A tweet from Frank Luntz, a Republican insider and pollster, that compares a broken elevator in Austria to socialism is being widely derided online.
The tweet, which follows a hot new trend among Republicans to label everything “socialism” as the 2020 presidential election begins to kick into gear, had more than 2,500 replies as of Tuesday morning.
“I’m at the Hotel Imperial in Vienna, Austria. Almost 200 rooms… But the elevator has been broken for 3 days. Please don’t bring European-style socialism to America. 🚯,” Luntz wrote.
I’m at the Hotel Imperial in Vienna, Austria. Almost 200 rooms… But the elevator has been broken for 3 days.
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) June 18, 2019
Please don’t bring European-style socialism to America. 🚯 pic.twitter.com/axeygJSoBi
Luntz has been informally advising the White House due to his friendship with acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, according to Politico.
The tweet attracted a number of jokes—with a number of people pointing out that the hotel is owned by Marriott, an American-owned hotel chain.
Broken elevators in privately owned hotels = socialism https://t.co/Ii7gxUjgZM
— Allison Kilkenny (@allisonkilkenny) June 18, 2019
I’ve lost track of the number of times the escalators in the DC metro break but OK…. https://t.co/c7FZM9uIkL
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) June 18, 2019
https://twitter.com/DLBrown24/status/1140984527554338817
Add “elevators in privately-owned hotels” to the “everything is socialism” list https://t.co/qLdHkZv97D
— Marxist thought process (@n0nmanifest) June 18, 2019
But Luntz isn’t the only Republican who has begun labeling everything that bothers them “socialism.”
During an interview on Fox News on Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said giving statehood to Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico would lead to “full bore socialism.”
“They plan to make the District of Columbia a state–that would give them two new Democratic senators–Puerto Rico a state, give ’em two more Democratic senators… They plan to expand the Supreme Court. So this is full bore socialism on the march in the House.
McConnell calls granting statehood to D.C. and Puerto Rico, “full bore socialism.” pic.twitter.com/LXi71EMtDV
— Resistbot is on Threads, Mastodon & Bluesky (@resistbot) June 17, 2019
READ MORE: