shag wrote:
>
> what is it with the scary socialist meme this year? I can't ever recall the
> fear of socialism being nearly so overt in a year divisible by 4. Am I just
> misremembering? Or is this something new? is it the particular whack job we
> have running for presdient and vice presdinet (tm) on the republican side?
Possibly left intellectuals are paying more attention than usual to the details of that rightist core which remains pretty constant over the decades. It gave us the "little old ladies in tennis shoes" back in the late '50s & early '60s. And so forth. It gets louder some years, quieter other years. Chip Berlet and his colleagues are really good on this, but I don't trust my memory to give details from their presentation at a forum last spring.
Many "constants" in the culture periodically appear as new and startling simply because something turns the spotlight on them. These rightists, of course, are only a _part_ of the Republican "Base," just as left liberals are only _part_ of the DP base.
Carrol