Comments on: How Movement Conservatives Are Killing Capitalism

By: JohnJay60

JohnJay60 — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:28:56 +0000

This seems similar to the war-on-drugs telling everyone in the 60’s that marijuana will lead to heroin and death – and an entire generation, now entrenched as CEOs, Directors, Managers, and other useful members of society smoked mj in college without widespread systemic ill effect. It damages the credibility of the threat announcement.

By: Paul Cole

Paul Cole — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 21:58:27 +0000

How many of today’s self-described conservatives and/or libertarians have read and absorbed Hayek’s “Constitution of Liberty”? Plainly, free enterprise is a broader thing than capitalism. In it’s broadest sense, the latter, to borrow a phrase, is simply the use of a surplus to create a further surplus.

My question is really more of a statement: reading today’s right-wing bloviators, I get very little sense that Hayek’s books are things to wave around, rather than to read and absorb.

By: Psychopolitik 2.0 » Reverse psychology part deux: Red Harder

Psychopolitik 2.0 » Reverse psychology part deux: Red Harder — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:25:37 +0000

[...] Mark Thompson also thanks movement conservatives, though in the sense that your parents would say “thanks a lot, ya big dummy” while slapping you upside the head upon finding out you borrowing their car resulted in it being blown up. [...]

By: AJ Lockwood

AJ Lockwood — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:57:25 +0000

I’ll quibble with Mark Thompson’s facile interpretation that Socialism is popular because it annoys Republicans. Mr. Thompson is also incorrect in asserting that in the past 25 years Socialism was utter defeated. In the past 25 years we witnessed the collapse of Communism, not Socialism. While Socialism and Communism often are linked by pols and talking heads — for that matter, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics — they are not synonymous. They are two different credos. Popular perception remains that “we beat the Commies” not the “Socialists.” Further, we had recently defeated the National Socialists — Nazis — who were well-known, bitter enemies of the Communists. These two starkly different meanings of socialist/socialism — Communist and Nazi — alone when coupled with the knowledge that many of our democracy-loving European allies are socialist states — French, Germany, e.g. — expose such explanations as annoying to Republican hacks to be both a red herring and a bumper-sticker syllogism.

By: A New Popularity for Socialism - Liberal Values - Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 08:25:15 +0000

[...] Mark Thompson wrote: When you falsely complain that every single thing your opponents try to do is socialism and absurdly hold your bloviating, unpopular selves up as bastions of capitalism, you probably shouldn’t be surprised when people start thinking socialism doesn’t look so bad, and capitalism doesn’t look so good. So suggests, in part, Chris Good. Let the record reflect that I predicted this, in full, on November 5, 2008. Heckuva job guys, heckuva job. [...]

By: Weekend Opinionator: A Different Sort of Red America - The Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 02:30:49 +0000

[...] Thompson at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen feels his fellow conservatives have nobody to blame but themselves. “When you falsely complain that every single thing your opponents try to do is socialism and [...]

By: Playing With Fire and Getting Burned « Just Above Sunset

Playing With Fire and Getting Burned « Just Above Sunset — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:22:08 +0000

[...] Mark Thompson is a bit blunter: [...]

By: Mark Thompson

Mark Thompson — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:48:21 +0000

Thanks Gherald. I should mention that to me, the combined total is still significant in light of the utter defeat of socialism over the last 25 years in the public mindset; to have people unable to decide if it’s worse than capitalism is a pretty big sea change. As plenty of people have pointed out, the poll didn’t define “socialism,” but that serves to reinforce my point – popular perception of “socialism” is often perceived in the public mind nowadays as simply “that which annoys Republican hacks” because Republican hacks are the only people who ever really talk about it in a widely disseminated fashion.

By: Gherald L

Gherald L — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:40:50 +0000

It's worth clarifying that of the 47% who didn't answer capitalism, only 20% prefered socialism. 27% were undecided, which is close to what I'd expect in these uncertain times. Nate Silver has more.