On Wed, 21 Oct 1998, Charles Martell wrote:
 
> I have two excuses to forward the following letter (by Michael Moore, from
> his newsletter) to the Ezra Pound list.
>
> First, there's been considerable discussion of the Hitler/Mussolini era on
> the list recently.  Italian Fascism and German Naziism both began as
> alliances between government and big business, to the exclusion of the
> interests of the general populace.
 
Yeah, that's the line that comes out of the Frankfurt school (it's also
the line that most literary critics believe) but it's bogus. Fascism drew
as much from the left as the right, if not more so: Mussolini was a
committed (if idiosyncratic) socialist and many other anarchists and
leftists joined the ranks. If anything, fascism in all its various forms
was opposed to big business, at least in the beginning. That's one reason
why Zeev Sternhell's book on French fascism is called _Neither Right nor
Left_.
 
Bill Freind
 
 
  Ideology soon transcended these
> alliances, of course, and the movement assumed a quasi-religious fervor.
> There are parallels to be drawn between this and what we are now
> experiencing with a Republican congress devoted totally to the interests of
> corporations, with a religious right looming over its decisions.
>
> Second, most members of this list are academics, either teachers or
> students, a group that almost always favors Democratic candidates, but
> almost never bothers to vote.  If you agree with Mr. Moore's analysis, I
> respectfully suggest you act on it by voting on November 3, getting your
> friends out to vote, and perhaps by forwarding this letter to others on your
> e-mail list.
>
>                                    * * * * *
>
> Dear Friends ...
>
> I would like to propose a legal act of civil disobedience that could send
> the Right into near oblivion.
>
> I am not a member of the Democratic Party.  To me, they are a barely
> tolerable version of the Republicans.  We had the lowest turnout ever in
> 1996, but the majority who could stomach that pathetic choice on the ballot
> went and voted for Bill Clinton.  That was the will of the people.  And that
> is the will the Republicans are trying to subvert.
>
> All the public opinion polls - New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN -
> have said the same thing over and over: The American public does NOT want
> impeachment.  Yet, Congress has decided to tell the public to take a flying
> %$#& and has moved ahead with the impeachment process anyway.  This is their
> fatal mistake and it will be their undoing.
>
> The act of civil disobedience I am calling for is for each and every
> American to go to the polls on Nov. 3 and vote for the Democratic candidate
> for Congress on your ballot.  That's right, my fellow cynics and
> progressives - the only way to send a true message to the right wing is to
> throw every Republican out of office. I'm talking about a backlash the likes
> of which American politics has never seen.  If you think this is something
> that can't happen, I need only point to the national election in Canada in
> 1993 when the voters threw all but two members of the Conservative Party out
> of Parliament.  In 1995, in Great Britain, the people of Scotland and Wales
> removed every single member of the Torries from Parliament - that's right,
> EVERY SINGLE ONE.
>
> Now it's our turn in America.  Each of us must do all that we can to get our
> fellow citizens out to vote on Nov. 3.  The Republicans are hoping and
> praying that the turnout will be low, figuring that the public, especially
> those who had voted for and trusted Clinton, is so burned out on politicians
> and politics that they are just going to stay home.  They know, though, that
> their own die-hard conservative supporters WILL be at the polls, come hell
> or high water.
>
> Yes, most of the Democrats suck.  I rarely vote for the sorry, wishy-washy
> losers.  But this election is not about how I feel about them - it's about
> US using THEM to whack the right wing for good.  Imagine if the Democrats
> are voted in by overwhelming numbers (when all the pundits are predicting a
> Republican landslide).  The message would be loud and clear to all these new
> Democrats - THE AMERICAN PUBLIC WANTS THE AGENDA OF THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT
> REMOVED FROM THE HALLS OF OUR UNITED STATES CONGRESS!
>
> Yes, we would then have to stay on these Democrats to make sure they behave
> and vote the way we want them to.  But that's a whole lot better than
> allowing individuals to stay in office who want to subvert the will of the
> American people because they would actually prefer a theocracy over a democracy.
>
> If you want to stop this witch hunt, if you want Congress to start focusing
> on the REAL problems facing the country and the world, then the ONLY way
> this nonsense is going to stop is to throw the bums out.
>
> Find out who the Democrat is who is running in your district at
> 'www.democrats.org/action' and then call up his/her headquarters and
> volunteer to help turn out the vote.
>
> Then get out and vote Nov. 3.  Hold your nose if you have to.  This is a
> one-issue election and if you want the impeachment stopped - and I assure
> you, you have the power to stop it at 8:01 p.m. that evening of Nov. 3 - you
> must remove the Republicans in your districts.  I can think of a lot of
> reasons why Clinton should not be president.  Staining a blue dress from The
> Gap is not one of them.  Enough is enough.
>
>                                                Yours, MICHAEL MOORE
>