Well said.
Don't forget the Loyalty Oath pushed under the noses of teachers and
government employees, and others, during those carefree days in the
late 40's and 50's, during our nation's great Red Witch Hunt.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/14/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It's just a coincidence that Frank used that phrase, party loyalist, in his
response to Carl and me because something about our earlier discussion sent
those very words buzzing around in my brain before I just came back to the
computer and saw his message. Maybe it was because Carlos said that one of
the reasons that Bernie wasn't permitted to get the Democratic nomination
was that he was an, "outsider". Whatever! It seems to me to be an anathema
that in a country that claims to honor freedom of thought, independent
initiative, Democracy, civil rights, etc., anyone should think that party
loyalty is a value to be cherished. The concept reminds me of Nazi oaths,
confession meetings in Communist China, and the conflicts among the various
brands of Communism that I've read about. Loyalty to the Democratic Party?
It's just an institution built to accumulate and use political power to
achieve the ends of the people who happen to be running it at the time. Its
nature has changed radically over the years. It was, at one point, before
many of you were born, the home of southern segregationists and its liberal
wing made all kinds of ugly acccomodations to that wing. In New York City,
it represented unions, but it also had strong alliances with gangsters. By
the 90's, it had aligned itself with corporate elites while maintaining
ties
with social liberals and intellectuals. My feeling is that what we should
be loyal to is the values and ideas that are meaningful to us. Once our
loyalties to institutions, however benign they may appear to be at the
moment, takes precedence, we may find ourselves supporting policies and
practises that we abhor.
Miriam
