GOP strategist uses broken elevator in Vienna hotel to argue against evil socialism, hilarity ensues

Republican pollster Frank Luntz has taken to Twitter to make an emphatic argument against “European-style socialism” using rather peculiar reasoning about a broken elevator in his Vienna hotel.

Luntz is enjoying a sojourn at the luxurious Hotel Imperial in Vienna, Austria — but the stay has been marred by the fact that his preferred mode of transportation to and from his floor has run into technical difficulties.

Having to use the stairs might be a minor inconvenience for some people, but for Luntz it was an opportunity to rant about the perils of socialism — because as everyone knows, capitalist American elevators never break down.

“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 tweeted, even adding photographic evidence.

But Luntz’s elevator pitch for free-market capitalism didn’t go down very well with other tweeters who were quick to point out that there is nothing “socialist” about the American-owned Marriott chain which runs the Hotel Imperial, home to the offending elevator. Maybe Luntz’s real gripe was with “capitalist customer service” and not socialism, one said.

“I was unaware that Socialism stopped elevators from working,” another confused tweeter mused. Some asked Luntz if he was “under the assumption that the government in Austria runs all the hotels?”

Others had to break the news to Luntz that American elevators do indeed break down from time to time. “The elevator in my building is out for ten weeks. But I won’t say it has anything to do with American-style capitalism,” one person wrote.

… and some just encouraged Luntz to “log some steps” and take the stairs, which luckily are never out of order, under capitalism or socialism.

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