Camelot and the Cultural Revolution (American liberals took leave of reason after JFK's murder)

Opinion Journal ^ | 7/12/2007 | Fred Siegel

[mojito]

"Inherit the Wind" is running on Broadway again, night after night pitting the righteously rational Clarence Darrow against the Bible-thumping antievolutionist William Jennings Bryan. The 1955 play--a chestnut of high-school English courses across the country--concerns the Scopes "Monkey Trial" of 1925 and is meant to capture the moment in American history when science and reason superseded, at last, the myth and superstition of foolish reactionaries. It has become something of a liberal sacrament. But as James Piereson shows in "Camelot and the Cultural Revolution," myth and superstition were the essence of the liberal response to John F. Kennedy's assassination in November 1963. It was the liberals who threw evidence and reason to the winds, inheriting the crippling effects of their own bad judgment. Mr. Piereson is not concerned with showing yet again that, yes--in defiance of all conspiracy theories--Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman on that fateful day. "Camelot and the Cultural Revolution," Mr. Piereson explains, is less about "the assassination itself than the political reaction to it and the lasting consequences of that reaction." It is one of the best accounts we have of why liberalism--which "owned the future" in 1963--fell from grace and has yet to recover.

[Shooter 2.5]

Oswald was a patsy because, well, you know, uh.....well, he said so. Get with the program.

The naysayers who claim LBJ did it are the mirror images of the “Blame Bush” crowd from the DU. Same irrational hatred.

[Milhous]

far-right-wing anticommunists and their segregationist cousins.

I reject this associative leftist propaganda.

attempted to show that segregationists and the followers of Joe McCarthy

I again reject this associative leftist propaganda.

Celebrating a Century and a Half of Civil Rights Achievement by the Republican Party

Republicans held our first state convention in Jackson, Michigan on July 6, 1854. That fall, the GOP swept to victory throughout the North. Other anti-slavery Members of Congress joined the party, so that less than two years later, on February 2, 1856, Republicans elected a Republican Speaker of the House. The Republican National Committee first met the next month, to coordinate opposition to the pro-slavery policies of the Democrats, also known then as "slaveocrats."

And that summer, Republicans held our first national convention. There, we nominated our first presidential candidate, the Georgia-born form California Senator John Fremont. Four years later, we won the White House for the "Great Emancipator."

As the nation sacrificed during the Civil War, Republicans planned the most significant amendments ever to our Constitution and enacted - despite fierce opposition from the Democrats - the 13th Amendment to ban slavery, the 14th Amendment to protect all Americans regardless of the color of their skin, and the 15th Amendment to extend voting rights to African-Americans. The Republicans' 1875 Civil Rights Act guaranteed equal access to public accommodations without regard to race. Struck down by the Supreme Court in 1883, this law would be reborn as the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

"Every man that wanted the privilege of whipping another man to make him work for nothing, and pay him with lashes on his naked back, was a Democrat. Every man that raised bloodhounds to pursue human beings was a Democrat. Every man that cursed Abraham Lincoln because he issued the Emancipation Proclamation was a Democrat." - Robert Ingersoll, 1876.

For its first 80 years, the Republican Party was the only one to provide a home for Afican-Americans. Until well into the 20th century, every African-American Member of Congress was a Republican. The same was true for nearly all state legislators and other elected officials.

(Emphasis added.)

[Revolting cat!]

As you said, the "controversy", and I'll add, the conspiracy theories regarding the JFK assasination were nothing more than a diversion by the Left, and I think the KGB agents here (because of the connection of Oswald to the Soviets.)

That diversion was the true conspiracy that we should be interested in.

[Mad_as_heck]

Absolutely. Its well established that much of the early JFK assassination conspiracy theories were promoted in books secretly subsidized by the KGB. They were using the left to cause as much trouble as possible in the US.

For instance, at the time of the Assassination the KGB was broadcasting a propaganda radio broadcast called "Radio Free Dixie" from Cuba in an attempt to encourage violence among blacks in the south.

Lots of disturbing into about KGB activities in the US are detailed in the book The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB by Christopher Andrew.

[tpaine]

This article explains my previously stated reason for why I do what I do in the Oswald threads. Some here want to ignore the reality of the early-1960s American left wing and instead choose to disbelieve and excuse the whole culture of the violent left based upon the unpredictability of 'magic bullet' terminal ballistics after it's passed through human tissue. To them, random circumstance vanquishes all logic. Special thanks go to the 'Lone Gunman' deniers who have been carrying water for the radical left wing for over 40 years.

Amusing rant Kid, but I think of the politics of that era more or less as does Mad_as_Heck:

I think it is important to remember that JFK was murdered by a hardcore leftist specifically because he was (relatively) a hawk on national defense.

It's quite true that JFK had as many enemies on the far left, - as he had on the far right. Maybe more.
But in any case the radicals of both left & right tend to be socialistic/fascists.

There is no doubt that Oswald was nutty as a loon but that is true of many of the lefties on the stage today. He was basically a prototype for later '60s radical types like Tom Hayden, John Kerry, SDS, the Weathermen, etc. The main difference was that he was a genuine poor person working alone and they were mostly a country club of spoiled rich white boys.

'Working alone' is arguable. - For sure he didn't have much money but he did get around. [Russia/Mexico] - I don't recall that his personal finances were ever even reconciled by the Commission. - How did he manage to finance his political activities on minimum wage dead end jobs?

Lee Harvey Oswald was the father of the modern "Progressive" left and the shot he fired from the Texas School Book Depository was the opening shot of the hard left takeover of the Democrat party that took hold by the end of the Vietnam War.

Well, LBJ's 'hard left' sure took over, but I doubt anyone saw Oswald as anything more than a patsy, certainly not as a 'father'.

Most of the alleged "controversy" about the assassination is an attempt to cover up the fact that JFK was killed by the left because he, whatever his VERY great faults, was not a traitor.

Yep, - JFK was a threat to the Democrats socialist wing, imo.

They have done a very good job of muddying the waters.

Hear, hear. [is that an echo Kid?]

[tpaine]

Its well established that much of the early JFK assassination conspiracy theories were promoted in books secretly subsidized by the KGB.

Gotta love these conspiracy theories. -- Any links to proof that the KGB was secretly subsidizing books? - Which ones, written when?

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

HILLARY RODHAM’s (Diane, as she went by back then) & WILLIAM Jefferson CLINTON’s (as he went by back then) public support of Communist North Vietnam’s push to take over a then Free South Vietnam long ago ...sadly produced:

.

Pictures of a vietnamese Re-Edcuation (SLAVE LABOR) Camp

http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts

http://www.JourneyFromTheFall.com

.

What price for the still Free to pay now, I wonder..?

[tpaine]

From the article:

During his presidency, Kennedy had repeatedly criticized the irrationalism of far-right-wing anticommunists and their segregationist cousins. It was a turbulent time, lest we forget.
In April 1963, the police in Birmingham, Ala., had set dogs upon peaceful civil-rights marchers, and in June segregationists in Mississippi assassinated NAACP leader Medgar Evers.
In October, protesters in Dallas had harassed Adlai Stevenson, Kennedy's United Nations ambassador. Dallas was a notoriously segregated city, and the John Birch Society (whose members thought President Eisenhower had been under communist sway) were a part of the city's political culture.
The society's Dallas leader was Gen. Edwin Walker, whom Oswald had tried to kill in April by shooting at him through a window in his home. (Oswald just missed.)
Thus when Kennedy was shot on Nov. 22, 1963, it was widely assumed that his killer was the kind of hate-filled reactionary who believed Kennedy to be selling out America to Soviet Communism and to be showing too little resistance to the civil-rights movement.

That was not "widely assumed" at all - as Oswald's defection to the Soviet Union was established almost immediately.

In the minds of liberals, then, Kennedy's killer should have been a right-wing fanatic. But he wasn't. Oswald was a man of the hard left. He had defected to the Soviet Union. When he found that country too bureaucratic, he returned to America and began proselytizing for Fidel Castro and his supposedly new brand of the third-world revolution.

Yep, those facts were shouted from the rooftops, leaving many rational people doubtful of Oswald's motives from day one.
- Why would a known leftist shoot at JFK? - It made no sense then, - and it still doesn't now.

Nor was Oswald an irrational, discontented Dostoevskian loner, as some depicted him.
He was in fact a joiner of movements and something of a self-defined intellectual who thought that his mixture of Marxism and anarchism made him smarter and more sophisticated than his frivolous peers.

Yes indeed. - As details of Oswalds life became known -- long before the Warren Report was published, - the mystery of his motivation was being discussed. - However, most people were willing to wait for the Report before making judgments.

Little did we know that the Report would raise more questions than it resolved; - it was a mess, and the American people overwhelmingly rejected it immediately. - Before any conspiracy books were even published.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

When President RONALD REAGAN was successfully implementing his plan to defeat the Communist Soviet Union during the 1980’s...

...Senator TED KENNEDY sent his point man & former Rep. JOHN TUNNEY to Moscow to do what he could do to defeat REAGAN.
(per KGB Files)

During the 1970’s Sen. TED KENNEDY fooled a post-WATERGATE Democrat Congress into cutting off all our funding for the then Free South Vietnamese to fight for their own Freedom with.

During the 1960’s both KENNEDY & TUNNEY toured all over a then Free South Viettnam’s military operations to see exactly what the Vietnam War was really all about.

In other words, they both have always known better.

http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set1.htm
(See 5th Photo down)

.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... 'Working alone' is arguable. - For sure he didn't have much money but he did get around. [Russia/Mexico] - I don't recall that his personal finances were ever even reconciled by the Commission. - How did he manage to finance his political activities on minimum wage dead end jobs?"

Oswald took a bus to Mexico. How much do you think it cost in 1963 to charter a ride through Mexico in a greasy bus with diesel exhaust and dirt up to the windows? I wouldn't be surprised if the fare is under 100 bucks even today. There were several witnesses to that expedition. He ate cheap meals at the chartered stops. On that trip, he was even wearing the ratty sweater he had on when he was arrested in Dallas.

He passed out poorly mimeographed 'Fair Play for Cuba' handbills in New Orleans. Sounds cheap to me.

To Russia, he booked a shared cabin on a clunky freighter to Europe with part of his savings from the USMC and even walked part of the way into the USSR. He petitioned the US State Department for funds to get him home when he wanted to return with Marina. They billed him for a refund.

He also bought a cheap surplus rifle via mail order that he used to murder the President of the United States.

[goldstategop]

Liberals have been nurturing paranoid fantasies about the Right for a long time. Liberalism if you like, has been one long flight from reality. The ability to disconnect from reality provides it with much of its emotive appeal, that's translated into raw political power. In short, liberalism is utopianism. Marx tried to ground the Left in scientific reality; it has rejected it for the more satisfying ability to remake the world, as if on command, out of one's fevered thoughts. That has defined the essence of American liberalism and if liberals stop dreaming, they cease being liberals.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Ditto]

bump

[tpaine]

Buried within the 26 volumes of the Report are Oswald's service records, testimony of his officer in the Marines, State Department papers, contacts with top CIA officials in the USSR, job applications, a certificate of special training in radar, electronics, photographic skills, Russian language tests and proof of learning abilities, college applications and acceptances, intelligent correspondence with the Navy and important public officials, FBI contacts in Texas and New Orleans, access to passports and special favors, funding by the State Department, arrangements provided by the Treasury Department cancelled pay checks and continuous funding associated with Government employment, proof of being coached in legal rights, and Oswald's connections with U-2 flights over the USSR.
Oswald was not rejected by the society in which he lived. He received special favors in the Marines, being relieved of duty while meeting with secret persons. His discharge was honorable from the service. His entry from Helsinki into the USSR was speeded up in an "unusual" hurry. Housing and finances in the USSR were superior to that of anyone around him. All waivers were passed, breaking particular stipulations in the State Department, to allow his Russian wife speedy entry into the U.S.
Lee and Marina stayed at the best hotels, were met by VIPs at the New York harbor, were taken to their hotel, airport in limousines. Oswald had special privileges, traveled in the USSR without passes, received an immediate passport renewal in the U.S. in June 1963, and proved that with every gesture he made somebody was catering to his wishes, rather than rejecting his plans.
Research in the Report indicates that Lee Oswald was not without friends in the U.S. or in the USSR. All of his contacts and associations were with medical students, lawyers, doctors, oil engineers, accountants, professional people, professors, employees of space and defense industries.
There was a chain of command from the time of his arrival in Fort Worth in June 1962 that took care of introductions, jobs, housing, placements, assignments.
All of this had the earmarks of a very complicated and successful intelligence operation, one in which Oswald was kept on a financially short leash.

[The KG9 Kid]

Oh great. This is where you finally get the horns on your ridiculous and long standing Oswald conspiracy claims, tpaine.

Your last comment comes uncredited from the late Mae Brussel at the link Why Was Martha Mitchell Kidnapped?. Was there any reason you decided not to post a link to that?

Okay, let it be known that you're referencing a left wing site tributing an old anti-war pinko screwball who saw the shadowy ghost of Adolf Hitler in everything she wrote about and talked about on some shortwave radio program targeted at angry anarcho-hippies like the Symbionese Liberation Army. Her references to the claims made in the paragraph above come primarily from career conspiracist David Lifton and third hand references from career conspiracist Mark Lane.

Almost none of the baloney in those paragraphs you posted is true, or it's taken out of context and wildly overstated as conjecture.

Among many points made by Lifton and Lane examined and debunked by Posner in 'Case Closed', here are a few which are contrary to the claims you posted above:

Oswald was indeed rejected by the society in which he lived. He received no special favors in the USMC, and met with no secret persons while being suspended from duty -- for shooting himself with an unauthorized pistol in his barracks, mind you. He spent time in the brig. He was reduced to mowing lawns, mopping decks, and washing trucks. His discharge was undesirable for re-enlistment and was granted to care for his alleged ailing mother. They were just happy to be rid of him. Lifton speculates that Oswald got expedited handling of his defection to the USSR. Oswald initially worked in a metal foundry and complained that it was too dangerous. He was switched to working in a television factory. His accommodations were not superior to his co-workers unless you count the time he spent in a guest hotel for Western tourists while awaiting his defection request response which the USSR initially rejected. His friends there were factory workers. He generated a little interest among local party members until they found out what a dullard and creep he was. Just like in America, he complained about everything and made himself out to be the poor victim.

When he returned from the USSR, he wasn't met by VIPs. In fact, he complained that there was no press event at all after laboring to create a self-serving media statement that was never delivered. His brother wired him money for him and Marina to travel to Texas where he went back to a series of dead end jobs there and in New Orleans.

During that time, he was indeed visited occasionally by FBI agents, because, you know, he was a creepy defector who they had interest in.

tpaine, Posner's 'Case Closed' addresses all of the baloney from Lane and Lifton about his so-called secret and shadowy connections to military intelligence and the CIA. That sensationalist crap has been dismissed long ago. The real story about Oswald isn't anywhere near as compelling as the lies that Lifton made up.

Thanks for finally getting around to showing us where you get your conspiracy theories about the JFK assassination, though. You're a Lane/Lifton believer who sources information from 1972 by an old pinko Jewess who worked out of her basement and believed that Richard Nixon ordered the murderers of JFK/RFK/MLK because of a CIA connection to a secret post-war consortium of Nazi war criminals still at-large.

Jesus Christ. You're a complete moonbat if you believe any of that shit. You're also on the wrong website. I think you need to find some Symbionese Liberation Army cult tribute website, because you're starting to make me think that you're Bill or Emily Harris, or someone similar.

Either that, or you were locked in a closet for months with Patty Hearst.

[tpaine]

You're a Lane/Lifton believer who sources information from 1972 by an old pinko Jewess who worked out of her basement and believed that Richard Nixon ordered the murderers of JFK/RFK/MLK because of a CIA connection to a secret post-war consortium of Nazi war criminals still at-large.

Not at all. I cited those lines because all of those comments about Oswald are true, and are buried in the 26 volumes of Report. I could care less what you and your discredited hero Posner think about the author.

Posners book is simply a whitewash job on the Report. He's got to be as big a moonbat as Mae, that "old pinko Jewess"

Jesus Christ. You're a complete moonbat if you believe any of that shit.

Fine - you can't refute the facts I posted, so you're making a personal attack; - typical.

You're also on the wrong website.

Get a life. I'll match my credentials fighting for Constitutional restoration with anybody here.

I think you need to find some Symbionese Liberation Army cult tribute website, because you're starting to make me think that you're Bill or Emily Harris, or someone similar. Either that, or you were locked in a closet for months with Patty Hearst.

Yawn. -- Kid, - you're starting to sound a bit like our vitriolic old opponent Mojo. Why does opposition to big brothers Warren Report give you such a hissy fit?

[The KG9 Kid]

"... Kid, - you're starting to sound a bit like our vitriolic old opponent Mojo."

Well, you're probably right about that much. Come to think of it. I'll de-Mojo myself.

Still, I refuted those 'facts'. It's insanity.

Now I know where your JFK conspiracy beliefs come from, after months of you saying you weren't a conspiracist. Man, you're the kookiest R. Fletcher Prouty kind there is!

At least we can stop talking about the JFK assassination with one another. I see no need to speak further with you on it if that's where your beliefs come from.

[tpaine]

-- Kid, - you're starting to sound a bit like our vitriolic old opponent Mojo. Why does opposition to big brothers Warren Report give you such a hissy fit?

Well, you're probably right about that much. Come to think of it. I'll de-Mojo myself.
Still, I refuted those 'facts'. It's insanity.

No, you simply insisted that Posner refuted those Warren Report facts about Oswald; - that is incorrect. - Posner is just another whitewasher of the Reports many erroneous conclusions.

Now I know where your JFK conspiracy beliefs come from, after months of you saying you weren't a conspiracist.

The Report itself is the basis for all my doubts. Its conclusions are a total mess of supposition.

Man, you're the kookiest R. Fletcher Prouty kind there is!

" De-Mojo" yourself. Get a life.

At least we can stop talking about the JFK assassination with one another.

You pinged me to this weird little bozo style love fest. - Feel free to "stop talking" anytime.

I see no need to speak further with you on it if that's where your beliefs come from.

Whatever.

[The KG9 Kid]

Just let it be known that you believe that Richard Nixon sided with Nazi war criminals to murder JFK and RFK and force Ted Kennedy's Oldsmobile into the waters of Chappaquiddick.

That's exactly what your cherished source says, and that's precisely what this thread was about to begin with:

The True Politics of the Paranoid Style -- American liberals took leave of reason after JFK's murder.

I rest my case.

[Shooter 2.5]

I had forgotten all about that. The American Left and some Freepers are still trying to succeed at what the KGB started.

http://www.amazon.com/Sword-Shield-Mitrokhin-Archive-History/dp/0465003125

[Shooter 2.5]

You’re realizing just now why they are called conspiracy nuts? Haven’t you been paying attention?

They believe there were killers hiding in the trees, bushes, sewer pipes and standing right next to Zapruder. They believe the killers used pistols firing ice bullets and pistols to look like umbrellas. They believe a Secret Service man raised himself up in the following limousine, leveled off with a automatic rifle and fired the fatal shot.

Their bullets turn in flight at right angles, jump over windshields and passengers, create wounds one inch deep and then DISAPPEAR.

Dealy Plaza is now host to the nutcases who believe no plane hit the Twin Towers or the Pentagon. They claim it was all done with holograms.

These are the freepers who start the threads on Bigfoot, Roswell, “faked” moonlandings and contrails.