91% of Conservatives Believe Obama is a Socialist, Marxist, Communist or Fascist

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 1:15pm.

Analysis

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

An online poll conducted on the site ConservativeHQ.com earlier this month revealed that an overwhelming majority (91 percent) of conservatives identify our president as belonging to the political legacy of Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin. The site proclaims that the results of the poll "prov[e] Obama is no garden variety liberal."

So that's what passes for proof these days? The sample size was not extremely large (almost 2,600 respondents) and it's an online "opt-in" poll, severely skewing accuracy purely by the methodology used to attract participants. But also, it's important to address the message. The motivation for calling the president mean names ranges from the "true believer" category, to people who wish to justify their hatred and sense of loss by manufacturing danger, to ditto-heads -- and everything in between.

Still, 91 percent is a lot. You'd be hard-pressed to find 91 percent of Americans who like ice cream, even on IceCreamIsAwesome.com.

Which brings me to the source, in many ways the most interesting thing about this story: Richard Viguerie. Often referred to as the "funding father" of modern conservative strategy in the U.S., Viguerie has since had a long and public falling out with the GOP. These days you'll find him campaigning for Rep. Ron Paul (L? R?-TX).

Viguerie describes his Web site as "devoted to relauching [sic] the conservative movement," adding the following:

That's why ConservativeHQ.com focuses on the real threat to conservative victory: Big-Government Republicans.

Left-wing Democrats aren't conservatives' problem; we've consistently beaten them -- at the polls and in the success of our policies.

The purpose of ConservativeHQ.com is to undo the damage caused by the Republicans who've betrayed the conservative cause. ConservativeHQ.com is the only Web site completely devoted to relaunching the conservative movement.

Apparently, though, conservatives aren't ready to be relaunched. They're still parroting the same GOP fear tactics and talking points: Obama = Marx, Congressional Democrats = the Politburo.

Worse than that even is the fact that the talking points Viguerie's readers are parroting in his poll are straight out of the mad ravings of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy. I wonder what the National Council for a New America thinks about that.

Remember back in the good ol' days when conservatives were content to call us dirty liberals, using the term as if it were a four-letter word, spitting it out in utter disgust on talk shows from sea to shining sea? And it worked! Such labels transformed into insults drove many a liberal into the political closet.

Eh. That was so last decade. Who needs the L-word when you've got neo-McCarthyism?

As most on the left are wistfully aware, "liberal" wasn't always a bad word. Way back in 2006, this blogger looked back to a more reasonable time in the linguistic history of liberalism in American politics:

I can recall the days when Democrats like Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey interacted creatively with Republicans like Everett Dirksen, Charles Hallek, and others. Dirksen, I recall, voted for the progressive 1964 Civil Rights Legislation and was happy to be called a liberal Republican. Not any more.

The writer goes on to note the "pejorative epithets added to liberal: 'tax-and-spend liberal,' 'bleeding-heart liberal,' 'liberal do-gooders'" and hopes the recent midterm election victory for the left brings a greater balance between the usage and meanings of liberal and conservative.

Instead, many on the left simply replaced "liberal" with either "Blue Dog" (for those concerned about appearing balanced in a purple state) or "progressive" (for those who aren't afraid to say that "left is right"). To be fair, there's been a backlash against the adoption of the term "progressive" (this blogger says she's proud to be a liberal, calling the progressive label "a cowardly cop-out"). But many (BuzzFlash included) have embraced the word as embodying the energy of liberalism without the baggage, in that liberals essentially hope to progress forward, in contrast to conservatives who wish to remain politically and socially stagnant.

But lefties didn't really need to get so inventive; the right-wing talking point machine took the liberty of imploding itself, saving liberals the trouble. After a brief and largely unsuccessful attempt at painting then-presidential candidate Barack Obama as the "most liberal member of the Senate," there came a realization that with the loss of value of right-wing capital, the market price of "liberal" rose higher. Bush had eroded that capital and the more idiotic conservatives looked, the less useful "liberal" was as a put-down.

Some of the 2008 labeling failure had to do with repetition, as well. Much like an overused antibiotic, the efficacy of right wing slings and arrows wore out after awhile, and the GOP had to increase the potency.

Thus the Republican party, always averse to new ideas, resurrected the slur of socialism. Upping the ante quickly over the next few months, the GOP transformed itself into the neo-McCarthyism Party. The evocation of cold war propaganda reached fever pitch when Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) suggested Congress investigate liberal members of the media for being unpatriotic, much like you-know-who did in his Senate Permanent Committee on Investigations from 1953 to 1954.

Going back to the poll in question, the real news here is that the right's hyperventilation is working to a certain extent. Ever since the election, I imagined embarrassed Meghan McCain-type conservatives hiding in the proverbial closet, waiting for Glenn Beck et al. to stop with the footage of Nazi Germany and get down to what really matters (and I only invoke the name of Meghan McCain because the rest of the GOP is too afraid of Cheney to say anything contradictory).

Liberals spent their fair share of time in that closet, but there was a difference. We let conservatives shame us into embarrassment over our labels. This time, conservatives have embarrassed themselves into exile. And while the GOP narrowly rejects officially changing the name of the president's party to the Democrat Socialist Party, conservatives have little to fear in retaliation. Most of us, whether you want to call us progressives, liberals, or commie pinkos, don't play that name game because we know that actions speak louder than words.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

Image courtesy of genetew's photostream on Flickr.

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Thank you for sharing the

Submitted by Susancai on Fri, 08/13/2010 - 1:21am.

Thank you for sharing the data! It's something that we can guess.

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Submitted by inter4522 on Sun, 07/18/2010 - 11:44pm.

I cannot understand all the bashing on Obama. I read about it all the time and i do not understand it. Lets give him a break in the future

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What conservatives think

Submitted by John Mason on Wed, 05/27/2009 - 2:08pm.

So 91% of conservatives think Obama is a Marxist-socialist-communist-fascist, eh? Who cares what they think? They're now saying that George W. Bush is a socialist, that shows how deep in their own universe they are, and they can't see they've been utterly rejected by voters. I hope the Obama administration sees them as the paper tiger they are anymore, so they don't feel they need their permission to carry out needed reforms.

THEY ARE NOT CONSERVATIVES!!!

Submitted by LeeAnnG on Fri, 05/22/2009 - 9:39am.

Viguerie is correct. The wingnuts and regressives referred to in this article are not conservatives. I am a proud liberal who comes from a liberal family, and I never hid in the closet. However, I recognize that there is some value in true conservatism. The neocons do not fit that category. Even "neocon" is a euphemism. They are rightwingers, regressives, even fascists (for their promotion of the power of big business in government), but they are not not not not not conservatives.

No doubt the survey found that 91% of the cherry-picked survey subjects believe that Communists, Fascists, Socialists, and Nazis all fit into the same category. And although they were undoubtedly asked questions in a leading manner, many of them are probably extremists, bigots, jingoists or an unfortunate combination of all three - and likely to not be the brightest bulbs in the marquee. Why give these people the courtesy of labeling them something that is inherently quite respectable?

Is the left attempting to make the term "conservative" as negative as the right made "liberal" or is it just easier to continue to use this label rather than find more more appropriate?

If a surveyor stopped random people on the street and asked them to self-identify, it's likely that the majority of them would consider themselves to be conservative. Many, many people really don't know the difference between conservative and liberal. If you ask them, however, if they believe in issues like safety standards for cars, living wages for working people, guaranteed retirement incomes, allowing citizens the freedom to do as they please in the privacy of their homes and bedrooms, regulation of corporate excesses, and affordable energy, most of them would qualify as liberals in many ways.

I know many people whose political and social views are very liberal, but who live their lives in a very conservative fashion. They live within their means, dress modestly, maintain family traditions, and respect the opinions of older generations. These are all examples of rather conservative behavior, and this is what lots of people think of when they hear that word.

To allow the extremists and radicals on the right to usurp a perfectly good word is to maintain the illusion that they have a valid point of view. Please, let's call them what they really are and not what they'd like us to believe they are.

Conservatism can be mindless indulgences and behaviors.

Submitted by kathy2 on Mon, 05/25/2009 - 9:59am.

I agree. Conservative is a very relative word. I'm one of those with liberal views who chooses a conservative lifestyle. Though I've known a number of self-described consevatives, whose lifestyles are anything but conservative in terms of material, especially booze, consumption, having extra-marital affairs, ect. Come to think of it --the ones I've known who live their lives the most in material excess, booze the heaviest, rationalize hitting their children and do it the most often, who have significant weight problems from not enough excercise and bad eatig habits-- proudly wear the political label of consevative. It's too bad that a once respectable word in the lexicon has been corrupted by its users.

91% of Conservatives Believe Obama is a Socialist, ...

Submitted by TheSkepticalCynic on Fri, 05/22/2009 - 1:14am.

91% of conservatives are brainless sufferers of hemorrhoids - the other 9% = perfect a$$hole$

The Skeptical Cynic hath spake!

It is truly written in the sands of time...
One must never spit in a man's face.
Unless, of course his mustache is on fire...

Huh??!

Submitted by rdn on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 7:24pm.

If Obama is a socialist, Marxist, then I have no idea what my ideological orientation is AT ALL!! I mean talk about words having no MEANING nor reality. These "conservatives" are completely ahistorical and ignorant. Truly, they are outside of a universe of rational thought and discussion. At "best", Obama is republican lite at this point. Obama has a far stretch of road to travel before he becomes even a proper New Dealer.

I wish...

Submitted by VettaKing on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 6:53pm.

he was a lot more socialist. I must admit that being a communist and a fascist at the same time is a neat trick.

If Hannity and O'Reilly said it, it's the truth (((Beck))) too

Submitted by quidam56 on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 4:52pm.

O'Reilly thinks the Appalachian Mountains are still "pristine", so it has to be true. These commentators need to research a few facts before spewing their virtiolic vile misleading idiotic fair and balanced talking points. See for yourself what the Appalachian Mountains look like, we can't stand anymore of the Bush/Cheney legacy of prosperity ! www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=138 We must put an end to mountaintop removal.

That 91%

Submitted by SpikeHeels on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 4:48pm.

That 91% probably hates public education and anything remotely resembling science and they probably get most or all of their information about the world from Faux News.

The right-wing crazies depend on ignorance to advance their agenda.

Cheerful Reagan had common sense

Submitted by rogerma on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 4:07pm.

Republicans these days are all about what they "believe", whether it makes any sense to anyone else or not, or based in reality or not. Clinically speaking, what stage of shock is this exhibiting? Can you believe what has happened to the Grand Old Party?

Reagan was a Democrat

Submitted by Voice.of.Reason on Fri, 05/22/2009 - 2:43am.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJDhS4oUm0M

common sense

Submitted by laxmimary on Thu, 05/21/2009 - 4:39pm.

mary I am a left wing radical not conserative in any way. I feel Obama is a Fascist and Bush in lipstick. Gitmo is still torturing called Black Shirts Do you know about IRF?Trillion to bankster-peanuts to people. More War. No investigations of war crimes. Healthcare sell out. Look at what he does not what he says.

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