>>> furuhashi.1 at osu.edu 07/07/00 03:59PM >>>
> > So be it. It's a big tent here on LBO, really, with so many
>open-minded people committed to irony & skepticism. :)
>
>Sure, let's be open minded about Stalinism and skeptical of
>critiques about it, those a notable Stalinist virtues.
>
>--jks
One last time, Justin. Stalinism is *dead* in America (it's dead in the former Eastern bloc, too; Maoism is dead in China; North Korea will soon be a poorer part of the unified capitalist Korea; Cuban socialism will probably hobble on until Castro dies, but who knows what will happen after his death). The problem of the CPUSA at present is their loyal support of the Democratic Party, which they share with most African-Americans, many unionists, and the majority of social democratically-minded people in America. In this sense (in addition to the remaining legacies of the New Deal & multiculturalism), Communism may have become indeed Americanism. It hardly matters one way or another, though, in that the CPUSA has no influence on American politics, and neither do any Marxists of any variety. There probably are more Tibetan Buddhists than Marxists in America, for all I know.
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CB: I like to say that Stalinism is as American as the Democratic Party.