Lately Rush has switched from using the term "liberal" to "Leftist." His reasoning is that we're seeing an out-in-the-open, unashamed push in the *demoralcrat party that goes far beyond the tenants of classical liberalism or even contemporary liberalism to the socialistic and marxist thinking. Fair enough. Liberal is fairly old hat now and only has a light stigma in the eyes of most Americans. However, should Leftist be the label of choice here?

To most people, this just puts them in the mind of simple "left" and "right" (as in correct) leanings. IMHO, most people don't really see or understand the evils and consequences of those kinds of feelings. Younger Americans, such as myself, don't have a personal connection to the Cold War or understanding of Anti-Communist sentiment. All we have to go on are a personal understanding of history, and those school texts and professors who quite often are apologists to such ideas. Sometimes I think the only reason I didn't get swayed by that kind of thinking back in school is because of a conservative starting point and a degree that didn't touch much on humanist philosophy, literature, or soft science.

That being said, what kind of label can we give these types of people? Liberal isn't strong enough, Communist/Marxist is dated and comes across as over-the-top for most of those who identify with people like SNObama, and leftist is too vague. Populist doesn't mean much to most people other than having a root in the word "popular." Perhaps we can dredge something up that hasn't been used in a while, but it's got to fit. Something cold even be mashed together if it flows well enough.

My basic issue is that it's hard to communicate the scary anti-American extremism in such philosophies without educating someone without presuppositions on the whole topic of discussion. Maybe I'm just floundering here, but it's been my opinion that when you can really nail something like this, it sticks, and it catches on with thinking people. I'd say it's at least worth thinking about.

*I misspelled this word twice, and decided to leave it since it seemed so fitting.

Sidenote: Does anyone else think that Rush's lingering on the "sts" part of 'leftists" is intentional? It sounds much like the hissing of a snake to me... Appropriate?

I'm sorry but these people are socialists, marxists and communists. That is what they should be called. If need be, Rush can go to the Communist Party USA and to the Democratic Socialist of America and read their platforms or read Karl Marx's words to the audience to educate them. They are one and the same of the Democrat Party (view it at the Congressional Progressive Caucus). I have been writing Rush every day. First, he was using liberals, now he is using leftists. Today he was questioned by Snerdley as to why he wasn't calling Obama a Marxist. He never answered the question.

Obama's role model was Frank Marshall Davis, a lifelong member of the Communist Party USA. He was indoctrinated in the ideology of Saul Alinsky (as was Hillary), a Marxist who came up with methodology to overthrow the US and turn it socialist while claiming democracy and slipping it in slowly without the population actually seeing it coming.

They are socialists, marxists and communists..there is no other honest name for them and that is what they should be called.

So, are you saying that people just need to be educated? I myself understand the depth of such an accusation, but I get the feeling that many others don't. I still say that a new term or mash word would be more interesting to laypeople, and pique their interest. Something like "soccompopulist" or ""soccompop" are a bit much. Perhaps demagogue? Rush does well with this- just look at terms like "ChiComs" and "femiNazis."Both get a curious look if I use them in conversation, then a laugh, and then a thoughtful expression. Perhaps Rush will come up with a good one again, or perhaps his education will give people an understanding of just how messed up true Leftists are.

Humor me here. Please.

I think you raise some valid points. I grew up less than 60 miles from the East German border. I spent three years living in the Former Soviet Union. I studied political science with a concentration on Eastern Europe. To me the term "Marxist" or "Communist" are about as vile an epithet that I could attach to a person. But, for many younger voters that may not be so.

Education is a part of the solution. People need to understand why America is different from the rest of the world. Then they need to understand why the rest of the world is so much less free and so much less prosperous than we are. But, it is difficult to educate adults who have been brainwashed by Marxist educators. Hillary and Barry (and Miki) are prime examples of that sad fact. They despise the nation that gave them the liberty and opportunity to be free enough to hate liberty and opportunity!

Rush does come up with some catchy phrases and that helps make his point. The utter blatant hypocrisy of certain groups is just too obvious. The NAGs and NAALCP are just two of those groups.

But the fundamental problem is that Marxists present themselves as many things and they still have the ability to appear as the ally of the little guy against “evil forces” that would exploit the little guy. The irony is that the Marxists represent the ultimate “evil force” that would enslave the little guy. In spite of a hundred years of empirical evidence demonstrating the evils of Marxism some people don’t even know the evidence exists.

I don’t have a solution for the nation but this is one reason we don’t put our kids in public schools. We aren’t going to let the Marxists indoctrinate them. What we do about the hundred million who have been indoctrinated is another question. I guess we just have to work harder to get the message out.

I agree the label of being a liberal and to a more modest degree a socialist no longer draws a clear image of what is happening in this country.
I also grew up under during the cold war. Communism and Marxism is something that is either skimmed over in school as no longer truly important or is re-molded into an attempt of bringing equality to all members of a society. Re-writing history has been part of the long-term plan. Take into account that Educators (Teachers Union) have plans to no longer teach about the American Revolution, War of 1812, WW I and WW II in High School. They want to start American History with the Korean War.  Their excuse is that there is not enough time to go over all of the material and the more modern wars have more of an effect on society today. These wars allow them to demonize the United States of American. Another re-write of history.  Without the background of the previous wars they is no way one can truly understand why we went to Korea, Vietnam and now Iraq.
Now and for the last 20 years educators and the majority of the media has systematically attacked this countries military member and the actions of the military as a whole. Our armed forces are seen as a ‘terrorists’ organization sanctioned by the evil capitalist of this country via the Republican Party and Conservatives.
Look at the age groups of those flocking to this current Democratic Party.

Maybe a new name that will raise the level of awareness to this group is to take a name from Hollywood. The Borg, from Star Trek, was a movement that was sweeping across space and assimilating free people into their collective. There is no longer any more freewill under the Borg. There are no more I under the Borg, just We.

The Assimilation Party. Assimilationist.  The Collective Party.  Take your pick.

This also may raise awareness with an older group of this country also and spark renewed interest in the 50% of citizens that gave up voting because they did not see any reason to.

watcher wrote:I agree the label of being a liberal and to a more modest degree a socialist no longer draws a clear image of what is happening in this country.
I also grew up under during the cold war. Communism and Marxism is something that is either skimmed over in school as no longer truly important or is re-molded into an attempt of bringing equality to all members of a society. Re-writing history has been part of the long-term plan. Take into account that Educators (Teachers Union) have plans to no longer teach about the American Revolution, War of 1812, WW I and WW II in High School. They want to start American History with the Korean War.  Their excuse is that there is not enough time to go over all of the material and the more modern wars have more of an effect on society today. These wars allow them to demonize the United States of American. Another re-write of history.  Without the background of the previous wars they is no way one can truly understand why we went to Korea, Vietnam and now Iraq.
Now and for the last 20 years educators and the majority of the media has systematically attacked this countries military member and the actions of the military as a whole. Our armed forces are seen as a ‘terrorists’ organization sanctioned by the evil capitalist of this country via the Republican Party and Conservatives.
Look at the age groups of those flocking to this current Democratic Party.

Maybe a new name that will raise the level of awareness to this group is to take a name from Hollywood. The Borg, from Star Trek, was a movement that was sweeping across space and assimilating free people into their collective. There is no longer any more freewill under the Borg. There are no more I under the Borg, just We.

The Assimilation Party. Assimilationist.  The Collective Party.  Take your pick.

This also may raise awareness with an older group of this country also and spark renewed interest in the 50% of citizens that gave up voting because they did not see any reason to.

That's really very good, Watcher.  I wonder how many people are familiar with Star Trek Borg.  It is a great example.

The Collective <-> Commune <-> Communist. I like the parallel: it points out how the demagogues of the party believe their constituents and the rest of the country are beholden to them, and must always look to their unerring judgement. It denies the ability of the individual. However, the term "collective" doesn't necessarily communicate the elitism of the leftists way of thinking. Rush's "Queen Bee" analogy and the hive mind work better.

How about calling them Hivers? Hives? That has a nice negative tone, but IMHO, one or two syllables seems to short. Ideas?

I don't want to kill the idea but ST:TNG may not be as mainstream as all that. Trekkies or Trekkers are most often geeks and I wonder if the Borg has penetrated into the psyche of the next generation the way you think it has. I get it because I watched Star Trek. But, is that the case for the vast majority of "the next generation?"

paleocon wrote:I don't want to kill the idea but ST:TNG may not be as mainstream as all that.  Trekkies or Trekkers are most often geeks and I wonder if the Borg has penetrated into the psyche of the next generation the way you think it has.  I get it because I watched Star Trek.  But, is that the case for the vast majority of "the next generation?"

So what is the average Trek fan like? The fans I interviewed were of all ages, from 18 to almost 70 years old.
so Trek obviously appeals to all ages!

more into community work and serving others, the greatest number of people was in the 30 - 40 age range, followed by the 40 - 50 range.
As far as occupations went, I encountered the same enormous diversity. I interviewed university professors, housewives, doctors, dentists, nurses, war veterans, jail officers, security guards, students, and people who had never held a job for any length of time - in short, every kind of occupation
In conclusion, it is impossible to characterize the “true Trek fan”, because there is such diversity among the fans – and this is perhaps what makes Trek fandom unique. While most series have a specific group to which they appeal, Trek has such a broad appeal that there are fans from every age group and walk of life from all over the world.

www.angelfire.com/stars3/whitestar2001/index.html Measure of a Star Trek Fan

The geek image appears to not be correct although I'm sure that geeks like Star Trek also.

Let's let this idea run for awhile and see if some others come up with anything. I still agree that we need workable label to help raise awareness to what is going on.

Well, like I said, I don't want to kill the idea.  I was just questioning the assumption of how deeply or widely "Borg Awareness" might have penetrated contemporary American culture.  I don't know which is scarier - that such a site exists or that you seemed to know about it already!  

Assuming this site used a truly scientific method when conducting their research it could prove interesting.  But, we need a way to diagram and represent the likely awareness and cultural penetration of the concepts represented by the Borg.  Basically, how do we measure "Borg Awareness."  Of course, this is one of the reasons God invented Venn Diagrams.  

In the attached Venn diagram entitled "BorgAwarenessDiagram," or "BAD" for short, you can see some of the possibilities for the distribution of "Borg Awareness" throughout the general population (the largest circle).  Depending on the diameter and position of the smaller circles (the "Borg Aware" set of people) the comparison has a greater or lesser ability to connect and be a relevant cultural phenomenon.  The slices of the "pie" (conveniently identifed by letters) might represent various demographic elements within the whole set of people.  The exercise could be, er, "fascinating."