Most peace marches aren't attended mainly by leftists, as you well know. Those that are are too small to matter, The left, that is, people who are within the sphere or orbit of socialism, especially organized socialism, and that is what I mean by the left, is tiny.
The culture of US socialists is a good deal more nuanced than what you suggest. You can look to Jim's remark here, check up Lou's marxmail list archive and follow threads concerning US troops, etc., and you'll hear a variety of voices. A few of them fit your stereotype, to be sure, but the majority don't.
Anyhow, if the socialist left is too small to matter, why give a damn?
Surely there is a political rhetoric that says neither that freedom, democracy, etc. are "American values" nor goes on about "Pig Fascist Amerikkka."
No doubt, but since freedom and democracy are Amerucan values, why not say so?
As long as affirmation of freedom and democracy as "American values" is not expressed as an exclusive claim, I have no problem, but a more pressing task, it seems to me, is to coax Americans into recognizing that freedom and democracy aren't exclusively "American values," that when Iraqis fight back, now and later, they are fighting for their freedom and democracy, that freedom and democracy are "Iraqi values" as well. Otherwise, a number of Americans will think that all Iraqi fighters are terrorists and that Iraqi civilian casualties are the fault of Iraqi fighters who hide among them.
I don't recall Douglass going on about freedom, democracy, etc. being "American values," though; the tenor of his major speeches and writings went into the opposite direction: e.g. "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?"
Douglass' signal contribution to political theory in America was that slavery was, desiptea ppearances,
unconstitutional. Against Garrison, who did go on in the rhetoric of his day against pig fascist Amerikka (the
Constitution is a compact with death, an agreement with Hell!) -- it made him the most hated man in America,
Douglas insisted that if we lived up the Constutution, we would abolish slavery.
We are talking about political rhetoric here, so it makes sense to pay attention to how Douglass made his case:
***** ....What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour....
<http://douglassarchives.org/doug_a10.htm> *****
We never hear such a sharp criticism of hollowness of nationalist ideas and ideals from any US leftist today, even though, arguably, imperialism is as bad as slavery.
You and other leftists on this list and eklsewhere are really Garrisonian, you want the isolated comfort of denouncing the Empire as Evil so you can bemoan the ignorance of the people who therefore ignore you.
Isn't a harsh denunciation of the Empire in keeping with the best of the American tradition, from the American revolution to the Anti-Imperialist League to Malcolm X and MLK? I gather that this part of the American tradition has fallen into disuse.
He doesn't deny that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are Ameruca,
Throughout the speech, though, Douglass keeps saying that those blessings only belonged to white Americans, the "you" in the speech: "Citizens, your fathers made good that resolution. They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary" (@ <http://douglassarchives.org/doug_a10.htm>). The point is that whites, being free citizens, could celebrate the Fourth of July, but blacks, enslaved, unfree, and denied the full rights of citizenship, could not.
Today, a lot of Americans want not only Americans but the rest of the world -- including Iraqis! -- to celebrate US soldiers as "liberators." Those who don't are called "anti-American."
Your fervor to deny that anything good could be American is disturbing.
I didn't say anything of the sort. I simply said that there is no evidence that today's US leftists are vociferous about alienation from America, whatever it is.
--
Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>
