******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
I have no love for John McCain. But I do know an end of an era when I see one. There was, once upon a time, such a thing as principled conservatism, in Britain and America. Their principles weren't ours, but they were real. John McCain was an imperialist, a naked supporter of capitalism, a racist. The list goes on and on, and I won't defend him. However, his brand of conservatism is being replaced by a new kind of right wing authoritarianism. He, Bush and Palin undoubtedly contributed to creating the conditions that produced this state of affairs. But it is different. Tim N On Mon, 27 Aug 2018, 17:40 Louis Proyect via Marxism, < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > On 8/27/18 12:19 PM, A.R. G via Marxism wrote: > > Let's not overlook the bright side of this, namely that he's dead. I wish > > that Sarah Palin would also develop brain cancer, but unfortunately one > > needs a brain for that. > > I am put off by comments like this. As someone who spent the best five > years of my life building the Vietnam antiwar movement, I was always > happy to hear about an American plane being shot down. > > But I also spent two years working at Memorial Sloan Kettering in the > mid-80s and never got used to seeing cancer patients walking down the > hall dragging their chemo gear behind them. It reminded me of > illustrations for Dante's Inferno. I used to have bad dreams about > walking through the hospital decades after I stopped working there. > > Brain cancer is really nasty shit. When I was in Houston in the mid-70s, > the guy in the next cubicle came down with it. Who knows? Maybe from the > oil refineries. I am glad I didn't stick around to get sick myself. A > month when he returned to work after his initial treatments, he was > wearing an eye-patch and bumping into walls. Unlike lung cancer or > cancer of the pancreas, two equally lethal varieties, brain cancer > punishes you from day one with blinding headaches, diminished cognition, > paralysis and other hellish symptoms. > > I felt the same way about Christopher Hitchens, another villainous > figure. I just felt pity for him and could not bring myself to write > snarky schadenfreude messages. > > Maybe all this stuff is more relevant to me because an old friend died > of lung cancer a couple of months ago and another one had to deal with > prostate cancer treatments last summer. > > As far as McCain is concerned, he is a symbol of a Republican Party that > no longer exists. When I was young, this is what its main leader was > saying. It seems not like 64 years ago but 640. > > "Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, > unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you > would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a > tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these > things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional > politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible > and they are stupid." > > --Dwight Eisenhower, 1954 > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/nelsontim86%40gmail.com > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
