I agree. I toured Eastern Europe a bit in the 80s and have worked around a lot
>of anti-Communist emigres when I was at Stanford. I never met member of a
>Communist Party from that region who could be described as anything more than a
>Social Democrat. I only met one or two communists and they weren't in the
>Party. As for the rest of the emigres, they were 90% socially conservative,
>Republican voters when they came to the U.S with about 10% liberal to
>conservative Democrats. Some emigres viewed themselves as a more or less,
>elitist band of neo-monarchists. One of the saddest legacies of Stalinist rule
>was that most of its officials were mere opportunists who, as Woj observes,
>developed equally repugnant, symbiotic relationships with Power when they moved
>the the West. Their ideological labels had next to nothing to do with the
>content of their poltical praxis.
>
Alas, this tallies 100% with my experience of Romanian emigres. My
parents were the only democracts in their L.A. emigre circle, and I was
the only socialist...among the kids. I further blackened the family name
by giving one of the other "kids" a joint. He was in graduate school and
convinced that this would help his luck with the ladies.
Joanna
>
>