The Left's "Silver Lining"

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>
>>Look, the context is opposition to the invasion of civil liberties. While
>>anti-Nader liberals temporize and Democrats from Lieberman to Barney Frank
>>support the war, some Rightists have spoken up about the administration's
>>corporate statism.  Good on them.
>>
>>Here's the context: "Ralph Nader delivered a powerful speech against the
>>war and the various green parties have all issued decent statements. The
>>ACLU has shown understanding of the necessity for broad coalitions of left
>>and right to defend the Constitution. It has brought together left civil
>>libertarians with such icons of the far right as Paul Weyrich, Grover
>>Norquist, Phyllis Schlafly, Bob Barr and the Competitive Enterprise
>>Institute, recruiting all these names to the terms of its opposition to
>>the Patriot Act."  --CGE
>
>Good on them for sure. But Ace - as Cockburn was calling himself 
>last year - has a bad habit of ignoring bad stuff that righties do 
>and magnifying the bad stuff that liberals do. I'm all for bashing 
>liberals - it's one of my favorite indoor activities - but most of 
>the people on his list would like to criminalize abortion and 
>homosex, force prayer into the schools, deregulate and privatize 
>everything, and adopt the gold standard. You might think that was 
>worth noting.
>
>Doug

On another thread, Doug wrote:


>Nathan Newman wrote:
>
>>A pretty good summary of why the NYC Coalition against the war has lost most
>>of the mass participation is started with.  A lot of folks said- hey, we
>>started small in Vietnam and look how big we are starting now!  But the
>>reality is that, like during the Gulf War, the mobilizations started
>>moderate sized and shrank.
>>
>>That has been the pattern of antiwar organizing-- appeal to the converted to
>>get a big initial turnout and then see the movement shrink as it fails to
>>recruit new converts to the antiwar cause.
>
>But you don't understand, Nathan! You don't win adherents by trying 
>to appeal to them - that's vulgar marketing. They'll join when the 
>social order begins collapsing and we wise leftists turn out to have 
>all the answers. Right now, those who don't realize that Uncle Sam 
>is a thug are a lost cause - benighted racists in the pay of 
>imperialism. Forget them, and just concentrate on herding the cadre.
>
>Doug

Apparently, Doug wants to have it both ways: criticizing anti-war 
leftists for "preaching to the choir" first; and criticizing civil 
liberties activists for making temporary coalitions with rightists, 
rather than only "preaching to the choir."  Having it both ways is 
good when it comes to sex, but it doesn't make for a coherent 
argument.  :-0
-- 
Yoshie

* Calendar of Anti-War Events in Columbus: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>