Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 15:42:51 -0400
From: dhenwood-AT-panix.com (Doug Henwood)
Subject: Re: the Christian Coalition and the NOI, again


At 10:40 AM 2/16/96, Adam Rose wrote:

>Lisa, you cannot equate Farakhan + the Christian right, however
>similar their politics. One is a response to oppression, the other
>is the oppression itself.

Not exactly. "The Christian Right" is a very varied thing. Its leadership
is indeed part of the structure of oppression, but the mass of Christian
rightists are mid- to downscale white people - i.e., the working class. On
economic issues, many of the Thumpers are actually quite progressive - this
adds to Buchanan's appeal. (Buchanan is the only candidate really speaking
about working class issues, unless you want to count Clinton's invocation
of the politically/intellectually fraudulent investment banker-austerity
artist Felix Rohatyn.) No socialist or social democratic movement in
America can go anywhere without winning over lots of folks who would now be
called Christian rightists. Since LF's base is more petit bourgeois than
working class, comparing the class composition of the two movements could
be quite interesting.

Of course none of the above should be construed as denying the persistence
and virulence of racism in the US; just a plea for making "the essential
distinctions," as A.R. Ammons had Matthew Arnold say.

Doug

--

Doug Henwood
Left Business Observer
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New York NY 10024-3217
USA
+1-212-874-4020 voice
+1-212-874-3137 fax
email: <dhenwood-AT-panix.com>
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