[lbo-talk] Proyect on Nathan Newman and Reconstruction

[Nathan Newman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Farmelant" <farmelantj at juno.com>
Quoting Louis Proyect:
-Newman makes no effort to conceal his real goals in writing such a
-blinkered version of American history. Basically he is arguing that
-progressives should spare no effort in keeping the Supreme Court out of
-the hands of reactionaries. Implicitly, the election of John F. Kerry
-would have had as momentous an impact on American society as a different
-composition of the Supreme Court would have had in the 1870s.

While I obviously think keeping the Court out of the hands of reactionaries
is important, especially to prevent the striking down of a range of
economic legislation, it's actually a strange interpretation of motives,
since I'm on record as saying that liberals should not depend on the
Supreme Court even if they win the Presidency.

And Proyect's ranting about the Nation magazine circa the Civil War is
silly, since the Nation was to THE RIGHT of the Republicans in Congress who
impeached Johnson and pushed forward harder on Reconstruction than the more
moderate Nation editors desired.

The Republican Party of the post-Civil War period was hardly perfect-- with
anti-immigrant No-Nothingism and pro-business factions -- but the enactment
of Reconstruction reflects some of the best values of American history.
Those who try to reduce Reconstruction to some kind of bourgoisie
conspiracy is merely wrapping around to echo Confederate propaganda with a
leftwing twang.

Nathan Newman