Watch out for ‘socialists’
I really hadn’t paid much attention to that special election to fill the empty seat in the state’s 37th Senatorial District.
I don’t live in that district.
In fact, I didn’t even know which political parties the two candidates (D. Raja and Pam Iovino) belonged to until a few days before last Tuesday’s votes were cast.
I just happened to catch a couple of Raja’s campaign spots, in which he claimed that Iovino is a “socialist,” and I realized Iovino is a Democrat, and Raja is a predictable Republican.
That claim didn’t stick in the minds of voters.
Iovino won a seat in the Pennsylvania state legislature that has rarely been held by a Democrat.
Republicans are tossing the word “socialist” at Democrats like it’s a hand grenade.
I’m not sure that’s a good idea.
While Raja wanted voters to believe Iovino would like to transform the Pennsylvania General Assembly into the Kremlin – common sense prevailed.
The word “Socialist” doesn’t seem to carry the bite it used to.
I guess I just showed my hand.
I’d like Republicans to keep using that word, then watch voters treat it with apathy.
When Raja used it, he overlooked the fact that Iovino spent 23 years in the U.S. Navy, and then she was an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, including her most recent job as Allegheny County’s Director of veteran’s services.
Raja could have called her a “liberal,” which he did.
He could have claimed she’s an “extremist,” which he did.
He could claim that she supports “taxpayer-funded third-trimester late-term abortions,” which he did.
(Neither claim is true)
But a socialist?
That’s coming from that moldy old Joe McCarthy playbook.
If you’re not with us, you’re a communist; or a socialist.
Bah!
“We’re going into the war with some socialists,” President Trump acknowledged during a speech last Tuesday.
Exactly how will they go to war with “socialists?”
We know he won’t be on the frontlines of that “war.” He has bone spurs or rug burns or something.
He’d rather benefit from his fellow Republicans calling anybody who runs against him a “socialist,” simply because they’re running against him.
For the sake of this column, I performed an internet search about what is, or isn’t “socialism.”
Not surprisingly, nobody seems to know exactly what socialism is; or how it would be applied to a capitalistic economic system.
Is, for instance, the Social Security program a form of socialism?
I read a long internet column that says it right here “it seems fair to call the Social Security program a form of socialism.”
The writer of that article claims that since the government controls every aspect of the Social Security system, it’s socialism pure and simple.
Except, the very next article I read, said no it isn’t socialism.
There are as many definitions of the word, as there are articles about it.
But we don’t expect Republicans to perform a deep dive into the many meanings of the word.
They’ll simply call any Democrat who has ever spoken to Bernie Sanders, or to that now-famous ex-bartender from the Bronx – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – a “socialist.”
That’s cause Ocasio-Cortez – a Democrat – is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
She’s not a socialist, but Republicans everywhere appear to be scared to death of her, and the attention she’s gotten since she stepped off the plane from New York.
Most young Americans are unaware of that “Red Scare” of the 1950s when people like Joseph McCarthy tried to convince the country that there were nefarious communists among us.
Those same young Americans should know he failed.
That conjuring demons out of thin air doesn’t work.
We’re witnessing another “Red Scare,” where some undefined force is trying to take over the country because they might want more Americans to have healthcare, higher base wages, or safe drinking water.
We should be on the alert.
Not for “socialists,” but for the people who see them where they aren’t.
They may as well call them vampires.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.