> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> I was thinking this morning as I listened to my favorite American
> band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, sing my favorite American rock song, Am I Right or
Am I
> Wrong, that much of the chest-thumping about the neo-populists is
reminiscent
> of the East Coast hysteria about Skynyrd following the release of "Sweet
Home
> Alabama".
> "Oh, they must be racists, they're defending Wallace!" Of course,
> nothing could be further from the truth, they were longhairs who grew up
with
> blacks and got the shit kicked out of them for their appearance and their
radical
> views--including views on gun control that might even win the
> endorsement of Katha. More later.
Definately say more on Lynyrd Skynyrd, since it raises an interesting question if they were radicals. Most folks who hear "Sweet Home Alabama" take it as a defense of Wallace and a tell-off of liberals like Neil Young, both liberals and conservatives who sing it. Whatever the intentions of the original propagandists, if it ends up being overwhelmingly used by racists and apologists, why defend them? A lot of militia types and their defenders (you and Cockburn) may be right about core beliefs, but if the consumers of their rhetoric are racists or other authoritarians, an attack on militia-style organizations is justified if only as a condemnation of a wayward anti-corporate strategy.
-- Nathan Newman