Wednesday, July 02, 2003

I’ve risked being Googled to death with that post title, but I can’t think of a better one.

This is about Jerry Springer, potential Democrat Senatorial candidate for Ohio. He was on Sean Hannity’s radio show yesterday and I caught a little bit of their debate yelling match. (At one point, they were literally yelling over each other. The transcriptionist will have a hard time deciphering about 2-3 minutes of garbled stuff.)

They were discussing taxes. Not surprisingly, Springer is against Bush’s tax cuts ("they only benefit the rich, yadda yadda yadda"). He thinks that those who make $250K+ should have to pay 50% of their income in taxes in order to help the middle and lower classes not have to pay so much. Well, that got Sean going and he exclaimed that Jerry is a socialist, to which Jerry got very offended (this is where they started yelling).

So I thought I’d fact check on Sean’s definition of “socialism” and this is what I found:

socialism

So"cial*ism, n. [Cf. F. socialisme.] A theory or system of social reform which contemplates a complete reconstruction of society, with a more just and equitable distribution of property and labor.  (Source: Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.)

[via dictionary.com]

Maybe I’ll post sometime about my frustration with the left’s idea that capitalism is wrong.