I have written on this topic before but I think it bears a return engagement. Nearly everyone knows the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. A young boy is giving the vastly important duty of guarding a herd of sheep; twice it shouts false warning about a wolf and laughs at the panicked village when they respond to his alarm. When the wolf actually does appear no one answers his call and depending on the version you hear, the sheep, the boy, or both are eaten by the wolf. The moral of the story is do not lie for when you need to be believed you may not be. And that itself is a good moral, but the concept if false alarms and the deadened of people to those alarms run deeper than deliberate fabrications.

Consider if the boy had thought that there might be a wolf and he raised the alarm without taking stock of the situation and verifying that the flock was in danger. The result of the story remains unchanged.  Twice the village runs to the flock only to discover that there is no wolf and when the boy raises a legitimate alarm they are unlikely to respond quickly or with any conviction. The moral does not need to be about lying but about making sure you are right before you sound that alarm. There needs to be a fire before you pull the fire alarm lever.

This lesson applies to politics as well as other areas of life. One the conservative side of the aisle anything that increases regulation, no mater how rationally or required is met with calls of ‘Socialism!’ Obama was not a center-left politician but a man out to destroy the American way of life and who plotted to institute ‘hard socialism.’ So far we have not been treated to a firebrand eat the rich socialist who has the potential to gain real power but should it happen the right will learn that they have devalued their alarm call into meaningless noise.

Fascist has also become meaningless. The term has been bandied about so often as to be devoid of definition.  I can remember people on the left constructing careful arguments that Reagan was a fascist, as was George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. It seemed that everyone to their right was automatically a fascist. Is it any surprise that now with a Republican politician who openly admires dictators, jokes about violating the constitution and remaining in power beyond two terms, applauds the slaughter of peaceful protesters, and sided with our geo-political foes over our own intelligence community that the charge of fascist still lacks punch?

The misuse and abuse of such charges, turning them into mere insults has robbed us of a vital tool of information and alarm. There is a wolf about but few are willing to listen and more than ever we must be vigilant.