John-John, RIP

John K. Taber jktaber at dhc.net
Wed Jul 21 10:11:01 PDT 1999


Doug Henwood wrote:


>>kelley wrote:


>btw, why is it that polls are frequently attacked on this list for
being
>the tripe that they are, but when it comes to a poll that mirrors a
view of
>the world that's acceptable then a-okay and hurray to polls.

So the American masses don't really revere the church, the army, and cops after all? Were they really disturbed that their military bombed the fuck out of some poor slobs in the Balkans, and just kept that concern under wraps? Ditto their great underappreciated concern that their government has starved and poisoned a million Iraqis? I'd love to believe that there were some great untapped reservoirs of solidarity and passion, but it's pretty damn hard to see any. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood this week.


>>

I think you're just in a bad mood.

It is your job to get the left across to the American masses. So far, the left has not done so.

If you promote a left program yet rail against the left's beneficiaries, you will wind up elitist. I don't mean "you" personally, that is an editorial "you". I can't support that kind of left because if it came to power, at my end I would only see a change of managers. I want more.

No, the masses don't really revere the church, the army and the police. All that bit of nonsense means is that the church and the army have not suffered from negative publicity recently. The same guy who rates the church favorably deplores church pedophilia. Or, ask him about $700 Pentagon toilet seats. The cops are a more complicated question, but ask him about Driving While Black.

As for the Balkans, what else is the ordinary guy to think? The media has been unremitting in its presentation of a demonized Serbia.

I liked Kelley's post. Right on, I say.



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