds like you agree that Republican politician should and do take advantage of their constituents’, or potential constituents’, ignorance; that they can and do manipulate and misguide potential voters. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24939 "2015-10-17T12:48:03Z")
THat’s the definition of politician. ---
**Author:** ![Sinaptics](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Sinaptics](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinaptics)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24940 "2015-10-17T13:45:11Z")
While I think it’s par for course for Republicans go the ignorant route, a part of me is saying that this is just another instance of Democrats completely sucking at messaging. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/24941 "2015-10-17T13:49:30Z")
Adaher, do you understand what this thread is for? Rand’s comment about genocide is deeply stupid. Either he’s an ignoramus, or he’s a liar pandering to fear and ignorance. Either way, he belongs in this thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1246) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1248)