• Listen to this segment

The on-going debate on healthcare has revealed much about the state of American politics. President Obama’s efforts on healthcare reform have become an opportunity for conservatives to rail against socialism, even if there is little resembling socialism in the current versions of the Senate bill. Worse, proponents of health care reform have been maligned as Nazis, fomenting the type of historical facism seen in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union. Images of Obama’s face morphed into Hitler and the maniacal character of the Joker from the last Batman movie, are held up by throngs of angry conservatives at healthcare town halls. The district office of Georgia Democrat David Scott, an African American congressman, was vandalized with a four foot swastika soon after he held a forum on healthcare. His office has also received racist and threatening messages. There have also been several reports of protesters carrying guns into public meetings discussing health care, including at the President’s recent forum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Is “socialist” the latest favorite conservative code-word to express fear of the nation’s first Black president?

GUEST: Gerald Horne, Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, historian and author of many books including: The End of Empires: African Americans and India, and “Mao Mao in Harlem? United States and the Liberation of Kenya.