re:"sorry to say, but...Stalin and Mao were right wingers."
Rich,
I disagree. And if you go back, you will probably find that many American progressives were defenders of both Stalin and Mao. In more recent times, it was members of the American left, not the right that chose to ignore the Killing Fields of Pol Pot (at least, till fellow communist Vietnam invaded Cambodia and force the world to admitt that the genocide was true)
capitalismmagazine.com
"The growing hysteria of the administration's posture on Cambodia," declared Senator George McGovern, "seems to me to reflect a determined refusal to consider what the fall of the existing government in Phnom Penh would actually mean.... We should be able to see that the kind of government which would succeed Lon Nol's forces would most likely be a government ... run by some of the best-educated, most able intellectuals in Cambodia."
On the other hand, Gerald Ford "warned of "horror and tragedy" if Cambodia was abandoned to the Khmer Rouge and pleaded with Congress to supply Lon Nol's army with the tools it needed to defend itself."
What about the American Labor movement are they liberal? Well, well yes, but they have an early history of inciting violence and hatred toward Asians. When Sam Gompers ran the AFL, a Mexican and Asian farm worker union in California tried to enter the AFL - they were told they could join, if Asians were removed from the union. If you look at history, Progressives in the American West were passing the very same laws against Asians, as the KKK helped pass against Blacks in the South. Ever heard of the Tacoma Method? |
