Andrew Levine wrote an interesting book about analytical Marxism, though the theory of value and crisis are dead to him. This is an interesting piece. but he does not understand (or does not want to understand) that call for civility was initially a call for the end of right-wing paranoid discourse and the dehumanization of illegal aliens. The President is not a black nationalist or a foreign born militant for the umma. Health care reform won't take away personal decisions about health or subject people to death panels. Gun control will not leave people defenseless in front of criminals and the State. EFCA won't leave employees vulnerable to coercive tactics of self-serving union bureaucrats, or end workplace democracy by making the secret ballot illegal. A ban on torture won't cause ticking time bombs to go off. The question is mendacity in politics, especially mendacity in the service of a paranoid right wing agenda; and the question is racism and nativism. That is what Dupnik's call for civility challenged. It's true that the call for civility has been hijacked by a lot of dumb people, but they are not the reason that Dupnik's call resonated with so many. There are also sheriff offices that are refusing to remove people from their foreclosed homes. A working class hero could be a sheriff. At any rate, the point is not to criticize the call for civility but to specify it as a call for an end to mendacious right wing propaganda and racism/nativism. Yours, Lakshmi
ps I am not impressed with Levine's analysis of what is happening in Afghanistan. But then Tariq Ali who initially claimed that the Mumbai terrorist attacks must have been the work of Indian Muslims is not my only source of information.
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