With all that was said during the election and continues to be said now, you might think that the new Democratic majorities in Congress and the presidency are going to take us to the brink of socialism.  That’s what we’ve been told.

But what if they had some friends for the ride?  Or maybe some who’d make the initial push.

Like Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, for instance, who said today on ABC’s “This Week” that the idea of nationalizing the banks was not off the table for him:

“This idea of nationalizing bank is not comfortable but I think we have got so many toxic assets spread throughout the banking and financial community throughout the world that we’re going to have to do something that no one ever envisioned a year ago, no one likes,” he said.

“To me banking and housing are the root cause of this program,” Graham said. “I would not take off [the table] the idea of nationalizing the banks.”

Meanwhile, Graham’s colleague, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York is saying, “no way:”

“You can have a big, bold plan without nationalization,” Schumer said.

It’s ironic, isn’t it?  The Republican calls for something no Democrat would ever seriously talk about.

The Democrats obviously want to prevent any accusations of socialism from the Republicans.  About a week ago, Obama gave his own reasons for not pursuing nationalization, as seen in the clip below.  They know they’d be ripped apart if the even hinting at such plans.  Yet the Republicans seem to get a softer treatment on this.  Well, sometimes, but not always.

Consider that even though there was a lot of grumbling about the government buy-in of banks last year, it’s mostly died down.  No, “OMG!  Capitalism is being destroyed by those dirty commies!” that we seem to enjoy whenever a Democrat brings up an economic initiative.

Obviously, the plans being called for are not permanent nationalization in the Soviet Union sense.  The idea is that the banks would be cleaned up and then sold back into the private sector in a couple years.  The everything presumably goes back to normal.  Presumably.

Still, it’s rather amusing to see a Republican seriously consider nationalization while two Democrats have dismissed it completely, especially after all the time the Republicans have spent trying to portray the Democrats as Marxists.