Socialism is Bad, unless....

Man. BO has not even been sworn in yet, and his critics on the right have managed to coordinate their attacks on the incoming administration. Hannity, Limbaugh, Boortz, as usual, are leading the charge. "Socialism - it's coming, ya know." "Capitalism is over." "Kiss the Free Market, Adios." Whatever. Where the hell have these lackeys been for the last 8 years? Bailout plans, anyone? I think George Will addresses the right's disingenuous disgust with BO's plan to 'spread the wealth around' nicely:

America can't have that, exclaimed the Republican ticket while Republicans -- whose prescription drug entitlement is the largest expansion of the welfare state since President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society gave birth to Medicare in 1965; and a majority of whom in Congress supported a lavish farm bill at a time of record profits for the less than 2 percent of the American people-cum-corporations who farm -- and their administration were partially nationalizing the banking system, putting Detroit on the dole and looking around to see if some bit of what is smilingly called "the private sector" has been inadvertently left off the ever-expanding list of entities eligible for a bailout from the $1 trillion or so that is to be "spread around."

Yea. The Republicans, and their apparently deaf, dumb and blind defenders, don't seem to mind 'socialism,' per se; provided of course that it is the nice, honest, friend-supporting kind of socialism that tends to benefit (er, spread the wealth around to) their supporters (read: political base). This form, favored by the right, of course, is commonly known to economists as "rent-seeking" - using the government to get privileges, such as a grant, a subsidy, a tariff, or a restriction on one’s competition. But, please, just don't call it "socialism." We spread our wealth around by fiat in a much more "freedom"-loving way...