Republicans pull out the smears to discredit democratic socialists in US politics

From the Idiot Factor:

Republicans have had a shit-fit over the fact that many young people have taken an interest in socialism. For the most part that is democratic socialism, a system that is more in use in Europe than anywhere else. There are also some young people interested in Marxism and various ideas of such. So nothing could frighten the older generation of right-wing conservative white men more than the word socialism and the idea that there are actually people who support that. There are also people from other countries that have developed their own prejudices on such a word as socialism.

The Republicans have counted on the prejudice ideas of such refugees as former California Republican congressional candidate Elizabeth Heng. Since she survived an ordeal in Cambodia, she has attacked all versions of socialism as if they are all the same—in other words she is lumping democratic socialism in with the so called “socialism” of Pol Pot. Of course such a link is ridiculous. It is like lumping together shop lifters with the kind of back robberies carried out by Bonne and Clyde.

Elizabeth Heng

@ElizabethHeng

response is the Democratic party in a nutshell.  They are more offended by truthful words than the acts of their political ideology that has killed millions of innocent victims.  I don't care about

@AOC

feelings - I care about stopping her lies about the lies of socialism.

Elizabeth Heng

@ElizabethHeng

Not Republicans. Me. Are you really calling me a racist

@aoc

? I’m calling all Democrats out for supporting an evil ideology. Or are you just in Congress to hang out with celebrities and tweet out ridiculous ideas like the green new deal?

It doesn’t take long to see how extreme Heng’s views are. Even for those Americans  
who don’t like socialism, they can see through the idea that democratic socialists are the equivalent of Nazis, Stalinists or Pol Potists, or maybe even Satanists. 

These kind of words are more than just policy difference. They are the equivalent of an act of war, right here in the US. According to Vox:

Attacking AOC and “the squad” is part of the right’s electoral strategy

The New Faces PAC website says its mission is to “Help elevate the next generation of Republicans so that we can not only survive as a party, but expand beyond the boundaries we’ve set for ourselves,” and “identify the new faces of the GOP who will lead us into tomorrow.”

But its tactics — at least in the Thursday night spot — are classic Republican talking points from the last year, going heavy on the fear-mongering. Conservatives are worried about moderate Democrats doing so well in the midterms last year, so they are going to try to portray all Democrats as socialists.

Ocasio-Cortez has weathered plenty of political attacks from the GOP. She’s part of the so-called progressive “squad” in the House that drew ire from President Trump. In July, Trump tweeted that Ocasio-Cortez and three other congresswomen of color should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

The president’s tweets were an example of a racist trope, and, of course, it’s worth noting Ocasio-Cortez and two of the other women were born in the United States. But Ocasio-Cortez has gotten particular attention because she, like Bernie Sanders, proudly claims to be a democratic socialist and because she is a young woman of color.

As Vox’s Nisha Chittal explained, the squad’s race and gender are inextricable from the way established political leaders (particularly on the right) have responded to their rise. They have weathered death threats, calls to resign from the president, and even censure from their own party:

From the beginning, there has been something distinctly racial (and gendered) about the aggression directed by various parties at Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, and Pressley. Omar is black and one of the first Muslim women in Congress. Ocasio-Cortez is Latina. Pressley is black. And Tlaib is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants.

All four have been surrounded by controversy and personal attacks since they took office in January — attacks that are explicitly about silencing outspoken women of color.

Let’s hope the voting public are not such schmucks as these folks want them to be. This becomes a fight over the rights of poor people and poor working people to be able to defend our rights and our very existence.