By Mark Rhoads -
The Left Wing of American politics is very skillful in abusing the English language in order to frame the terms of debate in a way that favors socialist policies. For example, if you want to help protect the lives of unborn children from mass infanticide, then you must be "against choice" or against all women because you would deny them "the right to control their own bodies." When Democrats take your money away from you to spend on pet projects they like, that is called an "investment" by the parasitic government in all manner of beneficial goodies that the Left claims is good for you.
If you believe that the historical definition of the word "marriage" refers to the union of a man and a woman, or if you reserve your right not to personally endorse any lifestyle you do not believe is a good role model for your children, then you must be in favor of "hate" against gay people or you must be "homophobic" just because you fear people who are different from you.
If you are caucasian and if you dare to question the wisdom of any crazy policy idea advocated by America's first president of African-American heritage, then you must be a sick "racist" who could only differ with President Obama because you do not like the color of his skin.
If you think the power of government should be limited to any degree at all, it can only be because you are a heartless and greedy uncaring villain who thinks your money belongs to you and should not be taken from you to be spent by more enlightened elite people on wonderful programs to benefit people who are less fortunate or who are victims of a racist, homophobic, anti-poor, and anti-woman society.
In the world of the supersize Left Wing, reasonalble people may not have reasonable difference of opinion and people are not allowed to weigh the benefits of a government program against the possible waste of public money or the possible loss of personal freedom for all citizens. In the Boris Pasternak novel about life after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the character of Strelnikov says to Dr. Zhivago, "the private life is now dead in Russia." When another character dispairs of the wanton murder of the Czar and all his family, he cries out, "What does is all mean?" Zhivago answers, "It means there is no turning back." The collectivist superstition of dialectial materialism means that as the acorn grows to the tree, so also will socialism replace capitalism in the inevitiable advance of history. In other words, collectivists believe that socialism is inevitable and that freedom cannot be revived once their version of history takes over. That is why socialists were willing to pay any high price to pass national socialized medicine because they believed that once government-run medical care took hold, then it could never be reversed and any loss of personal freedom was not important to them.
It is normally the case that any election with an incumbent president on the ballot is a referendum on the first-term record of the incumbent. But the Left is desperate to try to re-frame this election as a "choice" about two competing visions of the future just as if there were two new candidates running for a vacant office as was the case in 2008. DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Shultz said Sunday "this election should not be about defeating Barack Obama." She actually said that with a straight face. What else should it be about when Obama is the incumbent president and his policies since January 2009 are on trial? That same foolish Democratic strategy of denial backfired in 2010 and should not work this year with Obama's name on the ballot. But it could unless Republicans keep reminding voters about what Obama promised for a recovery that has never happened. The tradgedy of always abusing the language is that it even demands that Democrats must deceive themselves about the nature of economic reality.
