This Isn’t A ‘Fringe View’ On The Left

08 Nov, 2002 by John Hawkins

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This Isn’t A ‘Fringe View’ On The Left: The column from Wayne Madsen in today’s Counterpunch seems to be fairly typical of what has started to become mainstream thinking on America’s left 9/11. Here is how Wayne Madsen opens his latest column…

“For all those who, like me, feel that November 6, 2002 is much like December 13, 2000 (Gore’s concession speech) and September 11, 2001, it’s time to stop the hand wringing and get to serious work to save this nation from certain disaster. But first, some background on families and conspiracies to commit crimes.”

What a shallow, unfeeling b@stard you must be to compare losing an election to 9/11. I seriously couldn’t believe I was reading that and furthermore, I couldn’t believe that even Counterpunch thought that was worth publishing.

I want to dig a little deeper into this Madsen column so you can look at what else a wildly popular (they claim to pull 7 million hits a month) left-wing website like Counterpunch thinks is worthy of publication.

Madsen tells us the real problem the GOP (and presumably the voters of Minnesota, Terry McAuliffe, Walter Mondale, and Wellstone’s campaign manager) had with the Wellstone funeral was the “African American choruses.” Certainly, there was no politics going on at that Wellstone “memorial service”…

“It wasn’t Lutheran, Catholic, or otherwise staid enough for the Republicans in attendance. The African American choruses must have grated on the nerves of Trent Lott and company. So the GOP trashed the service as a campaign rally and demanded equal time on Minnesota television.”

Madsen explains that the elections on Tuesday were rigged by the Bush family…

“Later, when he became President, H. W. Bush invaded Panama, arrested Noriega. He knew too much about Bush who was running for reelection. He had to be dealt with and he was. But that computerized vote counting tampering would come in handy for another Bush in the future. But more on that later.”

Madsen misleads his readers about the voter turnout which went approximately 53-47 for the GOP according to UPI…

“Which brings us to the November 5 election. By all indications, a heavy voter turnout was to benefit the Democrats. And during the day, the reports came in that voter turnout was heavy in the key states that could determine who would control the Senate.”

Madsen implies that the government was behind mailing out the anthrax letters…

“The involvement of government and government contractors in aerosolized anthrax development was widely reported abroad. But when one in managing perceptions, it is vitally important to have the media ignore the story domestically and shrug off international attention as being within the domain of conspiracy kooks. Plausible deniability.”

Madsen suggests that Bush may very well set up concentration camps…

“If people are rounded up because of their religion, ethnicity, or political beliefs, we must restore the Underground Railroad of the pre-Civil War days. We would ask our Canadian and Mexican friends for help.”

This sort of unhinged, paranoid, conspiracy mongering may not be the view of most liberals, but it’s not a fringe left-wing view either. How many left-wingers do you ever hear challenging these sorts of views? Very, very, few. Is that because they don’t like attacking their fellow travelers or because they secretly agree with them? I’m really starting to wonder if the latter isn’t the case. If the left is going to keep buying into this sort of nonsense, then maybe they should the change the name of their party to something more appropriate so the voters will really know where they stand in 2004.