[Politics]

A Cranky Comment

Andrew Sullivan quotes John Derbyshire today, as Derbyshire, in his unhinged manner, fears the end of his little plutocratic heyday. "The windsocks" says he, "are now pointing in the direction of more socialism." That's bad enough, but Sullivan, generally more careful with his language, piles on. In his retort, he trashes Bush, whom he calls a practitioner of "Christianist socialism."

Is everyone on the right this stupid? Do they genuinely not know what socialism is? Has rhetoric completely eaten their brains? We are so far from socialism that even the suggestion that the poor not die in the streets and the elderly not gnaw on old dog food becomes radical doctrine. A social safety is not socialism. Your plutocracy is safe even with the existence of social security.

It's talk like that that inclines me to think we're due for a REAL revolution. My muse, Emma Goldman (note the newly-added pic to the right), once scared the pants off the rich by suggesting that the poor just start seizing wealth. She held it as a moral position. It's a democracy, after all--why should the rich feast off the bones (and labor) of the poor? We might reasonably ask why the rich--by which we mean Halliburton and other Bush sponsors--should today feast off our tax money. It's not exactly socialism, folks. And Andy Sullivan oughta know better.

Ask for work. If they do not give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, take bread.