[lbo-talk] Re: chomsky ipse loquitur

[Tom Walker]

In Canada, "Anti-Americanism" (which is largely anti-Bushism) produces a 
progressive political result at present because the right-wing 
Conservative party is stridently pro-Bush, pro-war, etc. A Kerry victory 
would weaken the Canadian aversion to the domestic right-wing party. So 
for Canadians, the lesser of two American evils could impose on us the 
eviler of two Canadian lessers. This might explain Naomi's seemingly 
puzzling indifference to the (relatively) minor differences between US 
parties on domestic policy. There's no question in my mind that she 
knows more about American domestic policy than most Americans do.  I 
would guess that the average Canadian knows more about American domestic 
policy than the average American does because unlike the average 
American, we have something other than vacuous platitudes about freedom, 
free enterprise and the American dream to compare that policy with. That 
also may explain why she's so little impressed with the differences 
between Bush and Kerry on domestic policy, which are smaller than, say, 
the differences between Canada and the U.S.

Doug Henwood wrote:
/
/>>>/  When I interviewed Naomi Klein on my radio show last week, she
/>>>/  declaimed at length that there was little diff between Bush & Kerry
/>>>/  on foreign policy. When I said, yeah, but there are some differences
/>>>/  on domestic policy, she essentially said (I'm paraphrasing only
/>>>/  slightly): "Well yeah, but I'm Canadian, so I don't really care about
/>>>/  those."
/>/-------------------------
/>>/In fairness to NK, she may not be aware of the close economic ties 
between
/>>/the two countries.
/
>  I find that a little hard to believe. She's very smart, travels here
>  a lot, and her parents are American.