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Not
all insane people are hard core liberals, but all hard core liberals
are insane. Accepting that thesis will help us understand the
intractable nature of the Kerrys, Gores, and Howard Deans of
this world, who, even when presented with hard truths, refuse to
entertain them. Here is one such recent festival of pod
people.
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Rosenberg Reruns:
A Cause the Left Can't Give Up
You would think, by now, with a half-century of
scholarship behind us and a great deal of damning evidence on display,
we would not have to be arguing about the guilt or innocence of various
iconic figures of the late 1940s and 1950s: Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter
White or, perhaps most notoriously, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. But the
martyr-status of such figures seems irresistible, even today, to a
certain kind of sentimental leftist. They still remain symbols of some
malevolent American quality -- never mind the truth of what they
actually did.
Such was the lesson of a forum last week in Manhattan
convened to discuss the "artistic influence" of the Rosenbergs. The
invitation to the event, sponsored by the Fordham Law School, referred
to the Rosenbergs as "the accused." It was a tellingly exculpatory
phrase. For the record, both Julius and Ethel were convicted as
communist spies and executed for espionage in 1953.
The stars of the evening were the novelist E.L. Doctorow and the playwright Tony Kushner.
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I really hate posting long tracts, because I don't have the attention span myself to read them. I can't help myself here.
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Mr. Kushner argued the Rosenbergs were "murdered, basically." Mr.
Doctorow went further, explaining that he wanted to use their
circumstances to tell "a story of the mind of the country." It was a
mind, apparently, filled with loathing and paranoia -- again, never
mind the truth of the charges against the Rosenbergs or other spies of
the time. "The principles of the Cold War had reached absurdity," he
continued. "We knew that the Russians were no threat, but we wanted to
persuade Americans to be afraid" and so impose "a Puritan, punitive
civil religion." Pronounced Mr. Kushner: "Our failure to come to terms
with a brutal past, our failure to open up the coffins and let the
ghosts out, has led to our current, horrendous situation."
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"We knew that the Russians were no threat ...?"
The problem, of course, is that this version of recent history is being
taught to your children. And, you're working two jobs to pay for
it! JFC! Anyway, here's the last thing I'll paste (if any
of you want the full article [Rosenberg Reruns: A Cause the Left Can't Give Up] , E-mail me and I'll send it.
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As the artists turned the Rosenbergs' treason into dissent and then
into patriotism, the audience was enthusiastically in tune. Present
were the Rosenbergs' children, Robert and Michael Meeropol, who
continue to contest their parents' Soviet entanglement, and the former
editor of the Nation, Victor Navasky. When it came time to ask
questions, the moderator warned off any "Cold War warriors" from asking
"disrespectful" questions, like, presumably, how these authors could
defend an ideology that took millions of lives. No one did.
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