The Myth of the Tolerant Left October 31, 2002 A stubborn myth holds
Why the Left Hates America (just published by Forum/Prima).
The American Left has always fought for tolerance, free speech, and civil liberties only for itself. This fact is most strikingly illustrated by the career of William Z. Foster. Foster served as head of the Communist Party of the United States of America at the same time he sat on the national board of the American Civil Liberties Union. It takes no great sagacity to see that he defended the Bill of Rights only insofar as this served the purposes of Joseph Stalin. Eventually, when the Soviet Union formed an alliance with Nazi Germany to invade Poland, Foster and other Communists were forced to resign from the board.
As for Joe McCarthy, the infamous Wisconsin senator came late to the anti-Communist struggle, and his aim was limited: to get Soviet agents out of the U.S. Government. Quite a few of them had found perches there, and in fact McCarthy underestimated their number. He did make some sloppy charges, but much of the blame for the panic he created on the Left was due to liberals themselves. By encouraging an alliance with the Soviet Union, they had helped the Reds blur the border between liberalism and Communism.
Today the Reds are gone, but the pinkoes we have always with us. | |
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