Red-baiting is a political epithet employed to criticize people who are said to accuse a person or group of being "red" in the sense of communist, socialist or, in a broader sense, significantly more leftist at their core than they may appear at the outset. It is claimed that such unjust accusations of crypto-communism are used mainly with the intention of discrediting the individual's or organization's political views as dishonest and/or haphazard.
The term "red-baiting" is not generally used by anti-communists, or by those who are commonly accused of being "red-baiters." It must therefore be understood as a political epithet used by those who criticize a specific behavior of anti-communists.
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McCarthyism
Red-baiting is more often associated with McCarthyism. In the late 20th and early 21st century, it does not have quite the far-reaching effect it did during either of the two historic Red Scare periods of the 1920s (First Red Scare) and 1950s (Second Red Scare) due to the crisis of socialism after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and notable left-wing intellectuals and political parties of the West embracing Third Way centrism.
Ronald Reagan and the conservative ascent
A somewhat contrary view would hold that there has been a persistent and concerted effort associated with conservatism in the United States since at least the time of Ronald Reagan of using a more subtle form of red-baiting to influence changes in the federal judiciary (by denouncing "activist judges"), the mass media (by accusing it of having a "liberal bias"), and the faculties of colleges and universities (by accusing them of being “cultural Marxists” running "reeducation camps").
John McCain and Barack Obama
Explicit red-baiting came to be used by John McCain, Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election, when he labeled Democratic nominee and current president Barack Obama as a “socialist”. Many supporters and critics of Obama (including Democratic Socialists of America) have argued that his domestic and foreign policies are typical of a centrist Democrat,[1] and are more or less in line with those of Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Harry S. Truman, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Matthew Yglesias argues that the red-baiting of Obama may actually backfire because of the declining unpopularity of socialism:[2]
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Steve Benen observes that one problem with attacking Barack Obama as a “socialist” is that opposition to socialism isn’t as popular as it used to be:
The generational change here is interesting. I think it reflects the fact that on a basic level “socialism” is good branding. The whole idea is that we should put society first rather than capital, or money. That sounds good! But in the United States we never had a Socialist Party so “socialism” was primarily associated with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which was not at all good. But to people under 30, there’s less of that old resonance. And saying that Obama, who’s popular, is a “socialist” may simply tend to make people have warmer feelings toward the word “socialism.” |
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Spencer Bachus and Bernie Sanders
In April 2009, Spencer Bachus claimed that 17 of his Congressional colleagues were socialists, but would only name one, Bernie Sanders, who has been openly describing himself as a democratic socialist for years.[3] Sanders countered that American conservatives blur the differences between socialism and communism, between democracy and totalitarianism. He argued that the United States would benefit from a serious debate about comparing the quality of life for the middle class in the U.S. and in Scandinavian countries with a long social-democratic tradition like Sweden, Norway, and Finland.[4]
2009 Republican National Committee resolution
In May 2009, a number of conservative members of the Republican National Committee were pressing the committee and by extension, RNC chairman Michael Steele, to officially adopt the position that the Democratic Party is socialist. Over a dozen members of the conservative wing of the RNC submitted a new resolution, to be eventually voted on by the entire RNC, that would call on the Democratic party to rename itself the “Democrat Socialist Party.” If the RNC adopted this resolution, the RNC’s official view would become that Democrats are socialists. From the resolution:
| “ | RESOLVED, that we the members of the Republican National Committee call on the Democratic Party to be truthful and honest with the American people by acknowledging that they have evolved from a party of tax and spend to a party of tax and nationalize and, therefore, should agree to rename themselves the Democrat Socialist Party. | ” |
On Wednesday May 20, 2009, supporters of the resolution instead agreed to accept language urging Democrats to "stop pushing our country towards socialism and government control", thus ending a fight within the ranks of the Republican Party that reflected the divide between those who want a more centrist message and those seeking a more aggressive, conservative voice.
Many American socialist individuals and organizations (such as members of the Democratic Socialists of America) have criticized and ridiculed the Republican red-baiting of Democrats because they argue that both parties are capitalist in nature,[1] and some of them only support the Democrats as a "lesser of two evils" and a means to topple what they perceive as conservative and neo-conservative hegemony in the U.S.[5]
See also
References
- ^ a b The Socialist States of America? Not so fast. 2009. http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2009/05/08/clarked_0508.html. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
- ^ The Declining Unpopularity of Socialism
- ^ Spencer Bachus's Past With Socialists
- ^ ...and socialism
- ^ Program of the Communist Party USA: The Road to Socialism USA: Unity for Peace, Democracy, Jobs and Equality
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