For 90 years, Republicans (and some corporate democrats) have used the predictable refrain of “SOCIALISM!” as a campaign marketing strategy to SCARE people away from voting for candidates who would help them.

Who wants to hear a brief FUN history of this smear!!? (THREAD)

In response to Franklin Roosevelt's transformative New Deal programs, wealthy businessmen supported the run of Democrat Al Smith on a “Stop Roosevelt” ticket. In a speech, Smith said:

“There can be only one Capital — Washington or Moscow. There can be only one flag, the Stars and Stripes, or the red flag of the godless union of the Soviet."

In 1945, President Harry Truman proposed a national health insurance program. In response, the monied American Medical Association condemned it as “socialized medicine” and labeled Truman’s White House staffers “followers of the Moscow party line.”

In 1960, future Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater wrote then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson, urging him to not join JFK's “socialist” presidential ticket. Goldwater wrote:

"It is difficult to imagine a person like you running in a second spot to a weaker man, but it is even more incredible to try to understand how you are going to try to embrace the socialist platform of your party.”

Should I keep going? OK!

In 1950, Nixon ran against Rep. Helen Gahagan. Nixon’s entire campaign involved calling her a communist. He labeled her the “Pink Lady” (pink being the color of those who were sympathetic to Red communists) who was “pink down to her underwear.”

Though Medicare is quite popular now, when Democratic politicians BEGAN discussing it, the AMA hired the then-actor Ronald Reagan to make the case against it in a record. Reagan also wrote a letter comparing President John F. Kennedy to author Karl Marx.

Wanna know what conservative segregationists in the South called civil rights activists? Yep. "Socialists" and "Communists." They also claimed that the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, which banned school segregation, was the product of communist influence.

And every Democratic president since has been called the same.

This brings us to today...

In my race for Congress, I support policies that benefit PEOPLE and not just corporations. The local Republican party doesn't like this very much. See for yourself: https://twitter.com/dcrponline/status/1247659795018133507?s=20

To my Republican friends, thank you. This is highly entertaining to all of us and I look forward to future attacks about my Russian heritage or my affinity for the color RED or anything else you got cooking. :)

To close, everyone read this quote by Harry Truman.

(Thanks to @PaulBlu for his excellent article. I quoted him heavily above. Read it below: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-socialists-republicans_n_5c706ea1e4b03cfdaa553c17