The American Spectator : No Songs About Stalin

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No Songs About Stalin

By Ben Stein on 11.29.10 @ 6:08AM

At PBS they always pledge to blame America first and last.

Saturday
Now, here is something interesting. It is a windy night in Rancho Mirage. In fact, the wind is terrifying, roaring around our home like a freight train. When it first started, I thought maybe a helicopter was landing nearby, but, no, it was wind. The palm fronds by the pool are going wild.

I have been sitting at the breakfast table paying bills. It is scary how many bills I have, especially mortgage and property tax–related bills. What an idiot I was to buy so much real estate. Well, maybe it will come back in Tommy’s lifetime. In the meantime, I am helping a lot of kids in Riverside County, California, Los Angeles County, California, Bonner County, Idaho, and Washington, D.C. get a good education. I guess I should say I am helping them get “access” to a good education. Whether they get that education is up to them and the omens are poor.

Anyway, I was paying the bills and watching a fund-raiser for the major Southern California PBS station, KCET. The show was a mish mash of folk songs from the late 1950s to the mid 1960s, with such giant groups as Peter, Paul and Mary, Judy Collins, that foursome who sang “Creeque Alley” (which the host of the show calls “Creaky Alley”), oh, yeah, the Mommas and the Poppas, and even Bobby Darin. They were all singing songs against war, against racism, against the bourgeois sterile conformity of the era (which turns out to have been the most creatively fertile time of the century in this country), against the institutionalized racism of this country.

As I am watching (or maybe “as I was watching”) I am getting steadily more furious and puzzled.

Why are there so many songs about what’s wrong with this glorious America and NO songs about Stalin’s murder of fifty million innocent people? Why are there no songs about the intentional starvation of the Ukraine and its people by the commissars, mass murder against the most beautiful people on the planet there in the Ukraine?

Why were there so many songs against the U.S. attempt to save Vietnam from Communism, and not one song — not ONE — about the mass killings by Ho Chi Minh after 1954 or about the murder of thousands of innocents when the Communists briefly held Hue in the Tet Offensive?

Why have there been no songs about Mao’s murders of tens of millions of Chinese after he seized China in 1949? Why not one song about the amazing brutality of Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il of North Korea, who have starved and murdered millions of the most capable people on this earth?

Why are the folk singers always finding fault with the light of the world, the United States, and never against Communist, totalitarian regimes? It must have to do with the power of the Party in media circles. It must. What else could explain it? (Well, maybe hatred of a weak but dominant father…)

That Party Power lingers: A case on point: the Russian parliament just formally admitted guilt for the brutal murder of 22,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest in 1940. No compensation. No punishment of anyone. But admission of guilt. That is something. For generations, the Communists tried to pass it off as a Nazi atrocity but the Nazis denied it and many people believed Stalin.

Now, as long suspected, it turns out the Polish officers were murdered OGPU style, bullet in the back of the head, by the Soviets, who did not want any aristos resisting their sway in Poland.

This is a BIG, BIG story of Stalin’s atrocities and lies. It appeared in a bold headline in the Wall Street Journal. It was on page A 5 of the New York Times in one small paragraph of tiny type next to another paragraph about energy legislation in the EU.

Even now, even after the General Secretary has been dead for 57 years, after there is no more USSR for close to 20 years, even now, from beyond the grave, the orders of the Comintern go forth like irresistible zombies. No meaningful criticism of Stalin! Not a word! Thoughtcrime does not entail death. Thoughtcrime is death!

ZA STALINA!

Well, thank you, God, that I live far from where the Comintern’s writ still runs. At least for now. I think I will go swim in that windstorm.

About the Author

Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (153) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

drudge ette obama| 11.29.10 @ 6:51AM

Cognitive dissonance is the only explanation possible.

How can someone help shoot 22,000 men in the head?

What evil lurked there still lies somewhere today.

Dasboot| 11.29.10 @ 5:48PM

One of Stalin's cronies killed over 7,000 by his won hand. He used a german handgun and wore a butcher's apron. Brutual stuff thanks to our friends on the left.

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 6:31PM

"One of Stalin's cronies killed over 7,000 by his won hand. He used a german handgun and wore a butcher's apron. Brutual stuff thanks to our friends on the left."

DasSinkingBoat,
How about the way Germany treated Russia at Brest Litovsk? or 1941- '45?
It goes without saying: you don't wish to discuss it. But, please, stay the way you are-- makes it easier to mess with you.

Clint| 11.29.10 @ 7:32PM

"The Big Joe Blues":

"I'm singing about old Joe, cruel Joe / He ruled with an iron hand / He put an end to the dreams / Of so many in every land / He had a chance to make / A brand new start for the human race / Instead he set it back / Right in the same nasty place / I got the Big Joe Blues / (Keep your mouth shut or you will die fast) / I got the Big Joe Blues / (Do this job, no questions asked) / I got the Big Joe Blues."

Pete Seeger 2007.

Hank Rearden| 11.29.10 @ 9:20PM

Alan, Alan...the subject here is POLISH officers. The German - Russian war is not the topic.

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 9:37PM

"Alan, Alan...the subject here is POLISH officers. The German - Russian war is not the topic."

You cannot separate Katyn from the war- it occurred in 1940, not 1936. So why does Stein have to mention his mortgages? what does Ben stein's mortgages and property taxes have to do with Stalin or Katyn?
Was Stalin's big government circa 1940 a remote cause of Stein's property tax bite in 2010?

if Stein stays on-topic, so shall we all.

Giustino | 12.1.10 @ 8:01AM

That's exactly the reason why the Soviet Union is frequently compared to Nazi Germany.

Serge Barou| 12.2.10 @ 5:19PM

Mr Brooks,

we can and wish to discuss everything - when the occasion is right. But today's occasion is the particular Ben Stein's article, and Stalinist atrocities is what it is about.

So how about discussing this, for starters?

Or you don't wish to?

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 5:48PM

Naturally, being a rightist rag, you neglect to mention the Buchananites' disguised anti-Americanism-- more devious than the left's.
Nor do you go into the anger stirred up by the drafting of hundreds of thousands of boys (who were not culpable) to fight in LBJ's abortion, the Vietnam war.

You are as one-sided as your opponents- you deserve each other.

AMENBRO| 11.29.10 @ 7:02PM

Wanna come into at leaast 100 million miles from reality as opposed to vacuous, (expansive as the vacumn of creation), utterance only your panties are getting moist from ALLEY LOL Who luvs ya., ya turkey. Did Obama pardon you tooooo.

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 7:15PM

Amenbro-Tep, is it really you,
you ol' Egyptian?

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 8:11PM

"I got the Big Joe Blues."

You can make a case for Stalin being the worst person who ever lived. But is it also possible the Germans are the worst people who ever lived?
Matters of opinion.

ggoblue| 11.29.10 @ 8:16PM

we have hunted every known nazi to the ends of the earth...

yet america is full of retired ex communists...and you sound like one of them to me.

Clint| 11.29.10 @ 8:18PM

That would be New Yorkers.

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 8:34PM

I don't deny Stalin having been the most evil man ever.
But I also do not deny that one could make a case for the Germans having been the worst people ever.
Even if they weren't the main instigators of WWI, in 1914 they did invade France, Belgium, the Netherlands. In 1940, having learned little, they did so again.

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 8:37PM

... so IMO Stalin was the worst person ever; and the Germans were the most thick-headed, comatose-cozy, people ever.

Tim*| 11.29.10 @ 8:56PM

That would be San Franciscans.

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 9:41PM

That's right, Tim, the AIDS holocaust! Jackbooted HIV-infected queers goosestepping in the Haight Ashbury, raping all who are male.

Clint| 11.29.10 @ 10:12PM

You're getting creepy now.

Serge Barou| 12.2.10 @ 5:53PM

Returning to the article, it's not about Stalin v. Germans (have you noticed that you compared apples with oranges?), it's about Left v. Right.

And if you're so inclined to compare numbers of murdered, the Left are unreachable:

50 to 60 million in the Soviet Union;
5-6 million in Eastern Europe;
trifle couple of millions in Pol Pot's Cambodia;
about hundred million in China, Vietnam and North Korea;
just paltry 110 thousand Buddhist monks murdered in Mongolia... but they happened to make up about one third of the male population.

I could continue with the victims of international communism in Spain and of Latin American guerrillas, but I hope you are already able to recognize the trend. No?

Then throw in the victims of the Nazi regime (which you call 'Germans', surely a slip of tongue?) and of fascists in Italy - I suppose you're intelligent enough not to deem the two parties with most working class (and Marxian) grass-roots as belonging to the Right?

poe197| 12.2.10 @ 1:14PM

Perhaps stigmatizing all Germans is a bit much. I always resent it when people start an argument with "All.........." I usually shows a lack of the ability to discern the differences between the individual and the "group."

Bob K.| 11.29.10 @ 11:57PM

It was Kennedy's war, his "Great Adventure," run by his "Best and Brightest." Johnson merely carried on the program.

Joseph Mejia| 12.2.10 @ 5:46PM

Alan, you do recall that LBJ was a Democrat, right? You also remember that the "anger" came from the "left" don't you? (I was there, and I was a Lefty at the time, so I do remember).

These being the historical facts, what's your point? That LBJ was acting like the SSR?
Are you blaming the Conservatives

Appleby| 11.29.10 @ 6:55AM

Why no protests against the Commies? Because the Folk Song Protest Movement had only one real target: Mom and Dad.

Their sole consideration when writing their songs was this: Will This Make My Parents Angry and Upset?

Stuff the validity of the Cause, the result of the protest, etc. -- if this song, activity, outfit, behaviour will make Daddys boss ask him *What the hell is wrong with your son/daughter?* -- we will have succeeded.

Protesting against real evil, whom Mom and Dad saw up close and personal during World War II (which the hippie scum had already forgotten) would make Mom and Dad happy. In fact, even recognizing real evil would probably have done as well.

Oh, and besides that, they were all busy discovering their sex organs -- the first generation ever to notice such things -- and that doesnt leave a lot of time for real investigations.

Ned| 11.29.10 @ 12:56PM

Normally I agree with your posts from the frigid north, but I gotta say this one is way to simplistic, Appleby. The silence about and complicity of the left in the atrocities commited (to this day) by socialism and communism go far beyond what can be explained away by juvenile defiance.

beebop| 11.29.10 @ 1:22PM

Without coddling from parents and a generous and free nation they would have had to find work.

Mojo Risin| 11.29.10 @ 1:51PM

I read a piece the other day about an analogy of someones system of belief and the efforts to deal with all matter of conspiracies and it brought to my attention "Occam's Razor" relating to the economy of reason. Appleby I think, has it right. Who are the 1st entities a child rebels against, the one's closest, their parents and there-in lies the simple explanation: The perpetual protestations of leftist punks indicates their lack of maturity and the striking out at authority!!!

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 5:55PM

"which the hippie scum had already forgotten"

I never forgot WWII, because my dad was in that war, though the Cold War changed most everything.

The Civil War I do NOT forgive because the Confederates were the worst sort of SCUM.
And I despise David Duke and the Stormfront people; while at the same time being glad they wasting their time. Fight the lost cause unto death, ye damn fools.

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 5:59PM

... the Confederacy was as bad a cause as Communism.

Sonofthe South| 11.29.10 @ 7:53PM

So why did black regiments fight on behalf of the Confederacy? Were they too stupid to realise what they were doing because of their melanin content? Give up on your hate,you puke.

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 8:41PM

"So why did black regiments fight on behalf of the Confederacy?"

Prisoners' dilemma: to cooperate or not cooperate with your jailers. Why did Patty Heart fight for the SLA? because she loved Cinque?

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 8:48PM

... if Hearst's granddaughter would rob banks for terrorists, why wouldn't blacks fight for the Confederacy?

Appleby| 11.29.10 @ 10:43PM

Patty Hearst did it to thumb her nose at her parents -- she then did a U turn and produced a convincing simple minded cottonhead for public consumption, no doubt an act she had often used to convince her parents she could not possibly have joined the Bad Guys in the first place. Any girl of her generation, especially those of us frogmarched to John Robert Powers as subdebs, could pull that one off in her sleep.

Allan Brooks, you have never actually lived in the Old Confederacy, have you?

poe197| 12.2.10 @ 1:17PM

There were no black regiments in the Confederate army. There were black regiments in the Union army (the motion picture "Glory" is based on the 55th Regiment)

RW Cook| 12.6.10 @ 1:39AM

I agree with this, even if it seems simplistic. Does the Left really sound any different than petulant teenagers?

Bob K.| 11.29.10 @ 8:01AM

It is hard to write songs about this sort of stuff, Ben.

How do you put the words from "Babi Yar" to music?

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com.....oems/22483

Intelligent Design| 11.29.10 @ 8:07AM

My daughter graduated from UC Santa Cruz several years ago. At the commencement, speaker after speaker talked about what is wrong with America and the world, and everyone clapped, "Boy, is that guy smart or what?" It was a beautiful sunny day with the Pacific Ocean in the background. I wanted to yell out, "turn around you dim witted fools and look at the view!" :) It's as if the academics felt smarter and more secure by being negative about this country. I doubt that any of them have accomplished much.

Matt Morehouse| 11.29.10 @ 10:35AM

One might reasonably and gently inquire as to why someone of putative Conservative bent would pay for, much less permit, a child to attend Santa Cruz.

Did her degree in Queer Studies land her a well paying job with the Central Government?

Peppermint Tea| 11.29.10 @ 3:23PM

In 199o, I graduated from UC Riverside, and the commencement speaker gave a similar speech; fortunately I don't remember much other than, "Twenty years ago we were on the verge of making California a great state, and now we have ruined it forever."
I've never heard such a downer speech. Some of us wondered if the refreshment tables set on the side were serving grape kool-aid.

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 5:58PM

"speaker after speaker talked about what is wrong with America and the world"

More were proud before Reagan left office on 1/20/'89.
After that date? you take it from there, chumps.
Bush-Suckers, you screwed it up, royally!

Loshooilgan| 11.30.10 @ 4:41PM

What do you expect from a university that has a banana slug as a mascot?

Ken (Old Texican)| 11.29.10 @ 8:08AM

Appleby,
You stole the words right out of my mouth....but better. (grin)

Ben,

...and we shake our heads at Shia adherents flagellating themselves?????

stmichrick| 11.29.10 @ 8:16AM

Ben; as I'm sure you've recognized, the motivation of the late '60s-early '70s counterculture was to proclaim earlier generations inferior in every way. Possibly because more of them went to college, courtesy of 'the greatest generation,' their gratitude was to tell everyone that they know better.

And now we are led by 'the ones we've been waiting for.'

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 6:25PM

They were proud before LBJ botched Vietnam.

Bob K.| 11.30.10 @ 12:03AM

Kennedy botched it by getting into it to begin with! He and his "Best and Brightest" and their big ideas!

Stephanie| 11.29.10 @ 8:22AM

Take away federal money from PBS. They can pay their own way like all the other networks.

Louis Jenkins| 11.29.10 @ 8:39AM

Here, here Stephanie. A prodcasting service that can't even pay its own way. A dim bulb grown stronger in the dark.

Pikadon| 11.29.10 @ 9:05AM

The expression is "Hear, hear!"

Bob K.| 11.29.10 @ 12:08PM

Actually, not in this instance. Ya hear!

MikeD| 11.29.10 @ 8:43AM

Taking every cent of taxpayer's money is just the first step. One main reason why there are no folk songs about Stalin is that he killed anybody who rocked the boat! I don't want to go that far...yet; but how about taking every cent of federal tax money away from every college as a start. I might make an exception for some selected colleges who do relevant research for the Military, but I'm not sure.

Let the people who go to college pay for it. The main reason it's so obscenely expensive is that the Feds throw so much money into professor's payrolls that the costs have gone through the roof. Add to that all the assinine majors and courses like "Gender Studies", "Black History", Feminist Studies", "Alternative Lifestyles and their Benefits"; the list is endless. Get rid of every course that is not self sustaining; which means that can be supported only by the revenue they produce. And don't allow the administrators to just make them mandatory. If a course is not directly required by a 'quantitatively evaluated" method, get rid of it. (My long words simply mean that the course content must be measurable, like science, math, etc...) If these kids want to study art or music or genders and lifestyles, let them pay for it themselves as electives.

Our country is BROKE! We can't afford these luxuries on the taxpayer's dime. Get rid of the 'fluff'! Then, the morons can write more folk songs about how stupid and evil I am; or how 'uncaring' America is toward the poor downtrodden who have to pay to take "Sex positions in alternative life activities while listening to unintelligible lyrics 101"!

db | 11.29.10 @ 9:18AM

Our local PBS station solicits me for money regularly. I try to deter them when I ask them why would they want to associate with a rotten, selfish conservative who earned their money by way of hard work and the free market....but they keep calling. To no avail.

Occam's Tool| 11.29.10 @ 2:59PM

Our local PBS station hit me up, too. Turns out the "prize" was going to be a subscription to Newsweek. I sent them nothing and wrote on my response---I wanted a free subscription to National Review!

MikeH| 11.29.10 @ 9:31AM

Another fabulous little gem which eloquently describes how the American left (including our old folky friends) took orders from the Kremlin at least until 1939 (and, in many cases, well after that!). Even those who broke with Stalin after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact still would not accept any public criticism of socialist progress.

But comrade, be ready for a visit by OGPU (or NKVD) agents and to be sentenced under Section 58. You'll get a tenner for this!

Bill| 11.29.10 @ 10:15AM

Speaking of tenners, there was a graffitti artist in Moscow in the 30s who approached a poster of Stalin bearing the words, "under Stalin, life is better" and scrawled "for Stalin" after those words.

He got 8 years in the gulag for Anti-Soviet Pr0paganda under Article 58. There's enough information on this guy that it seems as if his name ought to capable of being winkled out, but I haven't been successful at finding out yet. Still, the incident is reported in several books about the Stalin era. He deserves a song, it seems to me.

Bill| 11.29.10 @ 10:20AM

Come to think of it, Article 58 itself could use a song.

And how about the Great Terror and the 1934 Terror Famine? Enlarging on this theme, how's about the Great Famine in Red China during the Great Leap Forward? The dead from them could stand a tune or two, in remembrance. At least the Holocaust destroyed Jews for being something, that is, Jews, but the great famines murdered people for no particular reason.

Bill| 11.29.10 @ 10:38AM

Too bad Phil Ochs has been dead for so long. He could have written a pithy folk song about Stalinism, Maoism, and the terrors of their rules, maybe to the tune of "I Ain't Marching Any More."

Bob Miller| 11.29.10 @ 10:56AM

Do you think Ochs was on our side?

Ammo Guy| 11.29.10 @ 3:42PM

Naaah, outside a small circle of friends.
Meanwhile, RET has an amusing photo in his office of Ben Stein from the 60s with long hair and a Jerry Rubin-like mustache. It's great to see he has come to his senses over the years like the rest of us…even if we still like the music.

Bill| 11.29.10 @ 4:42PM

I don't know what would have happened to Phil Ochs had he lived a bit longer. Lots of foaming-at-the-mouth lefties changed a bit, starting with the Khmer Rouge and the slaughter of the Cambodians (e.g.: Joan Baez), the revelations about Mao, the publication of The Gulag Archipelago, and so on. Phil Ochs might have remained a leftie, but he did at least have a mind of his own.

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 7:18PM

"Ben Stein from the 60s with long hair and a Jerry Rubin-like mustache"

Is it true Ben Stein was a member of the Weather Underground? did he march with the gays at Stonewall?

Ammo Guy| 11.30.10 @ 8:54AM

Dear Mr. Brooks, I'm not sure if this "comment" is what passes for witty repartee in your circles, but FWIW my point was that many of us affected the "look" back then without participating in the excesses of our generation - Mr. Stein being one, me another. Forty years later, Ben is a solid family man and worthy pundit whilst I cavort in the five sided building advising those much younger than me. The one thing we have in common is TAS and RET who kept us sane in the years before conservative media made its appearance on the national scene during the Reagan years. It is a shame that the conversation at this website is frequently less erudite and mannerly than the host whose long service to the cause is often overlooked and underappreciated. Translation for those in Rio Lindo: we owe a debt of gratitude to Bob Tyrrell for keeping the home fires burning all these years and allowing many a clever scribe to polish his craft at his periodical before moving on to other venues - I still can't believe that Greg Gutfeld once worked there. In any event, a perusal of your many postings tell me I'm wasting my time so I'll go back to listening to the music of my youth for which I remain grateful despite the obviously non-conservative sentiments expressed therein - the Electric Flag was a great band and Mike Bloomfield was a fine guitarist. Earth Opera anyone? "In the days of the war, but the Red Sox are winning" - they don't write'em like that anymore, sigh.

Bob K.| 11.29.10 @ 12:14PM

The communists thought that there were very good economic (and political) reasons to wipe out the farmers and their capitalist system in the Ukraine using organized starvation techniques designed by the socialist bureaucrats in Moscow.

Bill| 11.29.10 @ 4:43PM

That "K" in "Bob K." doesn't stand for "kulak," by any chance, does it?

Bob K.| 11.30.10 @ 12:07AM

No, my ancestors came from a large Slavic country adjoining the Ukraine on the Northwest. They mined coal there.

Alan Brooks| 11.29.10 @ 8:44PM

"Ben Stein from the 60s with long hair and a Jerry Rubin-like mustache"

There's a photo of Ben Stein dancing naked in a cow pasture at Woodstock, with Abbie Hoffman.

W| 11.29.10 @ 10:57PM

What, you jealous, or lonely, or both?
I think you are a paid plant to post idiotic rantings irrelevant to the issue, but keep doing it, shows how crazy liberals can be.

Thom Burke| 11.30.10 @ 3:36PM

W, our esteemed collegue, Mr. Brooks, would be more welcome at Huffington, but there he'd be just one more ranting, deluded buffoon in the crowd. Leftists do so hate being ignored.

Big Kahuna| 11.29.10 @ 9:41AM

A tenner was hardly ever a tenner, Read The Gulag Archipelago:

Radioman777| 11.29.10 @ 9:43AM

That's because folksingers are a bunch of brain dead idiots in love with a system they believe will put them in charge... Because they're so brilliant, you see.

Robert| 11.29.10 @ 9:51AM

I couldn't understand why Pete Seeger is lauded in NY as an American hero when the purpose of his activism was the overthrow of American Democracy and our way of life. Only very recently did he sever intellectual ties with 'Uncle Joe'. Should it matter that his nice songs had at their heart an agenda that has been one of mass murder and subjugation? Apparently, being a Progressive is never having to say you're sorry.

Appleby| 11.29.10 @ 10:50PM

One of the more amusing evenings I had while living in Atlanta was attending a concert in a fashionable Yuppie park known for genteel picnics (Chastain Park) the evening they featured Pete Seeger...watching the young, wealthy, successful bankers, stockbrokers and lawyers as they listened to that old communist and wondered what in the wide, wide world of sports he was talking about.

Doctor Right| 11.29.10 @ 9:56AM

And the dimwitted Bruce Springsteen makes a Pete Seeger tribute album...

The Left are afflicted by a strange mental illness. It consists of a mish-mash of liberal guilt, paranoia, and malignant narcissism.

Time to cull the herd.

Ted R.| 11.29.10 @ 10:31AM

"Time to cull the herd." These chilling words, Mr. Stein, are sadly typical of the Con mentality. Conservatism by its nature cannot tolerate dissent or difference, and is prone to turn to actual violence to promote its political agenda. Conservatism also produces people who are stunningly lacking in self-awareness. Here we are, Mr. Stein, in your piece lamenting the totalizing violence of a tyrant, and you have another Con drone going on about how tyrannical violence against the "herd" is called for - ! Why don't YOU call out jokers like "Doctor Right," Mr. Stein!?

Cpm| 11.29.10 @ 12:13PM

He's just talking, but presumably you just read Ben's column about leftwing forces responsible for the ACTUAL murder of tens if not hundreds of millions of people. So explain to me who is REALLY prone to turn to violence, and who is REALLY lacking in self-awareness.

George True| 11.29.10 @ 12:23PM

You have it exactly backwards, Ted. It is the LEFT that can brook no dissent of any kind. During the Bush administration, when the leftists' Bush Derangement Syndrome was in full bloom, we were told that "dissent is the highest form of patriotism". Now that the leftist are in charge, anybody who disagrees with their agenda is denounced by our Socialist overlords as a racist or a terrorist.

And oh, by the way. The sentiment of "time to cull the herd" is one uttered frequently, in one form or another, by the left. It is in fact quite rare to hear such a thing from someone you would call a "con", which is of course your attempt to turn the word conservative into an ad hominem attack.

And by the way, those who are called conservatives today are actually the real liberals, as they advocate a return to the original Jeffersonian Democracy, which embodies maximum individual liberty and individual rights for all. It is quite amusing and at the same time appalling to hear someone like you slander 60% of the citizenry as "stunningly lacking in self-awareness", when in so doing you reveal yourself to be breathtakingly lacking in self-awareness or self-realization, or compassion, or even rudimentary understanding of human nature and human weaknesses that ALL people are afflicted with to one degree or another.

You would do well to pay heed to the infinitely wise words of Jesus when he said, in so many words, before you cast aspersions on others for the splinter in their eye, first take the log out of your own eye.

In slandering 60% of the people who self-identify as conservative, you have borne false witness against tens of millions of people who you do not know and have never met. And you, in that place you call your mind, are just absolutely certain that all or at least most of them, are morally and mentally inferior to you and your leftist brethren.. I would say you are rather less than most of them, morally and intellectually. You have convicted yourself with your own lies and baseless slanders.

Radioman777| 11.29.10 @ 1:00PM

Ted, it sounds like just venting to me. It's the left who are the most intolerant of opposing views, just in case you haven't noticed. The number of times leftists have called for the death and destruction of those that don't think like them is the very definiti0n of an uncountable set. Unlike conservatives, leftists appear to be fully ready to act on their statements. You only have to have Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler (yes, he was a leftist), Che Guevara, Pol Pot and Castro to see just how ready they are to act on the desire to permanently eliminate opposition.

beebop| 11.29.10 @ 1:31PM

Conservatism by its nature cannot tolerate dissent or difference ...

This is really rich ...

Ubers by their definition have to scan the comments section and find the only one that they can bloviate upon and cry "woe is me."

Bugger off you little sycophant. I am tired of cries of racism where there is none, intolerance when you and yours practice it as an art form and clutch your own tolerance like some misshapen talisman all the why screeching like a wounded owl about Sarah Palin and her great "ignorance."

Please. Restrict yourself to the group cluster that is the Soros endorsed media of, say, the Huffington Post. Be gone.

Hank Reardon| 11.29.10 @ 3:59PM

"...prone to turn to actual violence to promote its political agenda."

Oh, you mean like "Up Against the Wall, Motherfu*ker."

Thom Burke| 11.30.10 @ 3:45PM

What a bizarre, Orwellian world Ted lives in. Actually, it has always been the paranoid Left who are on constant vigil for heretics in their midst, while Conservatives seek converts.

Bill| 11.29.10 @ 10:11AM

They had songs about the Nazis: "Wir sind die moorsoldaten" (We are the peat-bog soldiers) that would have sufficed for the gulags of the USSR, too.

They did have a song about Babi Yar, too, back in those days you write about. The murder of the Jews was OK to criticize, regardless of who did it.

But yes, the folk songs nearly universally bad-mouthed the bad things Americans did. But as one commentator here has said, if it would bug mom and dad, it was to be embraced.

martin j smith| 11.29.10 @ 10:25AM

PBS is not PUBIC broadcasting--it is LEFT SOCIST broadcasting. It can go on all its wants to but should get NO PUBLIC FUNDING. There should be do surprise about PBS--I am sorry to see that this is news when it has been "OLD NEWS". That said, who supports PBS ? Crony Capitalsim--BIG BUSINESS and the penny ante-"true believers" and the very naive. Never be surprised about PBS, they are first cousins of NPR
the radio station that canned Juan Williams. That one.

Christopher| 11.29.10 @ 10:34AM

Mr.Stein, as usual a great article. Why no songs criticizing the Left? Most of these "artists" are of the Left, they love big government telling us how to live, and they think they are smarter and morally superior to the Country Class. The love Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Hugo Chavez, and the rest.At heart they do not like the U.S. and constantly talk about "changing" the country. If they were sincere about opposing war, and totalitarianism, they would sing the songs about Stalin. Today, they complain about Gitmo and waterboarding three terorists, and about Israel's self defense. They do not complain about the political prisoners in Cuba, Venezuela, China, and the rest. They are fools, and should be ignored.

Bill| 11.29.10 @ 11:35AM

cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I'd lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
as long as they don't move next door
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crain?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I read New republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like Korea
There's no one more red, white and blue
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the democratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Occam's Tool| 11.29.10 @ 3:05PM

PBS may not play it, but there is a great Conservative rock song, and it goes something like this:

Well I heard mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ole Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don't need him around anyhow

Now, keep in mind that Lyrnryd Skynryd were NOT fans of George Wallace---they had (boo, boo, boo) after his mention. That being said, the current one's alright.

Peppermint Tea| 11.29.10 @ 3:31PM

How about some blues?

I woke up dis mornin'
Chairman Mao was in my bed.
I said I woke up Monday morning,
Joe Stalin was in my bed,
Dey be sleeping with my woman,
after dey shot me in da head.

I ain't seen no freedom
since 1859.
Said I ain't never seen no freedom
since 18 and 59,
Since Karl, and Charles, and Nietzche,
killed G-d, and took it down the line.

JmsA| 1.28.11 @ 5:20AM

"Sweet Home Alabama"

P.Smith| 11.29.10 @ 10:41AM

Mr Stein this is a great article but here a point.

You said: “I guess I should say I am helping them get "access" to a good education. Whether they get that education is up to them and the omens are poor.”

I would argue that if Californian children properly “access” the faulty education provided to them by the state they will in fact have a very poor education in regards to the actual truth of this nation’s history (not to mention the other areas in which public education also fails). This is why we all sing songs about the American Imperialism.

bill carson| 11.29.10 @ 10:45AM

Christopher above writes, "They are fools, and should be ignored."

Yes, but our society seems to celebrate them. So the fault lies much more with stupid and weak Americans. I don't mind criticizing the Communist leaning singers but most of all we should be examining why so why typical Americans are so quick to praise the Leftists and equally quick to say Ben Stein (and many others!) are "boring."

Ted R.| 11.29.10 @ 10:47AM

Mr. Stein, this complaint you have about the conscience of liberals is hardly new; but I would have thought that you would have the moral imagination to understand just what are the moral motivations of liberals.

Liberals like myself often wonder, why is it that conservatives readily enough will apply the dictates of (Christian) conscience to their own, individual behavior (or, more often, to OTHER individual's behavior), but recoil from doing the same stock-taking of America as a community and society? Are we to search our conscience only in our individual lives, but not as citizens who have collective responsibilities? We liberals simply see your charge of our lack of "patriotism," for holding our country to its higher ideals, as little more than the moral complacency (at best) and crass hypocrisy (at worst).

Liberals are prone to criticize our faults because we love the POTENTIAL of our country, and are upset when we fail. Why is that something for your to lament, Mr. Stein?

It is a poor conscience that, instead of taking stock with one's own trespasses, looks over to the double-murder rapist and says, "Hey, - sure I cheated on my wife, but let's face it - in comparison to him, I'm a real good guy." - ?? Really, Mr. Stein. It is sad and pathetic for Americans to be judging ourselves by anyone's standards but our own. You should not be up here encouraging us to do otherwise.

Christopher| 11.29.10 @ 11:33AM

Ted, you are proving Mr. Stein's point about the conscience of liberals and lefties. He is writing about the murder of over 100,000,000 people by communist dictators. And you respond, yeah, but the conservatives just don't understand that we liberals love the POTENTIAL of our country. Why can't you just say we love our country? Your idea of the POTENTIAL is different than other Americans, but our country allows you the freedom to discuss and act peacefully on achieving your idea of the POTENTIAL, whereas the communitsts described by Mr. Stein do not allow you this freedom. If you want others to stop questioning your patriotism, maybe you should state you love our country, and not some imaginary POTENTIAL country. And if were are discussing the murder of over one hundred million people, then let us stick to that issue and not try to compare the murder of one hundred million people to the hurt feelings some liberals.

George True| 11.29.10 @ 12:50PM

And in order to achieve this theoretical "potential", you on the left want to empower our government to make many, many choices on behalf of the unwashed masses that by right, should be made by each person individually.

And then, if we dissenters won't get with the program, well then you see nothing wrong with empowering the government to use FORCE to make everyone get in line with the way you all-knowing and all-wise leftists think things should be. For our own good, of course. So that we can all reach our "potential". This is one reason why you guys, in your heart of hearts, admire people like Chavez, Castro, Che, Mao, etc. Because they weren't afraid to take the reins of power and get some things done, by god! And if some bitter clingers who won't get with the new program have to be sent off the the re-education camps, well everyone knows you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

Usurping individual rights and turning those rights over to the government is how entire nations have become enslaved time and again. Leftism, so-called progressivism, socialism, collectivism, and all forms of statism inevitably lead to the same place in the end - totalitarianism. And yet you guys keep thinking that somehow it could all work, by golly, if we just had the RIGHT PEOPLE in charge.

A great American once said: "Government is not reason or eloquence, it is FORCE. Government, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

I'll let you try to figure out who said this.

George True| 11.29.10 @ 1:08PM

Above comments were directed to the comments of Ted R, not Christopher.

Christopher| 11.29.10 @ 1:35PM

Well said, George. Liberals want the POWER to impose their POTENTIAL. They do not yet have the physical force in our country, so they do it by executive orders, agency regulations, lawsuits, and the hollywood/media that denigrates our country.They hate religion because it competes with their religion: big government,the nanny state. The want gun control (eliminate the individual right to guns) because they want an unarmed, docile population.

Ted R.| 11.29.10 @ 1:55PM

Yeah, I suppose I am for some degree of benign paternalism from the government. You know, the kind that (through representative institutions!) sets up a safety net, desegregates public institutions, puts in place consumer health and safety regulations. I think it's morally irresponsible to be against these things. Pursuit and implementation of these kinds of policies do not - nor have they ever - lead to "serfdom." The false claim that they do, is nothing but the Big Lie of the Right.

It is ludicrous, and historically ignorant, to claim that there is any real relationship between true Left-Liberalism, and "left-wing" dictatorships. Modern authoritarianism and totalitarianism has the same structure and aims as tyrannical forms of government have had throughout the ages - only the ideological cover they employ is different. But modern tyranny has nothing to do with Liberalism (be it either of the Left- or Right-wing varieties). I know this simple thought is a mortal threat to your cherished prejudices - but everyone's gotta learn sometime.

George True| 11.29.10 @ 2:45PM

Ted: I will take you at your word and accept thatyou actually believe the things you just said about pursuit and implementation of government policies for the general welfare never having led to "serfdom". But in fact they have, and inevitably always do.

Many of the cries for government enforcing better working conditions, a safety net for the poor, consumer health, etc were the very same exhortations uttered by the Bolsheviks in 1917, the National Socialists in the 1930's, the Maoists in the 1940's, the Marxist revolutionaries Castro and Che in the 1950's, the Viet Minh in the 1960's, Pol Pot in the 1970's, and the foes of the Polish Solidarity movement in the 1980's. I am not exaggerating. Read your history books. Word for word, the manifesto of these leftists throughout the last century was chillingly like what we hear from Obama and the hard left in America today. But it's all in the name of social justice, dontcha know?

Few conservatives would argue against basic government services, and a basic safety net for those less fortunate. But it has gone way, way, way beyond that. And in fact, it has gone waaaay beyond what is actually, lawfully authorized under the Constitution of the United States.

Somehow, the overwhelming majority of people in this country survived and prospered before there ever was a New Deal, or a Great Society, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or Social Security, or Obamacare. Could it be possible that we would survive and thrive, that the poor wouldn't go hungry, and that everyone would get adequate healthcare WITHOUT government providing these things? It is not only possible, but these things would be better and far less expensive without government getting involved.

All governments are somewhere on a continuum from one step removed from total anarchy at one end, to libertarianism, to conservativism, to leftism, socialism, and full-blown communism or totalitarianism at the other end. Our Constitutional Republic was intentionally designed to be more towards the libertarian end of the continuum. You leftists want to take it almost to the opposite end of the spectrum than what our founders intended and what our founding documents authorize.

Before you go calling people ludicrous and ignorant who disagree with you on these issues, you would do well to get your own head into some history book that have not been authored by leftists and historical revisionists.

Modern tyranny has EVERYTHING to do with the current form of "liberalism", which is anything but true liberalism. And yes, tyrannical regimes that have murdered their own citizens by the millions have all been leftist in their ideology. The National Socialists (Nazis), the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the Peoples Republic of China are but a few examples of unchecked leftism arriving at its unalterable conclusion.

Ted R.| 11.29.10 @ 8:27PM

Look, Mr. True, the claim that left-liberalism (especially left-liberalism in the last half-century) is sympathetic to, let alone philosophically married to, "left-wing" authoritarianism, is a Lie - one that you Cons repeat so often to one another, that you have fooled yourselves into believing it.

It's true that between 1914 and 1945, left-liberalism in on the European continent was weak; the Weimar Republic being a classic example. As a result, political movements that were opposed to the open society, to democracy and the free market, viz. authoritarian socialism and fascism, enjoyed popular support.

Where liberalism remained strong - in Britain and the United States - these authoritarian movements didn't get traction. In England, one of the reasons why Communism never got a foothold, is because the success of the working classes in getting socialist measures adopted by the government - measures like health and safety regulations, poor relief, national health care, etc. You would probably put it as the ruling classes "buying off" the middling classes, but the fact is that these measures drew off any popular support for actual revolution in Britain. This was the left-liberalism of the Labor Party; and yes, if you think that the Labor Party was a nascent authoritarian political party, that is evidence of historical ignorance and YOU need to get your nose in a book.

Left-liberalism in the United States was represented by the Progressive movement; it is also ludicrous to suggest that the Progressives were a nascent authoritarian party. Left-liberalism here really only got traction with the Great Depression. Again, the claim that the New Deal put us on the road to serfdom, is the fever dream of the right. The majority of the people - not represented by anybody on this site, obviously - believe that the Social Security entitlements are essential in providing a populace that freedom from want and fear, that is crucial for a robust sense of individual freedom.

Now, I'll grant that the RHETORIC employed by the authoritarian "left-wing" regimes of the 20th century took much from Marx and genuinely popular socialist movements like Labor; but that was all it was - rhetorical cover for a power grab. Authoritarian socialism has no relationship with democratic socialism. Democratic socialism involves socialist measures implemented through representative institutions; and a free society is always at liberty to reverse these measures. Or are you actually claiming that some left-liberal conspiracy keeps the U.S., England, or Germany from retrenching their entitlement guarantees? If so, you clearly have beem caught in the spell of the right's Big Lie.

Ted R.| 11.29.10 @ 2:05PM

Maybe you should direct your comments to Mr. Stein. Because he seems more interested in complaining about the atrocities that non-Americans have committed, just so he can attack American liberals, than anything else.

George True| 11.29.10 @ 2:54PM

Ted: Over the last ninety years, leftist regimes around the world have directly murdered over 100 million of their own citizens in the name of "social justice". Another 100 million of their own citizens starved to death either by intent or by the hopeless inefficiencies of their planned economies. This is the legacy of the leftist/progressive/statist ideology that you espouse.

By contrast, the total "atrocities", screw-ups, and collateral damage in war, and starvation or early death due to bad intent or bad policies attributable to the United States do not amount to a drop in the ocean.

Get some perspective.

Ted R.| 11.29.10 @ 8:44PM

My perspective is that the crimes of other countries do not excuse us from our own abject failures in living up to our ideals. Apparently, you disagree. That is one of the differences bewteen you and me.

By the way, I suppose that because Beck told you that the Nazis were "socialists," you believed it. Now if you want an example of 'revisionist history,' THERE it is. Hitler took over a fledgling soldier's socialist party, and re-fashioned it into a rabidly nationalist party; Hitler despised Socialism. That (and his undisguised anti-Semitism) is why conservatives in Germany were so slow to move against him. The fact that you would blithely ally the Nazis with authoritarian socialism, all so you can use it as a cudgel against left-liberal socialism, betrays either intellectual dishonesty, or rank historical ignorance. But hey, whatever it takes to promote the Big Lie of the Right!

Dale, on the left coast| 12.2.10 @ 2:36PM

You Ted . . . are stuck on clueless, read a history book published before 1980 . . .
Fascism is socialism with national limitations. Both are "left wing". Fascism is government control of "private" industry; "communism" (international socialism) is a government seizure, confiscation, and total control of private property (nationalization).

The most common form of "Fascism" is "corporatism". A "corporation" is an extension of the state. It is an "artificial" entity (existing only in contemplation of law) created by the state. It is not the "principal" of the state (the People), but its "agent", called by attorneys a "person". Its purpose is to serve (raise revenue) for the state. A corporation does not have "rights", its powers are enumerated and limited in its corporate charter. As the "agent" of the state, it must obey the commands of its (state) "principal".

We must remember that U.S.S.R stood for 'United Soviet SOCIALIST Republic' and also NAZI was an acronym for 'National SOCIALIST German Workers Party'.

Bruce Berger| 11.29.10 @ 3:06PM

Ted,

Ah. Utopia, that which is represented by the POTENTIAL of our country. But, of course, because at least half of this country's population is dimwits, such as me, then that potential can never be realized. What a dilemma! So what is a good progressive to do? The angst you must live with. How do you ever get through the day?

ACynic| 11.29.10 @ 4:36PM

Ted;
You are totally full of S^^T.
It is certainly OK to criticize your country and point out its deficiencies. It is entirely another thing to praise, support and worship folks like Castro, Lenin, Stalin, Chavez, Ortega, Mao, etc.. Just recently, one of Obama's bolshevik appointees pointed out that Mao - the worst mass murderer in the history of the world - was one of her idols. And the reaction of the media was.... silence. American leftists said zero, nothing, when we all learned of Pol Pots atrocities. They still say nothing about Stalin's extermination of 30 million souls. Note that Hitler exterminated "only" 12 million.
The american left hates everything about this country; its people, its history, its economic system, its govt., its founders, its constitution - EVERYTHING. Of course, they do like the ability to get rich in the USA; just like that Bolshevik pig Pete Seeger and that commie pig Jane Fonda, just to name two.
Some folks may believe what you say.
I do not. Just as a Nazi cannot like jewish people, neither can a liberal progressive or communist ever tell the truth. Do us all a favor and move to N.Korea where you can help that govt. starve to death a few more million folks and if you are really lucky, you can push the launch button on a North Korean nuke aimed at S.Korea. That would be right up your ally.

Bob Miller| 11.29.10 @ 10:54AM

Communists in the US needed a narrative that could convince Americans that communism was the fulfillment of the American dream, the highest patriotism. What better medium than the folk song format, but stuffed with ideological content?

Ned the Red| 11.29.10 @ 11:02AM

Haven't you ever heard this one Ben?

In the Mushroom Cloud

How many Poles
Must be shot in the head
Before we are caught in the act?
How many Slavs
Must die in their homes
Before we are caught in our lie?
And how many times
Will the comrades kill
Before it is pain that they feel?

The answer my friend
Is in the mushroom cloud
The answer is in the mushroom cloud

How much pain
Can Uncle Joe cause
Before the cure is found?
And how many years
Can the people stay drunk
Before the vodka runs out
How many times
Can a wall be built
Before a man brings it down?
The answer my friend
Is in the mushroom cloud
The answer is in the mushroom cloud

How many times
Must man’s blood flow
Before his naivety will go?
How many graves
Will have to be filled
Before it will all be real?
How many protests
Won’t fix anything
Before the useless go home?

The answer my friend
Is in the mushroom cloud
The answer is in the mushroom cloud

Ned the Red

Steve A| 11.29.10 @ 11:12AM

Ted R, The problem is that the "moral motivations of liberals" generally result in policy that defy common sense & economic reality. While "noble," the result of your moral motivation is in direct contrast to the stated aim. I will be happy to provide a list of examples but fear I may suffer carpal tunnel as a result.

TURK| 11.29.10 @ 11:35AM

Ben This piece was a gem that outdid a past one on the flag. Ted R , the worm, is evidence of why the massive crimes of their heroes are NOT sung nor talked about. One only has to ask--how long did they insist on Alger Hiss innocence? Truth is their deadly enemy. The saying "birds of a feather flock together" explains the villianous left and why a piece like Bens brings them from under their rocks.

Our president flocked with communists and all sorts of America haters. It explains his conduct since January of '09. Little ol tr must have a beaut of a gathering in his daily life.

Ted R. | 11.29.10 @ 2:33PM

It is a lie to claim that "left-wing" autocrats of more than a half-century ago, are the "heroes" of today's liberals. And you're trotting out Alger Hiss? Pathetic.

George True| 11.29.10 @ 3:11PM

One of Obama's campaign offices in 2008 had a poster of Che Guevra on the wall. You know, Che Guevara the mass murderer?

One of Obama's czars has expressed great admiration for Mao Tse Tung. You know, the great leader who murdered 40 million of his countrymen in the Great Leap Forward? There was an article by the leftist columnist Thomas Friedman just the other day in which he expressed approval for the ChiCom government because they weren't afraid to use the power of the state to advance their agenda.

Many leftists in this country to this day continue to express great kinship with Fidel Castro, that great paragon who in the name of social justice has committed mass murder for over 50 years now.

You are in a hole Ted. I suggest you stop digging.

Ted R.| 11.29.10 @ 9:04PM

Let me see here... because - and I quote - "one of Obama's campaign offices in 2008 had a poster of Che Guevra on the wall" - that left-liberalism is thereby discredited? I won't ask if you're serious, 'cause I'm sure you are.

Look, it's true that Guevra and Castro have been romaticized, to some extent. That has more to do with the charisma of these guys, and the accidents of history, rather than any kind of core alliance between left-liberalism and their authoritarianism.

You need to pay more attention to facts on the ground, rather than the cherished factoids that ideological merchants like Beck dollop out to you. Authoritarian socialism took hold not in countries with durable representative institutions and legislated property rights, but in poor, undeveloped or just-developing countries like Russia, China, and Central America. These places featured dramatic income inequality and no history of peaceful political competition. In these kind of evironments, Marxist rhetoric could be used to exploit crises (like WWI in Russia's case, WWII in China's), enabling strongmen to overthrow the ruling class and install themselves in power. Their power would be legitimized by Marxist ideology, but their style of rule would otherwise be identical to the people they replaced. To claim that there is any affinity between these regimes and left-liberalism/democratic socialism, is a lie - a Big One. You retail this lie with every post - and yet you tell ME to "stop digging." Sheesh.

Thom Burke| 11.30.10 @ 3:57PM

What charisma? The romanticism was entirely a product of the American Left, in academia and the entertainment media. BTW, Kennedy was assassinated by one of YOUR OWN, a communist sympathizer. You people had to make up that conspiracy bunk just to be able to live with yourselves. Oswald acted alone and he was one of yours.

martin j smith| 11.29.10 @ 11:40AM

In ref to Ted R. If someone says they believe in this country and its potential than the current crop of Liberal( and by the way I go beyond that term: Socialist or Communist ) have a miserable way of showing it. Now I do not know Ted R personally ( at least from this ID ). But here is an interesting point for me: Just who is it that assigns the standards by which we are criticiized ? Who in the name of Mikhail Gorbachev assigned Ted R or anyone else for that matter to be the "critic" and to decide what exactly is our "potential".? My response from the behavior of the Democrat Socialist Party is no one but themselvs and even among them a very small few.
Now, there is no doubt there everyone and anyone individual or Nation has "potential" there is no arguing about that. But lets take the election of 2008 and how it was conducted and how the MSMbehaved as part of that Kabuki theatre. Now Obama himself did not openly state his aims and goals but if you paid close attention by following his speeches or interviews of various kinds you could figure out that this guy was not Kosher--i.e. right to be our president. Lets look at his speech in Berlin. "Citizens of the World" --that concept that he repeated over and over. Then his interview with Joe the Plumber: The idea of "spreading the wealth". Then there was the background of Obama ref to our own home grown anti-Americans and actual terrorists . Now did any media including PBS raise questions about Obama ? PBS continues to do nothing but shill for Obama as do other media. Is that "improvement "? The Obama government is trying to Change" our nation in ways the majority of Americans do not like or want. PBS is not ready to be critical of Totalitarian regimes such as Iran as a existential threat to Israel. Actually its a real threat to many beyond Israel--yet has PBS raised questions about the nature of our connections with say Hamas( an agent of Iran ? ) Has PBS been critical of Obama's foreign policy say of the dangers of making our nation weaker Has PBS shown a desire to support Pro_Democratic Movements and state that they oppose totalitarian governments ( are not those nations with democratic forms of Governments more align with their human potential --or is it that what amounts to "human potential" is determined by a ruling elite ? Human potential in my view is possible when there is more freedom, not none or less. The notion that "liberals" or whatever are the ones to determine what is "human potential" and they are the ones to make those evaluations scares the heck out of me even if they are " well meaning"

So, PBS is not representing the Public but a small segment of those in the "ruling elite" who have or seem to have a "love affair " with dictators. I am all for free speech by the way, but as for PBS--NOT ON MY DIME --thank you. If one wants to contribute fine, by all means. However--to Ted R, there are many who disagree with the "liberal" version of our self improvement and in my view it showed in the last election. Ironically, the"ruling elite" such as in PBS still don't get it. Oh well but what do you expect of a group living in their own bubble and there lies the problem. If PBS is unwilling to take into account that a majority of Americans disapprove of our current Democrat government what makes you think they are about what Stalin did in Russia or Mao in China. NOT!!!!!!

Ted R.| 11.29.10 @ 2:30PM

"oh well but what do you expect of a group living in their own bubble and there lies the problem."

Ahem - Yes. Just look around you on this site.

Occam's Tool| 11.29.10 @ 3:08PM

Sorry, Ted R. Modern Liberalism, as defined by the Obama-Pelosi-Reed branch of the Democratic party, is anti-American power and anti-free market capitalism. It also happens to be more than a touch antisemitic as well.

George True| 11.29.10 @ 3:33PM

You cannot counter Martin's line of reasoning, so just make an ad hominem attack, eh Ted? How very.....lib

Ted R.| 11.29.10 @ 7:48PM

Hah - hardly. But I'm in a target-rich environment here. Martin's screed got the treatment it warranted.

Richard| 11.29.10 @ 11:48AM

Real folk songs tell of the human condition and I bet in China, Russia, the Ukraine there are indeed folk songs that tell of these atrocities. The so-called "folk music" to which you refer is Leftist propoganda, yet another co-optation of tradition for their evil purpose.

Cris Worth| 11.29.10 @ 12:07PM

The answer is simple, these "American" folk singers were anti-Christian and atheists the perfect dupes to attack America through music. It wasn't spur of the moment either it was planned this way to brainwash young people. The Vietnam War fit beautifully in their plans to alienate young people since 19 year olds were used as sacrificial anodes in a useless unpopular war. The folk scene was another and very willing segment of Lenin's useful idiots to destroy the United States.

Petronius| 11.30.10 @ 10:49AM

Don't be so sure. Is it true that Country Joe McDonald grew up and became a Republican?
The nut of all this is the fact that along with the "folksingers", their audience and promoters of the left refuse to accept the given rigors of life in a Free country. It begins when mom and dad attempt to housebreak and force them to learn how to dress themselves. The Teds out there want everything done for them and given to them.
They call that "collective responsibility." And rejection of conventional Christian morality on their part is acceptable and My rejection of Liberal social engineering becomes a felony because His Federal Judge dictated His policies.
I don't mind lefty folk songs. Joan Baez has a fine voice and Tom Paxton is still amusing. But I've had it with the over taxation which subsidizes the deficiencies of every Ted on this planet. Repeal and abolish all entitlements and force these weenies to compete heads up or make them take their ignorant indolent incompetent asses else where.

Rich Rostrom| 11.29.10 @ 2:59PM

Because Stalin and Mao and Kim Il-sung were not Americans, and their crimes were not part of American history.

There are no American "folk songs" about Nazi Germany, to speak of. Nor about the Rape of Nanking. Nor about the Armenian Massacres, nor about the invasion of Abyssinia. I don't recall much of anything about South Africa, or Franco, even.

(Aside from Tom Lehrer's joking reference in "The Folk Song Army".)

The glory of Western civilization is that we have been willing to acknowledge our faults and remedy them. This trait has become hypertrophied into a destructive auto-immune syndrome, but in its proper form it was valuable.

Occam's Tool| 11.29.10 @ 3:10PM

Rich Rostrom:

A few popular songs about Nazi Germany (critical): "Werhner Von Braun" by Tom Lehrer, and the immortal Spike Jones in "Right in Der Fuerher's Face."

martin j smith| 11.29.10 @ 3:34PM

TedR or whoever you are, the problem that you have are millions of people who voted NON to OBAMA and his CARE etc. Given that as I believe is true, How much money have you been paid by our government to be on line and shill for your side. Would you be willing to take a pay cut to solve the budget problem? Let me put it this way just to let it be clear: Your side as far as I am concerned, and by that I mean the Democrat Party Leadership and the MSM have ABSOLUTELY NO CREDIBILITY with the majority of AMERICAN VOTERS. ONE REASON: People are tired of Obama support for dictatorships and doing destructive things related to our national security and that includes the economy. The issue of PBS demonstrated that this entity as part of the MSM which in league with the Democrat Socialist Government is not one that all taxpayers care to support. If You want to give them YOUR MONEY, good for you but as for me, NO THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

Ted R. | 11.29.10 @ 9:28PM

Tell you what: I'd gladly take a pay cut to help with the deficit, if I'd get paid first!

What is it about the right-wing mind, that supposes that someone would only bother paying witness to truth, if they were being paid? I mean, liberals get this accusation all the time from you Cons; it really says more about your own attitude to truth - "useful only if it pays" - than it does ANYTHING else.

Thom Burke| 11.30.10 @ 4:08PM

You really want to go there, Teddy? We were delighted to learn why your Democrat leaders are so quick to raise taxes: they don't bother paying them unless they're caught in a congressional investigation. BTW, Kerry's yacht is still in Rhode Island! Hypocrites.

Alaskan| 11.29.10 @ 4:25PM

Hey folks, TedR is an unemployed, commie atheist. He has all day to repeat his nonsensical rants. Ken Old Texican asked Ted if he is on George Soros' payroll to disrupt this website, sort of like a community organizer.
We the dimwit taxpayers who are not as smart as Ted are supporting Ted by some government safety net. At the least he could say thanks.

Ted R.| 11.29.10 @ 9:22PM

Ad hominem 'cause it's all you got to bring, "alaskan."

Alaskan| 11.29.10 @ 11:08PM

Teddy, you do not say anything worth responding to; waste of time, same old left wing canned speeches. Do you admit you are a commie? I believe you admitted you do not work. Reason we ask is to it puts everything you say in proper light, sort of like profiling! An unemployed commie atheist, on the public dole. You are not worth responding to on the substance, You are here only to distract.

Dave Williams| 11.29.10 @ 4:52PM

Chris, be careful with your accusations. I'm a proud atheist and also a proud unreconstructed Reagan Republican....for the same reasons, actually. I prefer to live my life without ANY interference from "above."

RON| 11.29.10 @ 7:48PM

Hey "Dave"
Just what is an unreconstructed Reagan Republican?

Thom Burke| 11.30.10 @ 4:12PM

Sort of thin skinned there, Dave, for someone who draws a moral equivalence between Christian Fundamentalists and Islamic Jihadists.

Marc Jeric| 11.29.10 @ 5:06PM

It's funny how our commies and eco-nazis call themselves "liberals" or "progressives". As a former refugees from a communist hell I can tell you that the first wave of killings by the communists once in power hits those "liberals", "progressives", and "intellectuals" in general. In the meantime those "liberals" are studying the 160-old Communist Manifesto as the last word of wisdom.

Ken (Old Texican)| 11.29.10 @ 5:18PM

Folks,
Everything being equal, we NEED the Ted Rs here.
They remind us of what the communists, (pardon the shorthand), are thinking, and drooling about.
Heh,
I had a moveon.org party a while back. Put zip-lock straps around their wrists as they came in to my home, and held them at gun-point and screamed at them for two hours. I also would not let them go to the toilet.

OKOKOKOK! I was hallucinating. I really did not do that...heh but I thought about it.

Stan Redmond| 11.29.10 @ 5:32PM

I offer this crude yet simple analysis...

You got laid singing dopey anti-war anti-American folk songs to the hippy hoards.

Paul Watson| 11.29.10 @ 5:32PM

That's strange - I could have sworn I heard someone here thinking Chile, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Grenada, Hiroshima, Nagasaki. Nah. Must be brainwashed here.

The One Who Walks Like a Duck| 11.29.10 @ 6:04PM

We took a shellacking, Ted R. My trolls are the stupidest lot on the planet. You run to the Stalin article like a dog returning to its vomit. Stalin was one us and a lot of left wingers defended him until it became to obvious that he was a mass murderer. Saps like Pete Seeger hung on until there was the kind of evidence you could use in an American court. Then our crew went on to Mao and hung with him until it became too obvious. Then we found various small scale mass murderers to attach our affections. We are pathetic Ted. Have you ever read anything about Che. What a murderous crazy bastard. Why do our young supporters wear T-shirts with his face on them? They think he is some kind of hippy radical instead of a Latin Charlie Manson. Why my co-author Bill Ayers was talking about putting good Americans in re-education camps in the 70s. I thought this sounded like a good idea until I found out that nut jobs like Ayers intended to starve people to death. Education sounded so good but as usual we lefties use words in funny ways. I am glad Ayers was able to get a job as a college professor because it has kept him from murdering people. Plus he had a lot of good ideas about my daddy. Ted, lets face it, you have a bad reputation here. If you wanted to improve it you could do what I recommended to Belgium. Adopt a Gitmo terrorist. Call it a rescue. Be careful though these guys are more like a rabid dog and they will hurt you if they get the chance. This is way we will close Gitmo, baby.

Ted R. | 11.29.10 @ 9:35PM

I have a bad reputation here? Whew! That's a relief! I was worried there for a second!

In a recent post I called for bringing detainees to American prisons. Strange why I never hear any Cons calling for that. Whatsamatter? Scared? Oh - I forgot - you guys think that holding people indefinitely in government custody without habeas corpus is a GOOD idea. Gotta love those Cons and their zany ideas about individual rights!

The One Who Runs Like a Duck| 11.29.10 @ 10:08PM

We took a shellacking, Ted R. Don't be so defensive. I like you making nice with our enemies. I am an anti-anti-Islamist myself. That does make for strange bed fellows as you know but at least we can hate Republicans. I wonder why we can't get our progressive brothers in Europe or blue states to take these guys. What a bunch of pecksniffian wimps. They deserve the full suite of our rights. I should just offer them asylum and make them citizens. Maybe they would like Portland, Chicago, New York City, or better yet Detroit since it has already been destroyed by progressives. We can never convict them of anything since almost we know about them was obtained illegally and they are just like American citizens with respect their rights and all. What does Harry Reid call them? Oh yea, undocumented Americans. That is why I was trying to get you a room mate. They like effeminate men so they will consider you useful to their cause. You could be in charge of morale. Oh well. We are so nuanced. Those Republicans were treating them like prisoners of war when everybody knows that they were just caught up in an overseas contingency operation. Predator drones for every Republican, baby.

Nikolai Yezhov Jr.| 12.2.10 @ 7:58PM

Congratulations comrade, job well done.

Any day now the capitalist exploiters will fall like an over ripe fruit into our proletarian hands. And your name will shine forever in the Hall Of Progressive Heroes, for your steadfast dedication to the People's Struggle, here behind enemy lines.

I'm taking the liberty of forwarding to you your Hero Of Socialist Labor and Order Of The Red Banner awards. Wear them with pride and know that our Glorious General Secretary is watching, always watching.

Nicky.

Margie| 11.29.10 @ 6:05PM

Why would the hippie generation write songs about the real enemy, Communism, when they were Commie wanna-be's. It was the cool thing to be. In the mind of the spoiled brats, they were rebelling against "the establishment", against their parents, and against anything considered normal by most. Then they grew up and became newspaper writers.. and Presidents.. and University Professors.. those that didn't, those who grew up and came to their right minds.. we call them conservatives. The Ted R's will go on praising the Communists.. and the battle continues between good and evil.

Till He returns.

Stainless Steel Pipe | 11.29.10 @ 8:28PM

By all means do NOT even consider profiling Muslims as that would be "racist" - as if "Muslim" was a race. Also, don’t consider “criminal” profiling as that diminishes the leftist mantra we are a “racist” nation.led tube

Larry| 11.30.10 @ 3:48AM

Alan Brooks, you get far more attention than you deserve! Yet, like Stalin, you blame the Germans for everything to deflect attention from the Katyn Forest atrocity - and years of the Gulag, which was in big business during those years, not just with German prisoners of war.

A plague on both their houses, I say, and especially on yours.

RJB| 11.30.10 @ 3:51PM

Mr. Stein is a smart and articulate patriot.

Rob De Witt| 12.1.10 @ 4:34AM

I see many comments re the Boomy Babers and their childishness during the '60s....but the question remains: Why no songs about Communist atrocities?

The answer, my friends, is blowin in the wind of International Leftism throughout the folkie world. It's pretty obvious none of the responders (not to mention Ben Stein himself) have ever spent any time around the folk music scene.

Having been an acoustic musician for almost 50 years now, I've had a lot of time to think about it. I finally started to discover that in fact the Voice Of The People infiltrated the boho-folkie world on the Mysterious East Coast as early as the '30s, when the cultural hipper-than-you-are started championing Leadbelly, Woodie Guthrie and other worthy rustics in the better salons.

Despite a brief fling with sanity as the Popular Front during the early days of WWII, the anti-American leftie assumptions of any and all "folk" singers have never wavered. Of course it was all directed at America's middle class in the '50s and '60s. What'd you expect?

Marc Jeric| 12.2.10 @ 3:09AM

How come there is no society of former refugees from various communist hells? We recognize clearly the steps taken by Obama in communizing America, but there is no common action to stop him.

Serge Barou| 12.2.10 @ 7:22PM

Ted R. unloads heaps of words here, with very little meaning behind them. That is a consequence of bad education... or rather self-education. Because what you were taught at school or some useless liberal arts college is one thing, but the life-long habit of reading serious works is another. Someone in the beginning of this thread mentioned books 'not authorized by left-wing historical revisionists'... epitomized by Eric Hobsbawm, I'd add. Those who don't do such reading are doomed to produce ridiculous statements like this:

Ted R.: "By the way, I suppose that because Beck told you that the Nazis were "socialists," you believed it".

Mister Ted,

In 1957, full 11 years before Glenn Beck was even born, the the first English edition of The Opium of the Intellectuals - a masterpiece of the French philosopher Raymond Aron’s - was published in the USA. Transaction Publishers brought out a new edition of Opium in 2001. But even before that you could find this book in any decent public library. And you should, what with your pretence for proficiency in things historical.

There would be a bonus in it for you, too - you wouldn't expose yourself as a phony intellectual (one of those addicted to the opium Monsieur Aron wrote about).

Richard Szathmary| 12.2.10 @ 7:56PM

Someone else may have mentioned it above, but if not: the Katyn Forest massacre in fact plays a major role in a Polish codebreaker's deciding , after disillusion with the Allies (while working at Bletchley Park), to spy for the Third Reich in both Robert Harris's original novel of "Enigma" and its subsequent (and very well done indeed) movie version.

And that PBS special Ben Stein refers to, which is meant to be used as a vehicle for what now seem like PBS's monthly begathons (and which I admittedly watched last Saturday night), is so gingerly constructed that, while it celebrates the reuniting of the Chad Mitchell Trio, it never mentions that the reason the so-named group then became for some years "the Mitchell Trio" (allowing a then-little known singer called John Denver to make his first true market impression) is in fact because founder and lead singer Chad Mitchell went off to do a fair amount of hard time on a drug dealing charge. But then, this is PBS, after all...

Kent Clizbe | 12.2.10 @ 8:11PM

Ben,

Thanks for your entertaining and insightful commentary, as usual.

You'll understand fully why folk singers, and academics, and Hollywood, and the media are all anti-American (which we call PC today) after you read my 3 part series of articles in BigPeace.com:
http://bigpeace.com/kclizbe/20.....ca-part-1/

Also, my book Willing Accomplices: How Covert Influence Operations Destroyed America. Shocking Revelations of Espionage Penetrations of America's Core, will be published around Christmas. See my website: www.kentclizbe.com to order your copy.

The bottom line is: the Soviets, via intelligence operations run by operatives under Comintern covers, ran covert influence operations designed to destroy America's core values. They began in the early 1920s. The covert influence payload was so skillfully planned that, like a radio jingle that won't leave your head, did not need to be nurtured. The operators planted the anti-American seeds, and were recalled to Moscow and shot. But the payload lived on--ultimately becoming what we call Political Correctness (and the Obama agenda, and Progressivism, and hate-America-first).

Keep up the good work.

Kent Clizbe
kent@kentclizbe.com

Serge Barou| 12.3.10 @ 3:38PM

If someone can't wait till Christmas :-) to find out about Soviet/Comintern clandestine and not so clandestine ideologically subversive operations in America, there is huge body of already existing and very solidly researched works on the topic. One of them is In Denial: Historians, Communism and Espionage by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr.

Kent Clizbe | 12.5.10 @ 1:58PM

Serge,

Haynes and Klehr, the Radoshes, Andrews, and several others have indeed done great work in researching Soviet espionage.

However, they have focused almost exclusively on the communists' intelligence COLLECTION efforts. They also greatly over-emphasize the role of the American Communist Party in their analyses.

They have missed the elephant in the room.

The Soviets' major espionage operation against the U.S. was NOT their collection of atomic secrets, or any other collection of intelligence.

Communist covert influence operations infected American culture with the germs that became political correctness. Thus, they effectively destroyed America (as it once was).

Exposure of the covert influence operations is the focus of my research.

Comintern intelligence records are not public, and likely never will be. It is also very likely that much of the Comintern covert influence operations were not documented. Thus, the traditional intelligence researchers, like the ones you cite, have overlooked the elephant in the room.

As an intelligence professional, I use my experience and operator's instincts to identify the operation. I also conduct counter-intelligence analysis of the Soviets' covert influence agents in academia/education, the media, and Hollywood, identifying those Willing Accomplices who infected society with the anti-American messages that becamem Political Correctness.

Thanks.

Kent Clizbe
www.kentclizbe.com

Charie| 12.3.10 @ 10:57PM

I have to say I enjoyed the Stein article as well as the comments, with a few exceptions. Now Ted, don't clutch that to your little Liberal heart because I enjoyed yours, too.

The mention of Spike Jones' song made me chuckle. Being very young at the time I knew the whole song by heart and bro and I relished the occasions to make the obscenely juicy (the way we did them) noises required at points in the song.

I do have to make an observation about the lack of American-lovers among the folk singers. I have listened to folk music but am not enamored of it because about every 3rd song dredges up one of the old hate-America tunes. (one thing, why is folk music so boring and repetitive?)

I love my country. My family on 2 sides goes back centuries here and 1 met the other on the shore when they arrived in this country.

I do not understand the thinking of people who don't appreciate this country for what it is, and it is NOT a bastion of evil. We've always been a proud people, not arrogant the way the Left would portray us. We were proud of taking care of ourselves, unbending to the evil unleashed upon us in various wars.

Leftists always seem to think they will be exempted from rules imposed upon the populace by communist leaders. Sorry to report, but they will be among the first to go. They're expendable because usually they're the ones who talk, not do. Could be the folkies wouldn't be eliminated because they could always keep singing about how work is liberty and how the girl next door fell in love with her tractor. Sorry, just wandered off into a couple of WWII pro-communist films.

Anyway, thanks for the enjoyable read!

Jim McGovern | 12.4.10 @ 10:23AM

Do all of these commentators merely wish to see their own opinions in print? Did these puffing pundits really miss Mr. Stein's point in this essay?

"It was on page A 5 of the New York Times in one small paragraph of tiny type next to another paragraph about energy legislation in the EU."

His jab at the NYT was superb.

The American Spectator

Ben Stein's Diary

No Songs About Stalin

About the Author

Letter to the Editor View all comments (153) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

drudge ette obama| 11.29.10 @ 6:51AM

Dasboot| 11.29.10 @ 5:48PM

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