Re: [sixties-l] Gore v. Bush

From: William Mandel (wmmmandel@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun Jun 25 2000 - 06:26:49 CUT

  • Next message: monkerud: "Re: [sixties-l] Fwd: Green Like Me"

    I know Canada for over 55 years, having spoken there at rallies,
    and to the Canadian Army, and over CBC during World War II, and
    taught at the school sponsored officially by the national labor
    movement. During the McCarthy years, I would ski in eastern
    Canada [traveling by Greyhound Bus, because, having been
    blacklisted, I was broke], specifically because the tension of
    living in the U.S. under those circumstances was relieved by
    going to a country of very similar culture that shared my view
    that the U.S. had gone crazy. For seventeen years during and
    after the Vietnam War I visited Canada every couple of years
    because one of my sons was a war refugee there. In the 80s, a
    remarkable retired schoolteacher in Edmonton would circulate my
    Pacifica broadcasts throughout Canada on tape and organized a
    national lecture tour for me as well as having me address a major
    event there by phone, along with a retired U.S. vice-admiral who
    headed our anti-war Center for Defense Information. Finally, the
    University of Alberta co-published, with an American house, the
    last of my five books on the Soviet Union, SOVIET BUT NOT
    RUSSIAN, 1985.
        So I believe I have a basis for opinion on Canada, and I
    agree with you. It is, for want of a better single word, a
    sensible country. Its people are quite right in thinking we are
    primitive in not understanding the benefits of what we call
    single-payer health care. The remarkable thing is that Canadians
    are conservative in culture but highly progressive, relative to
    us in the U.S., in socio-economic and political matters. After
    all, we don't have anything like the New Democratic Party, for
    all its faults.
        In terms of your recommending books to your students to help
    them understand the feel of the McCarthy era in the U.S., forgive
    me for suggesting my own new SAYING NO TO POWER, because I was
    most intimately involved in that. You can hear my challenge to
    McCarthy in his own hearing room on my website,
    www.BillMandel.net.
                                                    William Mandel

    Scott Kerlin wrote:
    >
    > In response to the posts earlier this week on this topic, I'd like to
    > share these impressions:
    >
    > One of the core topics we discussed in my sociology seminar in the U.S.
    > last term was the question of whether 1968 should be considered *the*
    > turning point year of the last half of the 20th century, and whether the
    > election of Nixon was ultimately the beginning of the end of the illusion
    > of democracy that had for so long pervaded American political ideology.
    >
    > The conclusion we reached was that Nixon represented a deep tendency
    > within the American electorate to drift rightward, in favor of
    > unrestrained capitalism (and potentially fascism) and away from
    > participatory/direct democracy. Remember Kevin Phillips' book, "The
    > Emerging Republican Majority"?
    >
    > And yet, somehow the "Republicrats" seem largely successful at preserving
    > the illusion that America remains a "liberal democracy". Why? As I ask
    > this, I will underline that Marty Jezer's book "The Dark Ages" was one I
    > encouraged my students to read, to help them understand what life was like
    > in America during the McCarthy years



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