Names have consequences.

There's a theory that if you keep treating a person like a criminal, he'll eventually commit crimes, because why shouldn't he?  He's already got the rep.  And if you keep yelling "Bad dog!" at your pooch, sooner or later he'll go bad.  So maybe the lefties should be a little more careful what they call their opponents on the right, eh?  According to legend, way back in the old days, when the late George Lincoln Rockwell was a vague right-wing activist, supporting people like Joseph McCarthy and Douglas MacArthur, the left kept calling him a Nazi, until one day he said something like, "Okay, if you want me to be a Nazi, I'll be a Nazi!" and the rest is history.

The left is still doing that stuff, and their screechy little sisters, the neocons, are doing the same thing.  Disagree with their Middle East policy, and you're an anti-Semite. Just ask Tony Bennett.  Call for less government in one area or another, and, paradoxically, you're a fascist.  Vote against Obama, and you're a racist. Even oppose any of his policies, and you're a racist.  This sort of thing could backfire, as above. So far, most on the right have reacted like self-defacing high school girls, taking the names seriously, and bending over backwards to try to prove that they're not racists or whatever.  The Tea Party has acted especially silly, spending time and money to disprove the "racism" charges, though only an idiot would take them seriously in the first place.  I think Herman Cain is probably a very fine fellow, but I'd wager that at least half his support comes from insecure right-wingers bending over backwards to show how tolerant they are.

Sooner or later, those of us on the right are going to say, okay, you want to call us racists, go ahead. We don't care.  Fascists?  Sure!  Bigots?  Why not?  Too many of us are wasting a lot of energy responding to the childish name-calling, instead of working to spread our messages.  We have to stop doing that.  We have to take such names like war wounds, badges of honor.  Really, if the left has never called you any of those things, you're being very wimpy and need to tighten up a bit.  Here's a lesson on the subject over at Deconstructing Leftism.