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<div>One more thing about <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Lantos</span></span> and I'll drop this thread. <br>
<br>
A couple of contributors to the South Bay Green list interpreted my append as praise for Tom <span class="correction" id="">Lantos</span>. <br>
<br>
Nothing could be further from the truth, so please do not misunderstand me. I purpose was NOT to praise <span class="correction" id="">Lantos</span>,
that world-class Democratic Party hack, but to give a pat on the back
to people like San Mateo County Green Party leader, Pat Gray, who had
courageously been challenging <span class="correction" id="">Lantos</span> for more than four years. <br>
<br>
PARADOX: AS WAR BECOMES MORE UNPOPULAR, ATTACKS ON THE ANTI-WAR LEFT ESCALATES<br>
<br>
<br>
I am not a big fan of Todd <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Gitlin</span></span>, but the old 1960s <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">SDS</span></span> guys made an observation about two years ago which, I think, is relevant. <br>
<br>
<span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Gitlin</span></span> recalled that support for the Vietnam War dropped precipitously after 1970. <span class="correction" id=""></span><span class="correction" id=""></span>The
funny thing was that even as the war become more and more unpopular and
more and more people were asking the same question as the John Kerry:
"How do y<span class="correction" id="">ou</span> ask someone to be the last man to die for a mistake?" the anti-war movement became less and less popular, too. <br>
<br>
Notice how, to this day, being tagged as a "McGovern Democrat" is an
insult. Also notice how, to this day, almost every mainstream
depiction of the anti-Vietnam War "<span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">peacenik</span></span>" is a negative stereotype: unkempt bearded "<span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">nerdy</span></span>" guys and bellicose not well-dressed and not "pretty" (but nonetheless implicitly promiscuous) gals. <span class="correction" id=""></span><br>
<br>
<span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Gitlin</span></span> predicted, I think correctly, that as Mr. <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Bush's</span></span>
War became more and more unpopular, that we'd see more and more attacks
on the anti-war left. Put it down to psychology -- some weird
cognitive dissonance -- nobody is going to say "Yeah, y<span class="correction" id="">ou</span> Greens and 'Lefties' were right to protest <span class="correction" id="">Bush's</span> lies and we were cowards and suckers." <br>
<br>
I saw a poll recently that reported <span class="correction" id="">Bush's</span>
support WITHIN THE MILITARY has dropped way down. Another poll
shows that 70% of southerners opposed to so-called surge and about 80%
of American generally. <br>
<br>
And yet ...<br>
<br>
Six years after Bush - Gore - <span class="correction" id="">Nader</span>, the general hostility for Greens seems not to have diminished one bit. <br>
<br>
Lately, I've been doing some <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">blogging</span></span> on The Daily <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Kos</span></span> and it's really weird. On the one hand, those "<span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">netizens</span></span>" literally hate Bush and his crew. I mean, they have even posted gratuitously mean and nasty stuff over there about Mary <span class="correction" id="">Cheney's</span> pregnancy. <br>
<br>
They also hate Joe Lieberman (rightly in my opinion), as the world's greatest <span class="correction" id=""></span>rat fink.<br>
<br>
And yet ...<br>
<br>
They still have this hostility toward anybody they perceive as being
"To the Left" of regular liberal Democrats and a near hatred of <span class="correction" id=""></span>the Greens, in particular. It is the most infuriating thing. In effect, they say we must be loyal to the <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Liebermans</span></span> of the world even if they are rat <span class="correction" id="">finks</span>. Why? Because they're Democrats! <br>
<br>
BEING "GREEN" IS SUDDENLY RESPECTABLE <br>
<br>
Also, have y<span class="correction" id="">ou</span> noticed lately how that word "Green" has suddenly become super respectable? It is truly Kafkaesque. Almost <span class="correction" id="">every</span> day I read some commentary about the need for "Green living" and "Green values" and "Green industry." They say Arnold <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Schwarzeneggar</span></span> is <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">gonna</span></span> be a "Green governor." Thomas <span class="correction" id="">Friedman's</span> latest project is gushing "Green <span class="correction" id="">Globalization</span>."
But they still conform to the totalitarian "party line" that you are
never, ever supposed to say anything about the actual Green Party that
does not invoke stereotypical images of... well... <span class="correction" id="">something like <span class="correction" id="">freaky</span> "<span class="correction" id="">peaceniks</span>."
And while Friedman gushes being "Green" on a global scale he never
notices that in the U.S. only ONE political party has that specific <span class="correction" id="">kiund</span> of global orientation, namely the Green Party. </span><br>
</div>
<div><br>
DEMOCRATS: "WE WON! WE WON! NOW, LET'S DUMP ON THE BLACKS"<br>
<br>
As a Green Party man who also happens to be African-American, I am particularly annoyed by the <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">unmistakable</span></span>
tendency of these creepy Democrats to take that huge black Democratic
vote totally for granted. Ninety percent of African-American
big-city voters throw away their votes on corrupt and incompetent
Democratic Party hacks. And then right after every election the
"smart liberals" immediately start mouthing off about how "what
Democrats need to do" is go suck-up (yet again) to southern white
conservative voters! It's ridiculous! They are NEVER going
to get those voters back. In some places the Democratic vote
among southern whites has dropped below twenty percent. And if
they do put somebody like <span class="correction" id="">Barack</span> <span class="correction" id="">Obama</span> on the ticket in 2008, mark my words, it will go even lower. <br>
<br>
Some of the best progressive Democrats in Congress happen to be members
of the Congressional Black Caucus. Notice how those guys get
almost no credit fro <span class="correction" id="">ou</span> "liberal" leaders. Joe Klein, bullshit "liberal" for Time Magazine, actually wrote that John <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Conyers</span></span> and Charles <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Rangel</span></span> were "an <span class="correction" id="">embarrassment</span>" for the Democrats and that Nancy <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Pelosi</span></span> should be commended for, in effect, keeping <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Conyers</span></span> in his place on <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">impeachment</span></span>. I'm no big fan of <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Alcee</span></span>
Hastings of Florida, but he WAS just about the only member of the House
Intelligence Committee who actually did his job and questioned <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">Bush's</span></span> lying intelligence. So, what was Hastings' reward? Being trashed by nearly everybody, including by the "<span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">netroots</span></span>" who are supposed to be the anti-war <span class="correction" id="">avant</span> <span class="correction" id=""><span class="correction" id="">garde</span></span>. <br>
<br>
CONTEMPT FOR THE "LEFT" AND CHEERS FOR THE "MODERATES"<br>
<br>
If y<span class="correction" id="">ou</span> have been following the <span class="correction" id="">blogosphere</span>
in recent weeks, there has been a lot of talk about an alliance between
the anti-war Democrats and the so-called libertarian Republicans.
On the Daily <span class="correction" id="">Kos</span>, where no good
word is every written about that hated Greens, and where there is open
contempt for millions of loyal Democratic voters who are people of
color, there are shouts of <span class="correction" id="">hosanna</span>! and hallelujah! every time some white Republican conservative rat jumps <span class="correction" id="">Bush's</span> sinking ship. <br>
<br>
If nothing else, all this demonstrates the lack of character and lack of intellectual honesty of the Democrats. <br>
I concluded about ten years ago that while I agree with most of those
guys on most issues and while I can work IN COALITION with them on
matters of mutual interest, I DO NOT want to be one of them. In
this life grown-up women and men respect people and associate with
people who respect and want to be associated with them. <br>
<br>
The struggle between Greens and Democrats will continue.<br>
<br>
<br>
Alex Walker <br>
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