Comments on: Quasi-imaginary friends

By: Steve LaBonne

Steve LaBonne — Fri, 26 May 2006 15:34:44 +0000

On to Iran! Where Charles Krauthammer leads, the DLC shall follow!

Couldn’t the Democratic National Committe sue these losers for trademark infringement to force them to remove “Democratic” from their name?

By: DC

DC — Fri, 26 May 2006 15:15:16 +0000

Regarding “anti-antiwar” and “anti-antifascists”, one should point out that “anti-anticommunism” was once a necessary antidote to Cold War hysteria. Presumably Eustonites would say that the anti-war reaction to the war in Iraq, or much thereof, was similarly hysterical.

By: john c. halasz

john c. halasz — Fri, 26 May 2006 11:16:21 +0000

So is there now a new specter haunting Europe… “infantile centrism”?

By: Louis Proyect

Louis Proyect — Thu, 25 May 2006 19:01:57 +0000

I think that Scott McLemee’s characterization of the Eustonites as “anti-antiwar” is critical to understand what they are about, especially in light of Geras’s coy denial that they are pro-war in the Guardian:

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1782422,00.html

Of course, I have always thought of the “anti-antiwar” crowd in much the same terms as Lillian Hellman’s discussion of the “anti-antifascists” in “Scoundrel Time”. Some things don’t change at all. New times—new scoundrels.

By: Ben Alpers

Ben Alpers — Thu, 25 May 2006 18:11:44 +0000

Yikes….sorry about that faulty html, and a few dropped words. Let me try that again….

…those (like Clinton) who aim to turn the Democrats into an political party as much like New Labour as possible.

I think this has it backwards. It’s the Blairites who turned Labour into a political party as much like the Democrats under Clinton as possible.

By: Backword Dave

Backword Dave — Thu, 25 May 2006 18:10:18 +0000

Oops, that went on the wrong thread somehow.

By: Ben Alpers

Ben Alpers — Thu, 25 May 2006 18:10:14 +0000

…those (like Clinton) who aim to turn the Democrats into an political party as much like New Labour as possible.

I think this has it backwards. It’s the Blairites who turned Labour into a political party as much like the Democrats as possible.

By: Kevin Donoghue

Kevin Donoghue — Thu, 25 May 2006 18:09:32 +0000

Anatoly,

Range is seeing more than just a few cracks in the brickwork. He cites “the sudden success of the British initiative” as evidence that “there is an untapped vein of rational progressivism in Europe”; the manifesto provides “an intellectual and ideological home for many disillusioned European leftists who are looking for a sensible progressive movement to join”.

That’s a lot of mileage to get out of a website, but maybe no more than we should expect from a “rising generation … willing to wake up and rethink some of the received rigidities”.

By: Bro. Bartleby

Bro. Bartleby — Thu, 25 May 2006 17:48:58 +0000

This is of interest, for Bro. Clarence, a recent guest in residence at the monastery, had in recent years been a visiting guest in several monasteries in Europe, and in all his years there, the ‘around the dining table’ debates were, as he says, “Es ist zum Einschlafen” … and in contrast, our American custom of “debate with biscuits” excites him so much that, as he says, “Ich bekam eine Gänsehaut!”

By: engels

engels — Thu, 25 May 2006 17:36:23 +0000

Can anyone who talks about the “enforce[d] ideological uniformity” of mainstream European media and the “masonry of groupthink” of the European left really be of the moderate left, or even the moderate right? In more normal times this wacko true believer mentality would be seen as the marker of extremist politics.

By: nick s

nick s — Thu, 25 May 2006 17:21:05 +0000

Is it just me, or is the term ‘lefty’ way too rude and dismissive for a supposedly Democratic organization to be using?

Not if it’s the DLC, an organisation that represents neither Democrats nor leadership nor a council.

By: Anatoly

Anatoly — Thu, 25 May 2006 16:25:33 +0000

Henry,

1) What are quasi-imaginary friends – seemingly imaginary, but actually real friends?

2) How is Range’s “There are cracks in the façade… the most noticeable fissure in the masonry of group-think… signs of new thinking” disproved by Henry’s “some blokes in a pub, a few op-ed columnists and a bunch of signatures on an Internet petition does not a widely-based movement make.”?

Are obviously bogus strawmen wankerrific, or are they more in the pathetic line, would you say?

By: Kevin Donoghue

Kevin Donoghue — Thu, 25 May 2006 16:16:33 +0000

Backward Dave: you’ve got your threads tangled.

By: Backword Dave

Backword Dave — Thu, 25 May 2006 16:13:38 +0000

KCinDC, I don’t think that they’re mutually exclusive—when used as you say. I think there are several fine journalists who support one party or another. However, I don’t think DeLay’s people are making the mistake TP have ascribed to them—that they’ve confused satire with fact. What they’re saying is that Greenwald admits to making propaganda, not journalism. Having an opinion is a good thing; knowing your conclusion before you begin your research isn’t.

I subscribe to the TP RSS feed, and I read the site. But I fear it, and other Democrat supporting sites see conservative stupidity where there is none. There’s plenty of the real stuff. This isn’t an example of that. (IMO.)

By: Brendan

Brendan — Thu, 25 May 2006 16:00:29 +0000

Oh sorry I thought that when people won elections (like in Venezuela, or Bolivia) that was actually a bad thing, and showed that they were ‘populist’ (a term of abuse, apparently) and not to be trusted. My mistake.