Re: [Marxism] Michael Hirsch twits fellow reformists

[andrew c pollack <andypollack@xxxxxxxx>]

This is interesting on two individual counts: 1) coming from Mike Hirsch,
a staunch Democrat for decades (who nonetheless looks semi-fondly at his
days as a radical (and a nice guy for what it's worth; 2) his target,
Andy English, was very active in the Labor Party (and I have a vague
recollection of him being one of the more conservative members; in any
case the LP has been moribund for several years since its pro-DP wing did
it in.
On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 22:01:55 -0400 Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> (In line with Mark Lause's delicious Monty Python post, this was
> something that just showed up on Leo Casey's mailing list that is
> made
> up exclusively of trade union functionaries, social democratic hacks
> and
> other diehard reformists. The author is a New Politics editor who
> must
> have found the pro-Kerry sentiment there even too much for him to
> bear,
> by the appearance of the rather well-aimed satire.)
>
>
> HEADLINE: Kerry's New Stances No Shock to Fervent Supporters
>
> By Michael Hirsch,
>
> Special to Democratic Left
>
> (Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 15, 2004) Seeking to winnow away more of the
> Bush
> electoral base, Democratic presidential contender John Kerry told
> reporters lobbing staccato questions to the candidate at the Ohio
> State
> Fair's pig-judging contest that he would have been the sole holdout
> were
> he a Supreme Court justice during the Roe v. Wade deliberations.
>
> "I never did like that decision," said Kerry.
>
> While the demurrer was met with shock by erstwhile feminist
> supporters
> of the Kerry effort, raised angry retorts from the Democratic
> Socialists
> of America and caused Leo Casey to be sedated, it was judged a
> shrewed
> political move by other critics of the Bush administration.
>
> "When will the left learn that the circular firing squad does not
> work?
> said Andrew English, a Minneapolis flaneur and 1930s French postcard
>
> collector. Reached at a St. Paul day spa cum tanning salon, the
> voluble
> political observer insisted how "The job right now is to re-defeat
> Bush.
> That means Kerry and us are on the same side for now, and we need to
>
> help Kerry and not pull him down. There will be time to blast Kerry
> later."
>
> English did not specify how much later.
>
> "Anyway, 'anti-choice,' as the Soviets said about 'fascism,' is just
> a
> matter of taste."
>
> At presstime, rumors were emerging from the Kerry camp that the
> candidate was having a serious "re-think" of other long held views.
>
> Among these are Kerry's newfound belief that he would have nuked
> Moscow
> during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis had he been president and
> refused
> to comply with federal school desegregation orders were he the 1960s
>
> governor of Arkansas. Sources also say the former Vietnam hero now
> would
> even favor signing a separate peace treaty with the Third Reich and
>
> corralling in Sam Adams from dumping tea into Boston Harbor,
> ostensibly
> in violation of environmental standards.
>
> But these were brushed aside by English.
>
> "Until I hear the man say it, it's idle to speculate" said English,
> who
> offered that he always considered Churchill "a bit of a loony and a
> hard
> on" when it came to opening a second fighting front in Europe.
> English
> also said that as a Midwesterner he doesn't drink Sam Adams.
>
> But won't Kerry's new stances scare away core Democratic voters?
> English
> was nonplussed. "Let 'em leave, the hoary sectarians. It takes a
> cast-iron stomach and a rubber spine to stand with Kerry. Besides,
> four
> more years of Bush is unthinkable.""
>
> --
> Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
>
>
>
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