Analysis of New York Times Article: False Left-Right Paradigm Explained in Obama vs. McCain

Hendrik Hertzberg's article for The New York Times, "Like, Socialism," mounts a persuasive defense of Barack Obama's political views against charges by members of the Republican party that Obama is a socialist whose ideas for remedying the country's economic problems is to redistribute the wealth. The tone of the article is sarcastic and the writer cites several instances of Republicans calling Obama a socialist before turning the tables and pointing out ostensibly socialist thinking on their own part. The article is a "pot calling the kettle black" variety of defense intended to impugn the criticisms of the Republicans for an offense that the author believes they themselves have committed.

Admittedly, Hertzberg's article is persuasive at first blush, as the tricks he uses to convince the reader are misleading but sound plausible. He argues that Republicans see the difference between capitalism and socialism as "the difference between a top marginal income-tax rate of 35 per cent and a top marginal income-tax rate of 39.6 percent," the former being what McCain is proposing and the latter being what Obama is proposing and what it was under President Clinton, a tactic that attempts to reduce the difference between Obama's and McCain's stands to no more than a 4.6% difference in income tax rate (Hertzberg). Through the smoke and mirrors of "elementary Keynesianism," Hertzberg argues that Obama's proposal will not raise taxes even though it entails a hig

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