Who's the Socialist Now?

This short article deals superbly with the absurd charges that Obama is a socialist for advocating an alteration of the top marginal income tax rate.

The piece includes a pretty amusing comparison of Nixon and Ford to the Bolsheviks. On the other hand, Nixon governed so far to the left of the current Republican Party that it boggles the mind. The book The Palace Guard is a good place to start if you really want to know the extent of Nixon's non-comformity with contemporary Republican orthodoxy.

I'm astounded by how quickly charges of "socialism" and "communism" fly over discussions of marginal income tax rates. Having been berated as a communist for saying that capital gains taxes should remain high, I have experienced the absurd conflation of activist government as Stalinism.

In any event, increasing marginal income tax rates does not translate directly into state ownership of the means of production, nor does it translate directly into centralized planning by government bureaucrats.