The false choice that Cockburn offers in his column linked below is between civil rights and civil liberties. If you read what he is saying, we on the left should link up with the "libertarians" such as Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan to fight the rogue state.
He leaves out the fact that there is a difference between a strategic coalition with such forces, which stabs in the back our friends and allies who are people of color, women, and gays; and a tactical coalition (which I support) that works in concert with the forces of the political right while remaining critical of their stands on race and gender and their antisemitism and xenophobia.
And how do we work with Buchanan in protesting the attacks by the government on immigrants when Buchanan generally supports government attacks on immigrant rights?
In May I gave a speech for the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights on the topic of defending both civil liberties and civil rights. Cockburn wants us to favor one over the other.
Cockburn also asks:
"So why haven’t groups like the ACLU distributed "know your rights" cards for those who have been profiled and are now in the FBI’s sights? "
Sloppy Research Alert!
Already been done weeks ago by a coalition of the National Lawyers Guild, Center for Constitutional Rights, and American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Online at: http://www.nlg.org/post911/rightsinfo.htm available in English, Spanish, Farsi, and Arabic.
Also, it is artificial to suggest the choice is between supporting The Nation on their war stance or defending civil liberties. The two are not necessarily related. Certainly it is easy to bash Hitchens, and he deserves it, but the rest of arguments in the article are muddled.
So Cockburn looks clever through a combination of sloppy thinking and sloppy research masked by good writing.
Cockburn is often very good, but sometimes good writing is not enough.
-Chip Berlet
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Carl Remick
> Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 2:00 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Cockburn on "crackpot realism"
>
>
> http://www.nypress.com/14/49/news&columns/wildjustice.cfm
>
> Carl
>
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