Marxism And Climate Policy In America

Marx has never been more popular in America.  The GOP has been attacking every idea or policy that offends its paymasters by calling them Marxist.  That is a more effective strategy than dealing with facts because it works.  The facts are against the GOP, but name calling is all that is necessary to convince its cognitively challenged base that an idea or a policy is bad for America.  Paul Krugman reviews some of the applications of name calling by GOP politicians, and their friends in the media who target the same audience.  We have become familiar with the idea that the Affordable Care Act, which is based upon ideas developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation,  is wrong because it is Marxist.  However, now that the Environmental Protection Agency is getting serious about limiting carbon emissions, we are being told that protecting the environment is just another Marxist plot to destroy our freedom.  Unfortunately, that attack is being led by a member of our Supreme Court who refuses to read the Washington Post, which provides a platform for George Will, Robert Samuelson and a host of less prominent conservatives,  because it is too liberal.  Justice Scalia voted against an EPA policy which require coal burning states to compensate states that receive the polluted air from their coal burning plants for damages.  He based his dissent on a line of reasoning that associated the policy with Marxism.  He was joined in his dissent by Justice Thomas who shares many of Scalia's economic views.