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

[C. G. Estabrook]

Since the left has done such a poor job of setting out their views - didn't you 
recently complain about their elitism? - how do we know about what TPers might 
like?

E.g., less government is a very good idea if we mean less of what the government 
spend the most on - war making.  I don't want a different kind of war making - I 
want to reduce the Pentagon budget to the point that we can strangle it in the 
bathtub (to borrow a right-wing phrase).

Less government is also right if we mean money to the banks. The TPers say that 
"tea" means "Taxed enough already." They're right.  Let's shift from taxing 
income to taxing wealth.  We've been redistributing wealth upwards.  If a new 
tax program doesn't redistribute it downwards, it's not working.  --CGE


On 4/11/10 3:45 AM, John W. wrote:
> The Tea Partiers don't WANT to be reached out to by those on the Left.
> They don't LIKE the ideas of those on the Left.  They MOCK the ideas of
> those on the Left.
> Plainly Chomsky and you have no concept whatever of libertarians.  Sure,
> they're disaffected and feel disenfranchised.  But their notion of the
> "solution" is, in a word, LESS government, not MORE government or a
> different KIND of government.  And of course WE know that they routinely
> make exceptions for government that benefits THEM.  But THEY don't know
> it, and can't be made to know it.
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 6:05 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu
> <mailto:galliher at illinois.edu>> wrote:
>
>     "...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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