Apologies and Apologetics: Pete Seeger Absolves Himself

And regarding William F. Buckley’s fake apologies for 1950′s racism, why do we want people to apologize? Apologies, when made on demand, are always slippery. Buckley, unlike his followers, never really cast his slippery comments as an apology anyway. Here’s a defensive, self-admiring, blame-shifting discourse from Pete Seeger, whom I likened to Buckley in that [...]

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“Occupy Wall Street” Reading List

Yes, reading. Might help with attempting coherence, distinguishing between a grievance and a demand, stuff like that. Call me a patronizing elitist — you won’t get any argument from me! — but in a world where sincerity is equated with the inarticulate and cogency is supposedly only a telltale sign of privilege and hierarchy, these [...]

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This Machine Kills Fascists: Woody Guthrie, meet Radovan Karadzic

Woody Guthrie famously had a sign on his guitar reading “This Machine Kills Fascists.” The slogan neatly sums up the philosophy of the ’30′s and ’40′s American left when it comes to the relationship between folk art and progressive politics. Leaving aside, just for the moment, the support that Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and others in [...]

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Amendments, mobs, God, rights, guns, Pilgrims, Adams, etc.

Responding here to a bunch of comments posted during recent months, since I don’t like burying and scattering the discussion: Elites versus the crowd. Working backward and starting with lacithedog’s comment on my “New Deal 2.0″ post. Laciethedog is reading Declaration and comments further on the “New Deal” post here. I appreciate the interest and [...]

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The Founding Fathers, Deism, and Christianity

[UPDATE: I always feel a need to note, when we talk about the upscale founders being Christian, the degree to which so many of them were reflexively, traditionally, and virulently anti-Catholic, a feeling shared in most cases by the evangelical working-class left discussed below ...] Smart post from Jonathan Rowe at American Creation (whence the [...]

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Founding-Era Reading List: Leftist History, Part 2

(Part One is here. ) From a modest but notable spike in page views for my first entry in this category, I get the feeling these lists might have some actual value. I’ll interlink them as I go. (The “Tory History” list, coming soon, will be briefer and might be interesting too. Others may follow [...]

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Founding-Era Reading List: Leftist History

Here’s a list of some of the writers whose work has been invaluable to my understanding of the founding period. They’re on the left — not New York Times “media bias left” as defined by the right. These writers are actually informed by Marxism. [UPDATE: I promise an invaluable Tory-history reading list next.] [UPDATE: But [...]

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Is Hogeland a Marxist? (and other burning questions of the day)

I heard the other day that someone I don’t know, who has either read or heard about my books and articles, informed someone I know that I’m a Marxist. What pleased me, of course, is that someone I don’t know has actually been induced to form an impression of my thought. What worried me is [...]

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Chomsky v. Commies, over Tea

I’m late on this one, but I have a feeling not much was made of it anyway. Back in February, Noam Chomsky, impassive demolisher of ruling-class apologetics, pointed out during an interview that what the “Tea Party” movement really represents is a massive failure of the American left. That remark might as well be designed [...]

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“S” word

Nation writer Melissa Harris-Lacewell has called the Tea Partiers seditious. Left historian and activist Jesse Lemisch objects, persuasively.

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