On Fri, 14 Aug 1998, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> >Doug: "Andrew, anyone who's drawn more than 3 or 4 breaths in
> >the U.S. over the last 60 or 70 years is fully aware of the
> >shortcomings of the CPUSA."
(SNIP)>
> Andrew, maybe you grew up in a different environment from mine, but I
> remember hearing nothing except tales of horror about the Communist Party
> and their evil scheming. I bet if you polled Americans, the CP would end up
> somewhere around pederasts and Satanists on the prestige scale.
I think this might be a generational thing. I'm 30, and never, ever, heard about the party, except for the occasional story about my great-Uncle Joe, who was a member in the 20s and 30s. I am at my parents house as I'm writing, and to quote my father (just now told me) that Uncle Joe referred to everyone who was *not* a member of the Party as "hoodlums, hooligans, capitalist pigs, and warmongers." To continue quoting my father, "Capitalist belt buckles he liked, schnorring off of welfare he liked. I had to save his ass from being deported to Russia."
Frances