Conservatives: Kitchen-sinkism is only politics Dems aren’t guilty of … yet

Bill Clinton may have wanted to nail down the definition of “is,” but right-leaning critics of the Democrat-controlled federal government seem happy to use “-ism” loosely. In only the last three months, media conservatives have accused President Obama and Democrats of socialism, fascism, communism, corporatism, terrorism, Nazism, McCarthyism and Marxism. Media Matters’ County Fair blog has 27 succinct (and linked) quotations and citations, gathered between Elvis Presley’s Jan. 8 birthday and April Fool’s Day. Samples after the jump. 

March 31: Jonah Goldberg on auto bailout: “You can call it corporatism, you can call it socialism, you can call it fascism, what it is not is liberal democratic capitalism.”

March 30: Fox News’ Andrew Napolitano says General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner’s resignation is “an absolute power grab and it’s the road to fascism”, “this is Mussolini on the Potomac.”

March 11: Lee Rodgers claims Obama “clearly is more sympathetic with the long-term goals of world communism, and let’s be blunt about it, Muslim terrorists, than with any legitimate American goals.”

Feb. 6: Glenn Beck on “The O’Reilly Factor”: “We are really truly stepping beyond socialism and starting to look at fascism”; compares proposals to Nazi Germany.

Jan. 27: Numerous media figures equate Pelosi’s defense of family planning provision in recovery package to China’s “one-child policy,” eugenics, Nazism.