I would like to state something for the record. I have never been, nor do I plan to be a member of the Communist Party. In case the ghost of Joe McCarthy is still out there, I’d like him to hear it officially. Now that’s out of the way, I can proceed accordingly.

Oh, the wicked and strange turns this campaign has taken. The latest in Sen. John McCain and the Merry Republican Prankster’s bag of tricks is to use either “”socialist,”” “”communist”” or “”Marxist”” to describe Sen. Barack Obama’s economic plans for the country.

The New Yorker declared Monday that the McCain camp’s argument for capitalism over socialism lies between a top marginal income tax rate of 35 percent and a top marginal income tax rate of 39.6 percent, also saying in reference to Obama’s tax plan that “”the total tax burden on the private economy would be somewhat lighter than it is now – a bit of elementary Keynesianism that renders doubly untrue the Republican claim that Obama ‘will raise your taxes.'””

Furthermore, the Seattle Post Intelligencer wisely opined that if Obama is going to be tagged a socialist, McCain should too, unless he intends to revoke paying income tax. According to the Intelligencer, “”he’s just squabbling with Obama, not about some grand difference of economic philosophy, but only about how much the wealthy should pay.””

The biggest debate is to what extent, if at all, Obama’s policies even pertain to socialism. “”The Colbert Report”” guest Brian Moore, the Socialist Party nominee for president of the United States, said that Obama is a capitalist and that the true nature of socialism is being blown out of proportion.

In contrast to the bailout plan supported by Obama, Moore said, “”We want the government to take it over, to nationalize it and share it with the workers and the citizens and have them control the financial institutions so that fraud does not continue under the Wall Street domain.””

If one had nothing better to do, he or she could peruse conservative blogs to see all the various links Obama allegedly has to communists, radicals and other haters of American freedom. According to the right-wingers, it all goes back to Obama’s pappy, Barack Obama Sr., a Kenyan follower of socialist principles and an atheist. The shame!

Add to that the junior Obama’s mentor growing up was Franklin Marshall Davis, another pinko and member of the Communist Party. And it doesn’t stop there. Gerald Kellman, Obama’s boss from his community organizing days, and “”Rules For Radicals”” author Saul Alinsky have also been credited by conservatives as contributing to Obama’s “”radical”” outlook.

The question is, to what extent do all of these people really shape Obama’s ideology? Would someone as revered as Colin Powell endorse Obama if he were such a radical communist? More to the point – who cares?

It seems that the only people bitching about most of Obama’s aforementioned connections are conservatives on their blogs of bitterness – they don’t have much else to grab on to. If the McCain campaign had only focused on issues as opposed to jabbing Obama with one low blow after another, they would’ve fared a lot better. As of late, McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have been like rabid bulldogs that keeps lunging for your crotch – no matter how many times you keep beating them away.

The priorities for voters right now include the economy, the war, taxes, health care and education reform, among others. Most people want to hear about how the candidates will fix these things, not the random characters that they’ve met or associated with in their lifetime.

Those who gobble up the bloody chum that the McCain campaign have been desperately throwing out are the uninformed voters that will blindly vote along party lines to their death. Unfortunately, this dangerous minority (along with swing voters) have the ability to determine the outcome ofthis election. It behooves any Republican, Democrat or independent to know who the candidate they’re voting for is and not just the rhetoric and cuddly manufactured creations like Joe the Plumber.

The ghost of Joe McCarthy is alive and well,but it’s time to give him up once and for all.

– Matt Wavrin is a media arts senior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.