Friday, September 4, 2009

Max Blumenthal on Democracy Now This Morning

Some of us are trying to get author, videographer and blogger Max Blumenthal up to Alaska in late September, as a sort of antidote to the bile that will result from Jonah Goldberg's appearance here in the middle of September. Max was on Democracy Now this morning for a 25-minute interview on his book, Republican Gomorrah, and other matters, including the crazy woman.

Here is the interview, in three parts:

Part One:


Part Two:


Part Three:


Max's article at his blog, about President Eisenhower's 1958 letter to terminally ill World War II veteran, Robert Biggs, ran in yesterday's New York Times. In his letter, Eisenhower made a comment about dictatorships that sounds eerily familiar to those of us who are following the influence of fundamentalists, evangelicals and teabaggers on the health care debate. Here's how Blumenthal frames Eisenhower's written statement:

Though Eisenhower was criticized for lacking an intellectual framework or even an interest in ideas, he was drawn to Hoffer’s insights. He explained to Biggs that Hoffer “points out that dictatorial systems make one contribution to their people which leads them to tend to support such systems — freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds concerning these tremendous complex and difficult questions.” The authoritarian follower, Eisenhower suggested, desired nothing more than insulation from the pressures of a free society.


Alluding to Senator McCarthy and his allies, Eisenhower pointed out that cold war fears were distorted and exploited for political advantage. “It is difficult indeed to maintain a reasoned and accurately informed understanding of our defense situation on the part of our citizenry when many prominent officials, possessing no standing or expertness as they themselves claim it, attempt to further their own ideas or interests by resorting to statements more distinguished by stridency than by accuracy.”




7 comments:

KB said...

Wow, I am impressed with Max Blumenthal!

I can't express how much I appreciate him jumping into the belly of the beast to find the answers. I ordered his book 2 days ago and can't wait to read it.

That interview helped me form a complete picture of what is happening in politics here in the U.S., and frankly, it scares the shit outta me.

Thank you so much for posting this interview. And thank goodness McCain failed in his run for POTUS!

I hope he comes up in September. I'd love to hear him speak.

Do you know if he ever interviewed the crazy woman?

Philip Munger said...

KB,

Max was up here last year in the last part of September, and the crazy woman was down below, campaigning. He has yet to interview her, but who knows.....

Anonymous said...

Is this "crazy woman " you speak of the same "crazy woman" who had Obama on the defensive just by writing on her Facebook page ?

KB said...

Anon: Obama ignores Palin, as he should. She's just a crazy celebrity and mental moron.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, KB ...you need to watch the news more closely. Obama DIDN'T ignore Palin......he reacted to her "death panels" comment and became the first US President to argue with a Facebook page ....hilarious !!

KB said...

"Senators eliminate end-of-life provision"

Obama is the President, not a Senator.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/08/14/senators_eliminate_end_of_life_provision/

Anonymous said...

From the Boston Globe link above, 2 GOP Senators infer Palin is a liar and "nuts":

"However, other Republicans, including Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Johnny Isakson of Georgia - who sponsored similar legislation - have said Palin’s claim was hurting the party’s attempts to influence the bill.

Portions of the Democratic health care bills “are bad enough that we don’t need to be making things up,’’ Murkowski said, repeating a phrase Palin used last month when announcing her resignation as Alaska’s governor, when she asked the news media to “quit making things up.’’

Isakson said it was “nuts’’ to claim the bill encourages euthanasia.

Representative Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat who wrote the provision in the House bill, called references to death panels or euthanasia “mind-numbing’’ because the bill would block funds for counseling that presents suicide or assisted suicide as an option.

“It’s a blatant lie, and everybody who has checked it agrees,’’ he said.