This Week in Bad Tweets

This time: Senator Marco Rubio.

If one is one Twitter, one reads a lot of poor takes. This one from Senator Rubio was just ridiculous:

Here’s the thing: Rubio knows this is hogwash (to put it kindly). His BA is in Political Science from Florida (not that one needs a bachelor’s degree to know that that tweet is nonsense). Biden’s legislative agenda may be ambitious, but it isn’t outside the realm of things we currently spend federal dollars on. And, it certainly isn’t the dictatorship of the proletariat and the withering of the capitalist state.

I am painfully aware that politics is rife with overblown rhetoric, but this is just ridiculously dishonest and of the type that is exhausting because it is so transparent.

Even calling it socialism is silly, at least insofar as it is not more socialistic than any number of other programs that are in existence to include Medicare, Social Security, and public K-12 (not to mention public parks, roads, and a host of other infrastructure).

And let me note Krugram’s response:

Indeed.

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Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Gustopher says:

    I was assured by one of our regular commenters that the problem was Democrats calling their own policies “socialism”…

    Anyway, Rubio is a twerp. And it isn’t Marxism, it’s Soylent Green.

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  2. Stormy Dragon says:

    Best explanation I saw:

    Remember growing up when your boomer parents would refer to every single video game as “Nintendo” as though there was only a single video game in the world and that was its title?

    That’s how they’re using the word “Socialism” in politics now.

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  3. OzarkHillbilly says:

    @Stormy Dragon: Wait a minute… You mean there are video games not named “Nintendo”? Shiiiit…. The things I learn here.

  4. gVOR08 says:

    Rubio’s nonsense isn’t so “transparent” to a lot of people as one might wish. Hardly a week goes by without a couple letters to my local SW FL semi-pro newspaper from people swearing they won’t let Joe Biden, or whoever is controlling him, turn their country into Venezuela. A couple week ago that drew a response that if they’re so hett up over socialism maybe they should stop cashing their SS checks. A woman wrote in reply a couple days ago explaining that SS isn’t socialism since she paid into it. I’ve thought about replying, but I’d have to explain a) the concept of a mixed economy, b) that all economies are mixed, and c) that her SS, and her Medicare, are indeed socialism, and were decried as such, and as communist, by Republicans when they were passed.

    Maybe I’ll just call Rubio’s office and tell them his tweet feeds the narrative that young Marco’s not very bright.

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  5. Jc says:

    I think using a gop credit card for personal expenses is more socialist than whatever nonsense he is trying to brew. I can’t stand Rubio. Guy is such a fake

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  6. Monala says:

    And of course, there are folks like Marjorie Taylor Greene threatening to take over and nationalize companies she feels are too “woke”to stop the spread of communism…

  7. Joe says:

    I think Rubio’s use of “Communism” and “Socialism” here are another version of the issue discussed in the Don Moynihan link to your tab clearing thread about Branding and CRT. Rubio’s simple (and simple-minded) messages is “socialism” = bad and “communism” = more bad than socialism. The terms have no more meaning than that. It’s a branding message, not a political science explanation. Perhaps Rubio’s supporters should simply be called Rubes.

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  8. john430 says:

    LOL! Taylor quotes Krugman, who favors the Chinese model of government, such as crushing dissent in Hong Kong and wonders about socialism. Makes us So. Texas folks wonder where UT went wrong in teaching him about politics.

  9. @john430:

    1. You want to give me a cite where Krugman “favors the Chinese model of government”?

    2. Quoting someone does not mean endorsing other things they have said,

    3. How is his quote wrong?

    I will wait for a thorough response. Have at.

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  10. Oh, and #4 When all you have is a taunt, it is best not to question someone else’s education or understanding, don’t you think?

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  11. just nutha says:

    @gVOR08: That’s “little” Marco, not “young” Marco. Just sayin’.

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  12. Joe says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: Other than understanding this is some kind of taunt, you are a better and more generous man than I if you can decipher a meaning from this garble. “Makes us So” isn’t even a sentence.

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  13. Lynn says:

    @Joe: Makes us So. isn’t even a sentence.

    Much as I hate to defend John, I believe he meant “Makes us South Texas folks wonder where UT (University of Texas) went went wrong in teaching him about politics.”

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  14. @Lynn: That is how I deciphered it as well.

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