Watch Meghan McCain Melt Down on The View at the Prospect of Democratic Socialism

By Shane Ryan  |  July 25, 2018 | 10:21am
Screencap via Twitter Politics Features Democratic Socialism
Watch Meghan McCain Melt Down on The View at the Prospect of Democratic Socialism

Let’s establish some fun facts before we get to the video.

In the four images embedded there, we learn the following:

1. John and Cindy McCain are worth in excess of $200 million.

2. They bought their daughter, Meghan (now a co-host of The View) a $700,000 lot in Phoenix in 2007.

3. They own lots and lots of property.

Meghan McCain, to her credit, has done well for herself. However, there is absolutely no way to tell how much of her success she owes to being the daughter of John and Cindy McCain. It’s totally possible that she may have achieved all of this on her own, and it’s also very possible that none of it would have been available. I lean toward the latter, but I believe in the concept of privilege and your mileage may vary. The point is, her parents are not a negligible factor in her success.

That’s just a little context for the videos below, in which the prospect of democratic-socialism is discussed on The View in the wake of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s appearance. Here’s the beginning:

Here’s the continuation:

Three points.

First, Joy Behar rules. It’s so rare to see anybody in the mainstream American media framing democratic socialism in plain, clear terms that everybody can understand, and not reflexively painting it as radical extremism.

Second, it’s pretty obvious why McCain doesn’t want any form of socialism in America, and it stems from the facts outlined above—people with money have become used to not paying their fair share, and they’ve become entitled. Even, in McCain’s case, when that person did not earn the money themselves.

Third, Meghan McCain is really, really mad. She immediately goes for the old conservative trick of invoking Venezuela, and when Behar says that the model for democratic socialism in America is more like what we see in Scandinavia and northern Europe, she loses it.

“Some of us do not want socialism to be normalized in this country!” she shouted. At the same time, she refused to let Behar finish her point, as though the concept “socialism is acceptable and even desirable” would literally poison her ears if verbalized.

Finally, it’s incredibly important to point out another tactic McCain uses, which is saying “I hope Democrats do run on a socialist platform!” You can tell by the way she says it, and by the way all others have said it, that they’re absolutely terrified.

And they should be—when politicians run on a platform of things people actually want, from free healthcare to free education to better services, it’s a lot harder to beat them on ideology than it is to thump mealy-mouthed centrists who offer no reasonable alternative…which Republicans have been doing for decades. They recognize now that they have a worthy opponent, even if it’s a fledgling one, and they do not like it one bit.

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