[Peace-discuss] Chomsky urges reaching out to Tea Partiers

[C. G. Estabrook]

"...those in the Tea Party movement, who are frustrated and fed up with American 
government ... 'shouldn’t be laughed at. It’s not a joke ... Ridiculing the Tea 
Party shenanigans is a terrible mistake. Why are those voices of discontent 
being mobilized by the extreme Right?'"

	Noam Chomsky urges Madison crowd to reach out to Tea Partiers
	Joe Tarr on Friday 04/09/2010

Noam Chomsky made a connection with an unlikely radical in his speech at the 
Orpheum Theatre last night: Joseph Stack, the 53-year-old software engineer who 
flew a plane into an IRS building in Texas in February.

After quoting Stack’s manifesto, Chomsky said Stack was “basically right” in his 
critique of the American system of politics and capitalism.

But, Chomsky, the firebrand liberal who spent most of his life critiquing and 
attacking US hegemony and foreign policy, said the left is failing the country 
by not reaching out to those in the Tea Party movement, who are frustrated and 
fed up with American government.

“They shouldn’t be laughed at. It’s not a joke,” Chomsky told the packed 
theater. “Ridiculing the Tea Party shenanigans is a terrible mistake. Why are 
those voices of discontent being mobilized by the extreme Right?”

...the packed theater was engrossed with Chomsky. He began the talk referencing 
the first critical essay he wrote in 1939. “I’m just old enough to have memories 
of Hilter’s speeches on the radio,” he said. “I didn’t grasp the meaning, but I 
couldn’t help grasp the significance, the menace.”

During the speech, Chomsky touched on many of the political upheavals of the 
20th century, including the US wars in Southeast Asia, the Russian and US wars 
in Afghanistan, the Depression, globalization, Haiti, Rosa Luxemburg, and the 
labor, anti-war, environmental and Civil Rights movements.

During the question-and-answer period afterwards, audience members asked Chomsky 
for advice on how to wage political battles. But he had no easy answer.

“I get this question a half dozen times a day, ‘What can I do?’ There is no 
formula. There are a lot of things you can do. You can do almost anything you 
want,” he said. “You are the only one who can answer it.”

But, he added, “If you’re talking about tactics, you have to ask yourself 
seriously ‘What are the consequences of your actions?’”

http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28780

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