Militia Men, Religious Folks, + The American Left Speaking in Tongues

[Michael Eisenscher]

At 11:33 AM 6/3/98 -0500, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>Do you guys have any idea _at all_ about how to appeal to _both_ militia
>men and ordinary religious folks? What many say on the separate threads on
>militias and religion makes me think that the American Left is utterly
>incoherent, without any political theory and principle worthy of such
>names, just daydreaming, speaking in tongues of the unborn: the
>class-consious but social conservative majority, made up with a crazy quilt
>of Michael Moore, Richard Rorty, Eric Alterman, militia men, and
>anti-abortion Catholics.
>
>Yoshie

Maybe not incoherent, but just 'talking in tongues.'

I don't have a neat answer but I suspect that the starting point for any
discussion is values, interests, and a vision of just what kind of society
folks want for themselves, families, and communities.  I think there is a
danger in trying to generalize across such a broad spectrum of people who
fall within those categories (militia followers and religious folks).  It's
like asking, "How can the Left appeal to the working class?"  Could you
imagine a tidy one paragraph answer that would be generally applicable to
all sectors, occupations, regions, ethnicities, genders, ages, etc. of workers?

Michael E.
(Okay, whining a lot and sniveling occasionally.)