"Socialist, socialist, get out of here!"

Campaigning in NC yesterday, Barak Obama entered a barbecue joint where an after-church crowd, mostly older white people, were eating lunch. A middle-aged woman began yelling from the other end of the restaurant, “Socialist, socialist, socialist -– get out of here!"

This latest "shouting point" is not a grass roots thing; it was prompted by none other than John McCain himself, who first raised the "redistribution of wealth" charge in the third debate -- actually part of his Joe the Plumber stunt. And then he used the word "socialism" himself on the stump on Saturday.

McCain's campaign has nothing positive to run on anymore, and most of the negatives they've trotted out aren't really working either; because at most they are firing up his base. It's true that the polls are tightening, as Obama has always said they would; but we aren't seeing any major swings yet.

So what about this? First of all, it's a long stretch to equate a progressive income tax policy, meant to decrease the gap between the haves and have-nots, with socialism. And secondly, when these people shout "Socialist!," what they really fear is totalitarianism. But that's beside my point here.

The income gap between the top and the bottom of the economic scale has become the widest it has been since the early days of the 20th century, along with an erosion of the "middle class." Is that not also "redistribution of wealth?" I guess it feels different to those who think it's ok if it is the result of laws that favor corporations, that give tax loopholes to the wealthiest, and that tax inherited wealth less than hard-earned income from labor. And then there's the little matter of using "taxpayer's money" to bail out Wall Street. Isn't that "redistribution of wealth?"

It's ok then to take it from the poor and middle class and give it to the wealthy, but not ok to ask for more from the wealthy to help those who are struggling to survive, to obtain health care, to send their kids to college.

It gets reduced to that soundbite "Socialist" so you don't have to think about what it really means. It has become an autonomous scare word. But we're going to hear it more often, and not in the way this woman yelled it at Obama. On one of the talk shows yesterday, someone put it this way: George Bush came into office as a "Social Conservative," and he's leaving as a "Conservative Socialist" -- a reference to the partial "nationalization" of some banks.

For me, I'll stick with Obama's plan to provide support for the lower class, enhance opportunities for the middle class, and ride herd on the runaway greed of the minority at the top. And I don't care if you call it socialism, because the word doesn't scare me.

And I don't believe it's going to be the game-changer for McCain either. Just like all his other stunts that haven't worked. I'll take one Colin Powell endorsement over a thousand people shouting "socialist!" any day.

Ralph