Garrison Keillor revisits history

[StickerShock]

<p>I the middle of a Keillor column warning Reopublicans not to follow Bush down the path to war, I found this surprising admission:

It’s good for an old liberal like me to read history and recognize that Eisenhower was no dolt and Adlai Stevenson was no giant. And to read about Joe McCarthy and realize that, opportunist and blowhard that he was, he was hardly the embodiment of evil that we liberals cherished as an enemy. We made the people he attacked into heroes but McCarthyism was very small potatoes. Alger Hiss was not the victim of a witch hunt; he was a witch. The big story was taking place in Russia and Eastern Europe, in China, and in Cuba, places where evil ruled with an open hand, but a great many Democrats refused to see it. This refusal was a reaction against anti-communists such as Richard Nixon — if he said the sun rose in the east, then we would look off to the west and maybe build mirrors there so as to be able to argue the point — and this gave the Democratic party a reputation for appeasement that has crippled us ever since.

</p>

<p><a href=“Past Shows | A Prairie Home Companion”>Past Shows | A Prairie Home Companion;

[mahm]

<p>For those who don’t go to the link and read the quote in context, here’s what follows:</p>

<p>(quote)
And now something similar is happening to Republicans. They are following the Current Occupant down a road that will be disastrous to them for years to come. They are defending the indefensible. If they could put forth a few more truth tellers like Sen. Chuck Hagel, they could spare us from further disaster, such as the long-rumored forthcoming attack on Iran, a military adventure that this country cannot afford. The same people who got us stuck in one mess are planning another one. Seymour Hersh’s excellent articles in The New Yorker point toward that in a particularly authoritative way. </p>

<p>It is a time for some patriots to rise above politics and behave like a jury. The political scrum is boisterous and tribal and fun for one and all, but what is needed now is sobriety of the sort that you and I would bring to a criminal trial. You sit in the jury box and make yourself focus on the facts. Ignore the rhetoric, don’t buy into the story line you’re offered: Your decision will have painful consequences, so be wise.</p>

<p>(unquote)</p>

[citygirlsmom]

<p>whatever follows, fine, but to defend mccarthy> egad</p>

[Allmusic]

<p>Meanwhile, back at the ranch:</p>

<p>

US general says Iraq will get deadlier
8 Americans swell day’s toll from attacks</p>

<p>BAGHDAD – A US Army general yesterday forecast a rise in deaths among American forces in the coming months, a prediction underscored by the announcement that a roadside bomb had killed six US soldiers and a foreign journalist north of Baghdad. Five other American troops died elsewhere over the weekend.</p>

<p>In April, 104 troops were killed, the fourth time since the beginning of 2005 that US deaths exceeded 100 in a single month. At least 25 troops have been killed in May, a grim start to a month in which Democrats are expected to keep up pressure on the White House to plan a withdrawal from Iraq.</p>

<p>The latest deaths came on a bloody day for Iraqi security forces and civilians as well. At least 58 Iraqis died in attacks, including 42 killed when a car bomb tore through a market in the Baghdad neighborhood of Bayaa.

</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/05/07/us_general_says_iraq_will_get_deadlier/[/url]”>http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/05/07/us_general_says_iraq_will_get_deadlier/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

[drb]

<p>I thought the mission not-accomplished defenders defined “only” 58 Iraqis dead as progress.</p>

[coureur]

<br>

<blockquote>
<p>I found this surprising admission:<<</p>
</blockquote>

<br>

<p>I admire Keillor for saying this. And if more liberals embraced this kind of thinking, and if conservatives/Republicans could similarly see and admit to their own past follies and begin to understand that liberals are not all unpatriotic fools and that some of liberal/Democratic initiatives have been wonderful for the country, the level of political emnity on both sides that is poisoning this country could be vastly reduced. We could then find a lot more common ground and get on with improving this country for the common good instead of solely for the good of “my side.”</p>

[mahm]

<p>coureur–
as our kids would say, word up.</p>

[kluge]

<p>Well put, Coureur. The knee-jerk “If your team is for it, it must be bad” mentality is writ large in American political folly, today as ever.</p>

[standrews]

<p>Perhaps Mr Keillor needs to revisit Neville Chamberlain as well. You don’t avoid disaster by trying to appease enemies that, “want to kill you more than you want to live.” What exactly is indefensible about that?</p>

[kluge]

<p>Only 9 posts to the Hitler reference! A new CC record?</p>