All the talk of McCain/Palin's campaign of demonizing Obama as terrorist, socialist, etc. is deeply disturbing. For the whole day I had a feeling that I read about something like this a few years ago - as if something similar had happened before. Just today I realized the context: it disturbingly reminded me of Mao's Cultural Revolution back in 1967.
Why's that? Here's a brief history of the event. You can read more about it from wikipedia's article.
Back in 1967, there was a power struggle going on in Communist China. Chairman Mao was somehow discredited due to the massive failure of the "Great Leap Forward" policy in 1959 that brought the death of 20-30 million people. The pragmatists of the party, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, gained more power as they undid some of Mao's policies. Liu Shaoqi even went further in criticizing Chairman Mao after the Great Leap Forward.
Mao wasn't one to abdicate his powers. He wanted to purge Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, but he couldn't do it outright. He needed a facade of legitimacy. So he labeled anyone who opposed his policies as "bourgeoisie," or "capitalist," or "counter-revolutionary." Those labels were like punishment to anyone who carried them. People started to accuse others of being a counter-revolutionary to avoid being labeled as such themselves. Any criticism of Mao's policies were branded with those labels. He created the "Red Guards," the mass of students and peasants to go after the intellectuals and anyone with any suspicion of "bourgeoisie" past and to denounce, humiliate, and even in many cases murder them. A personality-cult was built around Mao Zedong, and the mass used his quotations to attack those who showed any inkling of disagreement. In the end, the people around Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping all fell, and they were both purged from power.
Of course, McCain is nothing close to being as sinister as Mao Zedong. But the tone of his campaign is deeply disturbing. Here we have a campaign that demonized the term "socialist" and to throw them around to oppositions: Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, and a host of other Democratic senators and congresspersons. In the mean time, US's Canadian and European allies have major political parties that explicitly call themselves "Socialists," and they pursue policies that are unabashedly socialists. Somehow, with McCain/Palin campaign, anyone with a socialist label become the enemy, and as disturbing for me to say it, is it far-fetched to say that it legitimized them as being targets? What is the difference between them calling their opponents "socialists" with such disdain and the Red Guards calling Chairman Mao's opponents "capitalists" or "bourgeoisie?" They even throw the "terrorist" label over a very shaky link between a rehabilitated Chicago professor with Obama, much like the Red Guards throw "counter-revolutionary" label to anyone ever disagreeing with Chairman Mao. They are now out with Palin to create a mass movement based on hatred over these labels. On top of it all, it seems that both the McCain/Palin campaign has the same disdain to intellectuals like the Red Guards on Communist China did! How eerie is that!!?!
Liberalism has become a dirty word, thanks to Fox News and a host of hate-mongers in the personage of Coulter, Limbaugh, and Hannity. And the socialist label become a curse-word to American politicians since the days of McCarthy. In the end, this is the same mistake that Mao Zedong made, but in the other end of the extremity. Mao Zedong could not accept any ideology other than Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, even though they do not work. The ideology becomes the end, not the means, and capitalism become a label, a weapon to destroy his political enemies. Republicans have succeeded in using liberalism and socialism as labels and weapons to attack political opponents. Perhaps Americans can learn something from Deng Xiaoping, the man who reversed many of Mao's misguided policies:
I don't care if it's a white cat or a black cat. It's a good cat so long as it catches mice.
PS: Yes Deng Xiaoping was an authoritarian and he was responsible for repression of thoughts too. Compared to Mao though, he was a centrist who was willing to try anything to advance the country.