A couple of days ago, a friend told me that Obama is a Trotskyite. I was taken aback. I’ve had several people tell me that Obama is a Leninist and others tell me that he is a Socialist and still others tell me that he is a Marxist, but this was my first Trotskyite. I can’t get over the suspicion that  they – the Obama namers – think Leninist, Socialist, and Marxist are, roughly, interchangeable, but not Trotskyite.

That seems so specific; I really have no idea what they mean. OK, I am almost positive that it was meant as a slur, but I am at a loss at to exactly what slur. It got me to thinking about the differance between Liberals and Conservatives in their attacks. I know Liberals who will call somebody a fascist but I have never heard a Liberal call somebody a Mussolinist or a Hitlerite. Nazi, yes. But that seems to relate to how somebody acts, like He is such a Nazi about exercise and it is not always even a slur.