Pam Spaulding posted some clips from Alexandra Pelosi’s documentary Right America Feeling Wronged which followed the conservative reactions during the lead up to last year’s election. Not enough time has passed for me to watch them without getting a little sick to my stomach remembering the lynch mob qualities of the later McCain-Palin rallies. But the clip below features a common problem among conservatives, high and low profile, that journalists could stop with a simple line of questioning. It has to do with their use of the word socialism and the appearance that few of them actually knows what it means.

A guy in this clip spells the word wrong on his sign then has to look it up when questioned about its definition:

Whenever a conservative is being interviewed by a journalist and drops the “s” word, the latter should ask the following questions:

1. Would you please define that word?

2.  Would you please name concrete examples of socialism that everyone would agree was socialism? 

3. Can you explain how what you just called socialism relates to the historical record of actual socialism? 

That line of questioning would probably stop a large number of conservatives in their tracks. But if someone could answer them coherently, it would make it clear that- even if they’re not correct- they are at least backing up their statements. 

Socialism has become the new terrorism in the GOP 1984 speak. It has been stripped of any real meaning (mostly, as I said, because many of them don’t know it) and has been parroted to the point of becoming a vocal virus.