nonsense.....you merely apply the "Duck Test"
Posted on 05/05/2012 5:37:38 PM PDT by neverdem
Congressman Allen West is being hammered for his comments alleging that certain Democratic members of Congress are communists. It's the kind of accusation (West is not backing down) that sets liberals seething in rage. An even worse sin was that West dared to quantify his accusation, attaching a number to the alleged Reds. He said there are "78 to 81" Congressional Democrats who are communists.
Naturally, all of this is a huge no-no, reflexively sending liberals into fits and shouts of "McCarthyism!"
I want to say three things relating to West's remarks: First, some criticism of West's critics. Second, a defense of West's critics. And, finally, some criticism of West, which I offer constructively. I like Allen West, consider him a rising star in the Republican Party and conservative movement, and want him to succeed...
--snip--
Sure, West appears to be thinking of the far-left Democratic Socialists of America, many of whose members justifiably invite suspicions, as well as the Congressional Progressive Caucus. What he ought to say, however, is that a large number of them share some sympathies and even certain goals with communists, but they're not full-blown CPUSA members...
--snip--
There's nothing that liberals detest more than anti-communism. Their preferred villain is Joe McCarthy, not Joe Stalin.
What Allen West must learn is the lesson of McCarthy for any modern conservative: If you're going to call certain people communists, you better be absolutely, 100% certain. They and their mass media will go ballistic, demanding a level of precision from you that they never demand from their own name-callers. Our side must be more cautious. It's unfair. It's pure hypocrisy, yes. But that's the deck that's stacked against us.
Allen West, your courage and boldness is refreshing -- but please be more careful.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Whether 'tis nobler to enjoy watching the left have fits, or nuanced so as not to alienate the mushy middle.
I don't know considering how ignorant that we have become. Former Senator Boren of Oklahoma was on C-Span today. IIRC. he said something to the effect that half of the young skulls full of mush these days didn't know on which side the USA fought in World War II!
I'm sure they are almost as ignorant about Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War, and didn't understand how the useful idiots undermined the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the war on terror.
If the GOP wants to fire up the base, then Allen West for VP!
I'm sure they are almost as ignorant about Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War, and didn't understand how the useful idiots undermined the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the war on terror.
If the GOP wants to fire up the base, then Allen West for VP!”
I agree, However you have all those boot lickers who will say or do ANYTHING to improve or maintain their status.
I liked the first comment under the article at AmSpec. Conservatives do spend too much time debating the ‘shades’ of leftists. Just call them what they are: Commies.
Right on to Allen West!
When the Democrat party is led by a man who says things like, “when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody”, it’s not surprising that people like Alan West draw the natural inference.
“If the GOP wants to fire up the base, then Allen West for VP! “
Not only would this win Florida for the Republicans, you can run commercials comparing West to Obama. The democrats would bleed from their eyes.
“The Democrats would bleed from their eyes.”
ROTFLMAO
Either way loads of fun to watch democrats argue amongst themselves who is more "authentically" black.
Rep. Lt. Col. West is to outspoken for Mittens. Rep. West isn’t afraid to tell the truth.
To bolster West’s point, in what way are these 78 democrats NOT Communists? Exactly WHICH Communist plank do they oppose?
West is amazing. I rank him right up there, almost with Palin, in his ability to slap down libs.
Who cares if the Marxists in the Congress and media and all their minions go ballistic. Who cares if they demand proof. They toss around the title of racist at everyone who is not a communist and never prove their charges. In fact, the communists are the biggest racists in America.
West is right.
Paul Kengor — don’t be ridiculous. Let Allen West be Allen West. Don’t give liberals any credit whatsoever. They deserve no respect. They progressives are Communists pure and simple. It’s a matter of ideology, not party, and Allen West has already made that point.
Did you remind them that the original Earth Day was the 100th anniversary of Lenin’s birth?
I told my sons to tell their teacher that they don’t celebrated the birthday of communists and thus we don’t recognize Earth Day. The teacher went ballistic.
If the Kenyan gets re-elected, then the US will meet the fate of so many, many free civilizations of the past.
The author makes an error himself. After mentioning the great diversity among communists, he limits West to just one, narrow and focused definition of communist. And, as he noted, small ‘c’ communists, not members of the CPUSA.
Even at the start of the Soviet Union, there was the wishy-washy liberal simpleton communists, called Mensheviks, and the far smaller group of hardcore radicals, called Bolsheviks. If anything, those he identified in congress are like the Mensheviks, but this does not make them any the less communist.
And, just as telling, communism is seen by communists as a “final doctrine”, the culmination of the processes of socialism. That is, if a country is not yet “ready” for communism, the communists will call themselves “socialists”, seeing it as a step in the “progress” to communism.
Again, though they were run by the communist party, the official name of the Soviet Union was the Union of Soviet *Socialist* Republics. So even those die hard communists to some extent thought of themselves as socialists not yet having reached their communist “ideal”.
To muddy the waters even further, despite the lies published in the US by communist sympathizer journalists, word did get back to the FDR administration of how fouled up things were in the Soviet Union. How they had tried communist doctrinal scheme after scheme which were *always* a failure.
In fact Lenin himself, seeing how disastrous these things were, such as firing all bureaucrats, which brought the nation to a standstill; and trying “progressive” schools that turned out children just as ignorant as they had been when they started; reversed himself completely and restored what had worked before.
In any event, knowing that these ideas were rotten, FDR’s administration turned its gaze to the trendy *national* socialists, who had lots of new economic ideas. So this fascism was the model of much of the New Deal, instead of “classical socialism”.
“What we were doing in this country were some of
the things that were being done in Russia and even
some of the things that were being done under
Hitler in Germany. But we were doing them in an
orderly way.”
— President Franklin D. Roosevelt
A memo written at the Democratic Convention by future National Recovery Administration (NRA) head Hugh Johnson suggesting that the entire Congress and Supreme Court be sent into temporary exile while a Mussolini-style dictator set the country straight; and the widespread clamor for a “man of action” to run the country. Walter Lippmann himself urged FDR to assume “dictatorial powers.”
From today’s perspective, Republicans like to think of today’s Democrats as “radicals” compared to their more level-headed forebears. But the truth of the matter is that today’s leftist-liberal-socialist-communists are just a pale imitation, with just a few “original socialist” ideas left.
Even the Monty Python-esque Mensheviks, known for their hilariously ill-conceived laws, had more doctrinal certainty than the current bunch of losers.
Fundamental error of logic by the author. West said "Communists", not "CPUSA Members". The Communists never cooperated in any effort to verify their membership. They were too busy conspiring illegally, with full mens rea, against society. They would never, ever "rat out" a fellow Communist who wasn't carrying any Party card or credential. Whole classes of Communists were underground, secret, and nevertheless as fully subversive, maybe moreso, than the public Party.
Case in point: Frank Marshall Davis, friend of the Dunham family. Hardcore Communist all the way.
Most Communists were always referring to themselves by some disguise "identity" -- socialists, progressives, whatever. It was all lies. Allen West is cutting through the lies.
And he's way too black, as well as too demotic, to apply successfully for membership in the Yacht Club. </simpergrin>
nonsense.....you merely apply the "Duck Test"
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