Populism as Masquerade (was Re: Henwood vs. Cockburn)

[William S. Lear]

On Saturday, November 13, 1999 at 17:54:21 (-0500) Michael Yates writes:
>I have written a long review of two books about the labor movement
>("Democracy is Power" by Parker and Gruelle and "Taking Care of
>Business..." by Paul Buhle) which might be of interest to list members.
>It appears in the Nov. 1999 issue of Monthly Review and can also be
>found at their website:  <http://www.monthlyreview.org>
>
>On the other question raised in connection with the exchange among Doug,
>Cockburn, et. al. concerning militias, populism, etc. let me say a few
>words from experience.  My youngest brother is what some might call a
>raving lunatic:  sees conspiracies everywhere, lives in the woods, owns
>guns, thinks Y2K may lead to chaos in the streets, etc.  But he is most
>definitely not a racist or an anti-semite (two of our nieces are black,
>for which fact his own health and life have been threatened more than
>once).  He is well-read though not too systematic in his thinking.  He
>was once unemployed for several years and had to get by with odd jobs. 
>He was fired for refusing to take a lie detector test, and this whole
>awful affair hurt his confidence and self-esteem a lot. My parents
>helped out a lot, but this did not do much for his ego either.  He feels
>a lot of rage and directs this as best he can against the powers that
>be: hatred of local police, diatribes against Clinton, etc.  I am sure
>there are tens of thousands of persons just like him.  Are they
>unorganizable? white trash? future militia bombers? future religious
>zealots?  Maybe.  But then maybe if we had a decent left movement,
>inclusive and democratic, maybe not.  I do know that I'd trust my
>brother to hide me if the Nazis came to town.  And I'd be glad he had a
>gun and knew how to use it.

So do you agree with Yoshie when she "agrees wholeheartedly with
Carrol on the stupidity of Cockburn dreaming of 'a populist coalition
of left and right on basic issues of liberty'"?  I assume by Yoshie's
criteria, your brother is on "the right", and apparently unreachable
by those on "the left" on these basic issues.  What do you think?

Bill