Just Ask A Socialist
This is a repost from two years ago. Not much has changed since then. BHO won the election, and the level of political discourse went even lower. The name calling goes on, and may be a deciding force on election day. The right wing likes to call others communist, even those who were not born when the Berlin Wall came down.
As for the other sign…PG has not been by the yard lately, or is even sure which one it is. Atlanta is in a mild drought, but seems to have forgotten the water crisis. People are using water on landscaping, even in October. The idea that water is a precious resource, that could become very scarce, just does not occur to people.
People still say “have a blessed day”. If you are not impressed, it is your problem. There is currently a billboard sign up, telling you to be like him. There is a picture of a hideous man attached. Why anyone would want to be like this person is a mystery.
PG went for a bike ride, and saw two signs of note. The first was the basic McCain/Palin sign, with a message at the bottom. The addendum was “Obama=Socialism…Just ask a Russian”.This line of reasoning is bizarre. This election will include voters who were born after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The idea that voters can still be swayed by implying that a candidate is a communist is amazing. The truth is, some voters do think that way.
As for the ask a Russian part…Russia is an energy rich country now. Moscow is one of the most expensive cities on earth. It is doubtful that anyone there is concerned about socialism. Maybe, seeing as how much better their economy is than ours, we should look to Russia for guidance.
The other sign involved another form of economics. In Georgia, the precious commodity is water. There was a two part sign involving an economic dispute over water. The first part was an anonymous note criticizing a man for watering his lawn. The reply to that was equally abrasive.
PG would not want to be a judge in this case. The first note was snide, and made a threat to “stop the flow coming out of the sprinkler head ourselves”. The second note was just as uppity.
It is true that the lawn owner followed the letter of the law in getting a permit. It is also true that we are in a severe drought. Having an emerald green lawn in October is the sort of luxury we have become addicted to. It would not hurt this man to put straw on his yard until more water is available to grow grass. There may come a time when we have to choose between water to wash food, and water to put on sod. There is a question of values. Maybe we should ask a Russian.
One thing that got PG’s attention was the way the notes were signed. The first Dear Neighbor was signed Thank You!, followed by a smiley face. The second Dear Neighbor was signed THANK YOU AND HAVE A BLESSED DAY! There is a commentary on our culture in those signoffs. The smiley face is secular, and punctuates a most unfriendly message. The Blessed Day nonsense…in all caps… is the Jesus Worship answer. Neither one speaks well for the messenger.
Chamblee54 
Could you imagine the reaction if the person had written “Blessed Be” instead of “Have a Blessed Day”?
My son wanted to know when people are considered old, and he noticed immediately that my answer was one year above my age.
An impressive run-down of the various attempts to define socialism can be found at Wikipedia, if you poke around long enough to collect all the disparate ideas. President Obama is on record as saying “I just think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody” and “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.”
Some people need to see more than that, to consider Obama a socialist. And I can respect that — provided they don’t use the “Dad’s age plus one” method here, meaning socialism is something beyond wherever our current President is, so that He never has to be acknowledged as being one. My own definition happens to be broad: If you notice someone enjoys a certain level of solvency or income, and you identify a problem with that that has to be solved, you are a socialist whether you want to admit it or not. Because if you don’t believe in socialism you would see this person as a model worthy of emulation, not as a problem.
YMMV.
The yard sign in question is not a serious discussion about socialism. It is a campaign insult. You could substitute liberal, muslim, or poopyhead, and have the same general effect. You could also say that he has cooties.
It is truly regrettable that, as people make decisions to support one candidate over another, the predominant reason emerges over the years as: Not so much something right with that candidate, as something wrong with the other.
But of course, “Obama is a communist” or “Obama has cooties” arrives far too late on the scene to be faulted for causing this phenomenon; it is an effect and not a cause, just like “McCain can’t send e-mail” or “Palin is unqualified.”
I have to say I’m having a tough time with equating “is a communist” with “is a poopyhead.” Even if you weren’t alive yet when the Berlin Wall fell, you don’t need to inspect the verbiage or the history around it too much to recognize the implication that socialism is anathema to a nation’s or society’s economic health. Obviously, that will resonate much more strongly with someone like me, than it will with someone who happens to be sympathetic to socialism…but I must say, I’m not quite clear on the eventual long term effects of having a poopyhead in charge of things.
Yes you’re right, it’s not exactly enlightening. But it’s a yard sign. The aforementioned Wikipedia has proven wholly inadequate to resolve the issue of how to define socialism in any unified, objective way, and it is equipped with all kinds of features yard signs don’t claim to have. So I’m not entirely sure the goal you have in mind for an edifying discourse, can ever be reached with regard to socialist/communist concepts in any medium.
For a discernible message that deals with definitions & cause-and-effect, doesn’t “Obama==communist just ask a Russian” beat out some of the others in the archive of yard signs? “HOPE” comes to mind as one comparison object, a notoriously imprecise one.
For the record, I am 56 yo. I remember hearing about Communism.
I also remember a self destructive war against communism in Vietnam. I was too young to go fight, but remember the domestic discord all too well. I suspect I remember it better than those who were so eager to have a war in Babylon.
Yes, I am glad that America did not go communist. I also remember the way anti-communism covered for a lot of corruption and shady government. The way Islam has replaced communism as the demon du jour is rather discouraging.
I dare say that the people who produced and displayed that sign know a lot more about poopyheads than they do about communism.