Hot buttons

In the last stretch of the campaign, Mr. McCain and his friends have been reaching for long discredited hot button slogans to energize his base. Just as his prior efforts to sling mud have not worked well, it appears that this new and desperate attack will fall short.

Still, one should note some of the problems with his language.

“Redistributing the wealth” is a bad thing, and sounds like “socialism.” Well, Mr. McCain, a progressive income tax has been part of our system for a really long time. You might even remember when it was established. At one time, the marginal tax rate on the very rich was 90%. More recently it was at 50% before reforms brought it down below 40%.

And why is progressivity reasonable? Our social compact and sense of mutual responsibility calls for those who can afford it to pay proportionately more than those who cannot. Do you really think that if multimillionaires paid a few hundred thousand dollars more in taxes, they would stop investing and trying to make more money? I doubt it. No, I suspect that you just are continuing the Republican tradition of trying to make the rich richer, at the expense of everyone else.

Extending the Bush tax cuts rewards the rich and punishes the rest of us. Is this how you fight for the regular guy?

Government itself is a mechanism for redistributing the wealth. We take income and reallocate it to national priorities, like defense, infrastructure, food safety, environmental protection and the like. Are you really a closet anarchist who wants no taxes and everyone on their own? If not, what level of taxes would be your bottom line? When would you stop cutting taxes? Would you limit the national government to the common defense and nothing else? If not, what else?

As for socialism, you certainly are aware of the Veteran’s hospital system. This is a government funded health care system, which competes with the private sector. One could call it socialism for the military. If you were consistent, shouldn’t you call for the abolition of this system? Will you? I doubt it.

In addition, isn’t the recent bail out of the financial system a socialist act? Getting the government into the heart of the business world? As one who believes in deregulation and the self-correcting nature of the free market system, shouldn’t you be calling to let the chips fall where they may, even if banks and companies go bankrupt in the process? The market will respond to consumer demand, even as individual companies fail, right?

As for Joe the plumber, whose name is not Joe and who is not a plumber, why do you continue the lie about Mr. Obama’s tax cuts, which you call a tax increase? If you simply say that meeting all his promises will require a tax increase, doesn’t this argument apply to you, too? Or, will you continue the Bush policy of spending money now by borrowing from the future, asking current voters to pay nothing more? Is this a responsible act, mortgaging our future, and burdening our children and grandchildren?

Enough. I’d respect the old McCain, who opposed the Bush tax cuts and supported some semblance of sound immigration policy. But that man has been eaten by the radical right of the Republican party. R.I.P.