Milkshakes, Malteds, and McCarthy

Oh, those kooky fifties! Admittedly, I was a grade school kid for half of those years, so my memory of world events is a little hazy. I remember some "traitors" named Rosenberg were executed because "they were commies". I remember air raid drills. We third graders would curl up and hide under our desks until the sirens outside stopped. Although the power of the atom bomb made this only slightly more effective a defense than running around yelling "help me! help me!" I loved them, because for three or four minutes I didn't have to do any school work. Just like the silent prayer. We were told we had to do it in case the Russians came. The Russians were commies.

McCarthyism in its full flower had to be experienced to be appreciated for the American evil it was. What I absolutely recall is my teachers lecturing me about the commies, the russkies, and how it was our duty to inform on anyone we might suspect of communist sympathy. This was extremely difficult on me, as my mother would often rant and rave about being a communist. This, of course, was patently ridiculous. She had three kids, a part time job, and a difficult if not outright impossible marriage. For her to spare five minutes for the local meeting (which, incidently, was not conveniently located in the Al Smith Housing Projects) would have required a sacrifice she couldn't make, and an interest that she never had. She just didn't like the government telling her who she should be afraid of, and when.

This was the backbeat of the fifties, Elvis music notwithstanding. Fear, suspicion, and always the Russians. Some years ago, I was working in a sporting goods store. Two of my co-workers were Russian. Dmitri came here when he was very young. He told me he had to put up with the "commie bastard" routine until a few fights convinced the other kids that maybe another way of teasing the new kid might be safer. Anatoli was a fairly recent arrival. Both of them taught me Russian phrases, and what I learned from them is that there is nothing more fearful about the Russians than their grammar. The Russians finally got here, and they turned out to be just like us except they say "kak di la, droog" instead of "wazzup, bud".

I am reminded of all this by two focal points of the vaccilating McCain campaign. The first is the charge by the principals that Barack Obama is a socialist. The Florida journalist Barbara West extrapolated this further to insinuate that Obama was an outright Marxist. This convoluted logic would make everyone who ever had a drink an alcholic, but if an educated man such as John McCain can make the claim, or stand by while a United States governor makes it for him, then what can we expect of those of his followers who aren't as enlightened?

Without getting into the nuts and bolts of what socialism or communism is or isn't, I can say without hesitation that they are extremely complicated economic systems. Believing that you can turn the United States into a communist country by one or even two acts is to believe that you can transform your body into Schwarzeneggar's with a week of weight training. I have tried to read Das Kapital. I can tell you, it is more cruel than anything they can think of in Guantanamo. Theodore Dreiser is light reading in comparison. I did manage to pick up one tidbit. I don't think you can be fully communist without taking over the means of production. Like if the United States government were to start buying up banks, or automobile companies...

The other bothersome point is the lie that won't die: Barack Obama is a muslim. Granted, no one of any merit in the McCain camp has made such a ludicrous accusation, and the "Crazy McCain Lady" is now a regular character on SNL. Still, read enough blogs and posts, and you see that there are many McCain supporters that honestly believe that Obama is indeed not only a muslim, but an Arab. There was even an incident at a rally in which muslim supporters of McCain were deeply offended by a man and woman charging Obama with "deceiving the Infidel" as part of Islamic docrtrine. I thought maybe that they'd read up on the subject. Imagine my disappointment when I found out it was a plot point mentioned in the film BODY OF LIES.

The point is simply that the government will lead us down the garden path as far as who the enemies of America are. In 1944 the Germans and Japanese were Nazi bastards and Japs. Now they are trading partners and allies. To his credit, John McCain went back to Viet Nam, because he knows if we want to keep America's economy strong, we have to sell Coca Cola in Hanoi too. When the dust in the Middle East settles, Americans will realize that neither Islam nor the millions of "Arab" people who practice it are enemies. Just more people that want to drive a Camaro. C'mon, admit it. You already know how to say "Salaam Alaikum".