Alex Cockburn on the state of the left

[Mike Friedman <mikedf@xxxxxxxx>]

As usual, Cockburn's remarks are on target, except for this last piece.
Common cause with the populist right? Unless he means in a limited,
tangential and tactical sense, I beg to differ. IMHO, there's a difference
between "our" Bill of Rights and "their" Bill of Rights. Unless I'm
misinterpreting what Cockburn means by the populist right, there is a
difference between a BoR at the service of a working class project and a
petit bourgeois project (and isn't that the class content of populism?).
There's a gap between a BoR that aids our class in seizing hegemony and one
at the service of white supremacy, misogyny, etc. Formally, we might seek
the same thing, and so there's room for a joint demonstration against the
Patriot Act, say, but then a parting of the ways on immigrant rights.

Mike

At 01:59 AM 11/3/2002 -0500, you wrote:
> occasionally point out. My hope of course, which Jeffrey and I try to
> push along in Counterpunch, is that the left should understand that
> common cause can be made with many in the populist right who take the
> Bill of Rights seriously. Ashcroft is doing his best to help.


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