Freakshow alert.
Posted on 01/27/2003 11:34:41 AM PST by presidio9
No Stallin' the Peace Movement
by Barry Crimmins
http://www.barrycrimmins.com
January 25, 2003- Michael Kelly's January 22 Washington Post column, Marching With Stalinists, calls to mind the hogwash Joe McCarthy’s smear squad used to spoon-feed Walter Winchell. But unlike Winchell, who mostly just ruined the lives of people in show business, Kelly is hell-bent on discrediting citizens from every walk of life.
In his Stalinist rant he dismisses everyone in the peace movement as traitors who have sided with the 9/11 terrorists. Then Kelly wonders how the American left could fail to embrace the noble cause of attacking Iraq. Gee, Mike, maybe it’s because some of us believe that massacring more innocent people will only caseharden another link in the chain of violence. And some people, including many survivors of victims of 9/11, feel it’s disrespectful to the innocents who died on that September morning to commit carnage in their names. Beyond everything, no one has demonstrated a believable Iraqi connection to 9/11 so attaching that tragedy to any discussion of whether there should be a Gulf War II (GWII has a familiar ring, eh?) is intellectually dishonest.
Kelly’s contempt for anything that smacks of the political progressivism of the Sixties and Seventies is hard to figure. This guy has a very bad reaction to second-hand incense. He’s forever targeting the now-old New Left so the massive peace marches were bound to set him off. Maybe, because he was born in 1957, he harbors resentment for the big kids who stopped a war and helped run Nixon out of town, all while dallying at a relatively safe carnal and psychedelic smorgasbord. By the time he grew up, the fun was over so he set out to prove that he didn’t miss anything. Whatever the cause, Kelly lives in a world in which the only problem with the USA is that its people failed to listen to Donald Rumsfeld the last time he was Secretary of Defense.
Kelly alleges that ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), the group that organized the nationwide peace rallies, has radical leftist ties. He overloads his column with buzzwords and phrases like “communist” and “Black Panther” as if they will cause peace activists to suddenly hurl themselves at his feet to beg forgiveness. In his recent diatribe, Kelly blows decades of dust off a dossier that J. Edgar Hoover would be proud to read (if only dossiers weren't so damned flammable where Hoover does his reading these days.) Perusing the Stalinist column, you can almost hear old Edgar's clipped cadence spew his favorite phrase: communist front organization, which Kelly all but literally employs.
Kelly tells us that ANSWER is “a front group for the communist Workers World Party.” He doesn’t identify ANSWER’s leaders or describe their contemporary views. Instead of showing how ANSWER is linked to the Workers World Party, he embarks on a history lesson, telling us that the WWP “rose out of a split within the old Socialist Workers Party over the Soviet Union's 1956 invasion of Hungary -- the breakaway Workers World Party was all for the invasion.” Apparently it was this 47 year-old affront to Hungary that attracted all the kids with the dreadlocks to the recent peace rallies.
Maybe ANSWER is rife with REDS. I don’t particularly care. I’d be thrilled if the Democratic Party possessed the temerity to organize massive anti-war protests but until it does, I’ll show up at the ones that are available. And when I arrive, it won’t be as an unwitting rube that has fallen into the hands of nefarious fifth columnists. It will be as a responsible citizen with legitimate concerns about a nation that is on the brink of war, economic collapse and domestic police-statehood.
ANSWER, from what I know of it, is a leftist organization that finds much of its strongest support from people of color, particularly African-Americans. It's natural that people from the absolute worst byproduct of the corrupt American system – brutally impoverished neighborhoods -- would be drawn to radical political groups. Desperate times call for desperate measures. It also follows that those who despise the US system would try to make converts among large concentrations of people who’ve been victimized by that system. If you don't want ANSWERs then don't pose questions raised by slavery, segregation, racism, economic exploitation, intractable poverty and imperialism. If you don't want class warfare, don't create a permanent underclass -- because that's where ANSWER came from. And on January 18 it strolled through a rather yawning gap in America's petticoats and gave this nation a pretty good goose. Kelly was still squealing the following Wednesday.
It’s not exactly news that there are communists on the left. But Kelly reveals it with astonished contempt. He's clearly outraged that there hasn't been red genocide, particularly after the fall of the Stalinist states. His recent column is an attempt to purge millions of Americans from an important debate yet he expects us to believe he opposes Stalinism.
Peace activists aren’t about to drown in the polluted water Kelly is carrying for George W. Bush. As Tom Joad said long ago, "Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there." Tom thought he was getting religion when he was really just getting subverted—not by commies but by domestic interests that had no regard for the wellbeing of people like him. Tom has kept his promise and is still there, marching at every rally and protest, shivering on every cold street corner and wasting away in far too many dank jail cells. I’ve dealt with Tom. I’ve generally agreed with Tom although at times, we've had our differences. Many times I have even been Tom. On days when I read columns like Michael Kelly's, I have been Spartacus as well. You don't like Reds? Fine, then I'm a RED. In fact, I favor socialism. If you believe in public roads and schools, so do you. I think we should use our collective resources to feed, house, clothe, educate and provide medical care to people in need. I think we need to provide for a common defense but I don't believe we should be forced to chip in so that our military can operate as Hessians for corporate interests.
The US military budget for the coming year is $396 billion. The projected deficit is $350 billion. Reactionaries always accuse progressives of throwing money at problems. But at the first sign of international difficulty the right's immediate inclination is to fire billions out of heavy artillery -- at problems and any other poor creature unfortunate enough to be near the alleged trouble.
And brand me with the Red Star if you must but I maintain that America has a moral obligation to adequately provide for the veterans of its previous wars before it creates any new ones. Tens of thousands of homeless former soldiers wander our streets. Just what kind of way of life was preserved for them by the wars they fought?
Kelly eventually ties ANSWER and all war protesters to everything from Tiananmen Square to suicide bombers. He discreetly fails to mention China's current use of its authoritarian power to whip-crack on a nation of starvation-wage slaves who are essential pawns in the economic scam that is globalization. Never fear, Tom Joad is busy learning several Chinese dialects.
Perhaps ANSWER has spoken for some past and present despots around the world. If this is so, I'll have no problem taking issue with the group. But let's remember that ANSWER's alleged endorsements are rhetorical while the US government has actually armed and propped up an international rogues gallery.
On that happy day when America has a government that really is of, for and by the people, broad antiwar coalitions will no longer be necessary. We'll have time to take issue with some former political allies -- not because we think they should be eliminated, but simply because we disagree. People should always have a right to express views -- even if they're more loopy than Michael Kelly's. That's why we let the nuts in the robes (and I don't mean the group that appointed the president) march and hold rallies of their own.
What Kelly expects us to divine from his jingoistic tirade is that peace activists should be vilified and then ignored -- even if they show up a half a million at a time. His argument is not compelling. And so, Mr. Kelly, I suggest the Post send an aerial photographer to the next peace rally because it will be the only way to get the entire crowd into the shot.
Geeeeeeez, these guys really need to get some new material.
Well, then why favor us with a phlem specked rant against an article that exposed the background and beliefs of the anti-war movement organizers?
That was my subconscious talking.
Clinton's polling about the Bin Laden problem told him the reaction that he would get from the domestic enemies of the United States over pre-emptive action.
That they can spew this crap in the face of the dead of September 11 is a monument to the depth of their disloyalty to these United States.
Dear Barry Crimmins: You lie down with Red dogs, you get up with Red fleas.
Everyone must.
Freakshow alert.
New Improved "Rid-O-Red"
There isnt a very long swim to Cuba... They have socialism that meets your very needs.
I just wish our govt would back off socialism and let the states build roads, fund education and ban abortion. Federal govt should be like a brick wall on our shores and kick Saddam in the crotch to avoid us getting athraxed again (could have very well been Saddam behind that). again...it is just my humble opinion...take it for what you think its worth.
No. 26117 in the "Leftist Girls Are Easy" series...
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