[Peace-discuss] Rich says its mostly racism...

[C. G. Estabrook]

Rich's piece is a desperate plea for identity politics to continue to take the
place of class politics as they have in America since the end of "the '60s"
(about 1975).  Please don't notice that classes struggle.

He has to insist that "The Rage Is Not About Health Care" - we're not to notice
it's a class-based robbery.  We can fob off the rage on the president's race.

"The conjunction of a black president and a female speaker of the House — topped
off by a wise Latina on the Supreme Court and a powerful gay Congressional
committee chairman — would sow fears of disenfranchisement among a dwindling and
threatened minority in the country no matter what policies were in play."

So, you see, health care is really the Civil Rights bill...!

We need Frank the drama critic to tell us what the play is *really* about - 
because it would be too dangerous to liberal rule if people got the wrong idea.


Morton K. Brussel wrote:
> I don't agree with  Carl's comments. What is wrong with Rich's article is not
> "class hatred"—one has to be of a particular mindset to come to that
> conclusion—, but praise for a health bill which is a betrayal of what most
> people need, a public not-for-profit, effective and inclusive health care
> measure.
> 
> Rich writes mostly about the rants and demagogy of Republicans relative to
> the health bill, not particularly about the popular classes. Read what he
> says and then judge. What Rich also stresses is that indeed there is a vile
> and vicious mix of racism, sexism, and general misanthropy exhibited by Tea
> Party types and Republicans in antagonism to the health bill and the
> administration.  That is well documented. As Chris Hedges points out in his
> article, also posted by Carl, popular  anger (rage?) stemming from
> unemployment, loss of income, bailouts, governmental corruption, and a sense
> of helplessness before the plutocracy can turn pernicious if mobilized only
> for destructive ends. One would like to see such anger and disappointment
> used to progressive advantage, but their seems no well organized party to
> take up the cudgel.
> 
> --mkb
> 
> On Mar 29, 2010, at 8:50 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> 
>> The most emailed article from the Sunday NYT:
>> 
>> Frank Rich, "The Rage Is Not About Health Care" 
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/opinion/28rich.html
>> 
>> 
>> This column is like Rich's from a month ago ("Axis of the Obsessed and
>> Deranged") that Alex Cockburn rightly characterized as "vibrant with class
>> hatred."
>> 
>> Cockburn wrote, "To match the virulence of Rich's language you'd have to go
>> back to the tirades flung at David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, some
>> eighty of whom were burned alive outside Waco, Texas, on April 19, 1993, on
>> orders from Attorney General Janet Reno."
>> 
>> Rich is at it again, using the tiresome charge that liberals use against
>> their enemies: they're racists. They do so because they can't admit that
>> real grievances come from class as much as race.
>> 
>> Most of those who oppose Obama's administration do so not because he's
>> black but because they think (correctly) that he's not working for them.
>> And they have real grievances: an honest count of unemployment would show
>> over 20%; real wages haven't risen in 30 years.
>> 
>> Rich et al. think that real social protest can be smeared as racism.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by
>> MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
>> 
>> _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list 
>> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net 
>> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
> 
> 

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.