Dangerous Crooked Scoundrels: Insulting the President, From Washington to Trump by Edwin L. Battistella

Author:Edwin L. Battistella [Battistella, Edwin L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, United States, State & Local, General, Language Arts & Disciplines, Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, political science, American Government, Executive Branch
ISBN: 9780190050900
Google: oLTRDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2020-04-15T00:31:23.653551+00:00

Etymological Explorations

Socialists All

The earliest uses of the word socialist, from the late eighteenth century and now obsolete, meant a person living in a civilized society. By the middle of the nineteenth century, socialist had gained a political meaning, referring broadly to the social control of income and property. Socialism today comes in a variety of forms, from social democratic approaches based on government regulation and strong tax-supported social programs, to authoritarian approaches involving centralized state control and government ownership of industries.

Progressives such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were sometimes dubbed socialists, as was the populist William Jennings Bryan, who ran as a Democrat in 1896, 1900, and 1904. The actual Socialists didn’t see it that way. At the beginning of the twentieth century, various socialist and reform factions unified for a time behind Eugene V. Debs, who ran in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. In two of those elections, Debs garnered over nine hundred thousand votes, with support from union members, reformers, farmers, and immigrants. It was the best showing ever for a Socialist Party candidate.

For many years, socialism and communism were twin foils for American politicians attempting to delay or turn back the clock of social reform. In 1936, the Chicago Tribune published a two-part story titled “Is Roosevelt a Socialist?” (The writer’s answer was “Yes.”) Truman was described as the head of a “socialist-labor regime,” and Westbrook Pegler would even refer to “Eisenhower’s socialist-Republican Party.” When Lyndon Johnson ran as John F. Kennedy’s vice president, Southern critics complained that he had “sold out to Yankee socialists.” Conservative California Republicans even took issue with Richard Nixon’s “socialist budget” when he was president.

Today, with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the rearview mirror, socialism has new momentum among millennials. Media reports indicate that membership in the Democratic Socialists of America grew from six thousand in 2016 to nearly forty thousand in 2018. But the Gallup organization also notes that Democratic-leaning and Republican-leaning voters still have very different opinions about the meaning of socialism, with Republican-leaners about twice as likely to see socialism as involving government control or “modified communism.”

Whether socialist continues to be an effective line of attack in presidential elections remains to be seen. Based on history, there is little doubt that it will continue to be used.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.