Stan Goff says that "claim[ing his own] politics up front" worked for him when he had to debate "a serious neocon heavyweight," -- a "six-language-speaking, ultra-curriculum-vitaed, foreign-policy-PhD'ed Near East scholar who had, according to the ads for the debate, just driven 2,000 miles around Iraq" -- at Winthrop University in South Carolina:
<blockquote>He might red bait me, so I'd just claim my politics up front and take that away from him. Don't get tangled up in arcane minutiae; stick to arguing what the real reason are likely to be for the war - I couldn't argue about specific developments anyway, because I'd been out of touch for a month. Denounce Kerry early and often so he can't turn it into a post-election debate about Bush's "mandate." Don't claim the war is about "stealing" oil (a favored bit of nonsense among liberals that can be easily demolished). Talk about it as a crisis of capitalism, because they never want to discuss this. Hit him in his Zionism because it's basically indefensible any time a couple of actual facts are deployed and if he gives me any shit, bring up the USS Liberty (A low blow I know, but I didn't have to go there, as it turned out). Imply that the re-election of Bush might actually be a better situation than the election of Kerry on account of the Bush administration's propensity to be the bull in the China-shop (Fallujah is proving this yet again), and bait him into defending the list of failures so far in Iraq. Finally, mention Haiti and see if he bites.
My opening remarks were:
I'm sure some of you have heard the story of the frog and the scorpion, but for those who haven't, I'll tell it again.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
One might think the audience was put off by all this; that the conservatives were offended when I called George W. Bush "Dick Cheney's meat puppet," or worse, that those who had desperately voted Kerry would be offended by my speaking the unspeakable about him being another bourgeois war-candidate.
Not so. People on both sides were anxious to talk after the debate, asking for references and links to some of the information, seeming suddenly stimulated to ask new questions in the face of information to which many had obviously never been exposed. They weren't angry. They seemed almost relieved, like they'd been locked in and suddenly found a key.
Take whatever moral from this story you like. For this burned-out commie vet, it's keep battering away because these people are weaker than they seem, even if they DO have state power. (I'm ready for my IRS audit, sir.) And quit accepting their premises, or you'll never end up with anything except their conclusions. (Stan Goff, "Debating a Neocon," <http://www.counterpunch.org/goff11102004.html>, November 10, 2004)</blockquote> -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>