email: watch out for those evil pinko commies

I received an email from an uncle this weekend with the subject “Election” and only the following lyrics in the body of the email It’s interesting how “socialism” circulates as a trope, even 50 years after McCarthy and nearly 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union. A candidate suggests that taxes be more progressively distributed (and still less progressively distributed than 90 years ago), and he is immediately disparaged as a commie.

‘Twas the night before elections
And all through the town
Tempers were flaring
Emotions all up and down!

I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap
Had cut off the TV
Tired of political crap.

When all of a sudden
There arose such a noise
I peered out of my window
Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet
They wanted my pay
To give to the others
Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money
And quick as a wink
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the stink

He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!

‘On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, On Pelosi’
He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause
And as he flew out of sight
I heard him laugh at the nation
Who wouldn’t stand up and fight!

So I leave you to think
On this one final note-
IF YOU DONT WANT SOCIALISM
GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!

I also received a mass email early this morning, from a listserv that had been created and destroyed right after the email was sent.

Subject: Not every college student is a socialist liberal. Support McCain now.
Date: November 3, 2008 2:07:47 AM EST
To: Michael

Did you get the email below from the mysterious “[name]”, an Obama supporter? Are you sick of socialists assuming this election is over?!

She was pushing a Facebook poll, which doesn’t matter anyway. Let’s show those elitists where it really matters! Make sure you vote McCain/Palin on Tuesday.

Best,

[signed]
Founder
College Students again Socialist Spam

As you might have gathered, this was in response to a previous mass email supporting Obama, one that I deleted without even paying attention to it.

Mass email is annoying, but I can ignore it if it’s not too banal (can banality be measured? does it exist on a spectrum?). I replied to the self-proclaimed founder of College Students again[st] Socialist Spam and, without pointing out his/her hilarious typo in the signature, calmly explained that if s/he was going to spam my inbox, to at least use political terms correctly and to consider ethos: coming across as reactionary isn’t going to convince me to vote for McCain (then again, neither is any spam email).

What’s interesting about my uncle’s political position is that he would benefit more from Obama’s tax plan than McCain’s, and yet he’s concerned about his money being stolen. I haven’t replied to him yet. Years ago, when he sent me one of these reactionary emails, I responded, noting how the politics he proposed marginalized people of color and gay men and lesbians (I can’t remember the specifics beyond that). His response was a quick “Ha! That’s funny!” or something along those lines. Pissed, I emailed him back telling him I was disappointed that he didn’t take my concerns seriously. No reply. I haven’t yet decided whether I’ll respond to this one or not.

Then again, talking politics now seems like a dead end. My teaching mentor today, who has some background in political philosophy, said he hates talking about politics as its practiced in contemporary US politics because it has little to do with political philosophy anymore. This seems like a rather accurate view, though perhaps too totalizing. I’ve had wonderful conversations about politics. Unfortunately, none of them have been with family members.