[lbo-talk] shame of THE NATION

[Jesse Lemisch]

I'll lay money on this: The Nation will endorse Hillary Clinton for president in '08. Below is a letter (unpublished) that I sent to The Nation in May suggesting that this would happen. The latest issue (8/24-9/4) carries this a step further in the lead editorial, "Lamont Wins." The magazine speaks of "a party that wants to keep its antiwar base energized..." There is a complimentary reference to Hillary, who they paraphrase as having said that "anyone who intends to lead the Democratic Party in 2008 had better be aggressively backing its candidates in 2006." There is absolutely no mention of her cynical pro-war triangulation ("give them better jackets," etc.)

And noplace in this editorial is there any mention of Jonathan Tasini's antiwar candidacy against Hillary in the New York Democratic primary (www.tasinifornewyork.org). The only alternative to describing this silence as despicable would be to describe it as stupid. Even the Times, albeit grudgingly, saw that it had to mention Tasini's candidancy in an article about Lamont's victory against Lieberman. The Nation joins the worst of the mainstream media in blacking out Tasini.

Jesse Lemisch

============================================================

To The Nation, May 27 2006

Week after week, month after month, The Nation invests ecstatic hope in one
or another fully tested and proven hopeless figure from the hopeless,
unprincipled and moribund Democratic Party -- Al Gore ("Gore Warms Up," June
12), or even, god help us, the latest Revised Edition of John Kerry (prior
issue).

This is an ancient script in which The Nation keeps filling in new names.
It's done this regularly in the half century during which I have been a
subscriber. In a year, will The Nation be touting some yet-to-be-fantasized
New Hillary?

 It doesn't work. When will they ever learn?

Jesse Lemisch
Professor Emeritus of History, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

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