Tom Hayden and the 'Spiritual Progressives' Defend Murder
in Venezuela
by Joel B. Pollak 28 Feb 2014,
6:14 AM PDT
I received an email yesterday from
"The Network of Spiritual Progressives," a group run by the left-wing
Rabbi Michael Lerner and devoted to spreading love a peace throughout the
world. The Spiritual Progressives can be counted on to join anti-war
demonstrations and to criticize almost anything Israel does to protect its citizens
from Palestinian terror. This particular email was concerned with the raging
political crisis in Venezuela.
The email contained an essay on Venezuela
by Tom Hayden, one of the most
important activists of the 1960s. Hayden drafted the Port Huron Statement in
1962, which launched the New Left and inspired a generation whose politics were
stamped by the civil rights and anti-war movements, and who embraced utopian
ideals like "participatory democracy." They are today's Democratic
Party leaders and mainstream media gatekeepers.
Hayden, like many of the leaders
of Students for a Democratic Society,
became more and more radical, visiting North Vietnam and the like. But
Hayden never quite left mainstream politics, and became an important leader
among California's
Democrats, serving in both houses of the state legislature over nearly two
decades. He was married to Jane Fonda and remains a progressive icon. His views
both reflect and inspire others' on the left.
Rabbi Lerner introduced Hayden's
comments on Venezuela as
"an important perspective on the current conflict in Venezuela that
you won't get from NPR or most of the media." (Evidently
taxpayer-and-donor-funded NPR is as bad as the corporate-owned media, you see.)
The gist of Hayden's argument was that a shadowy government, beyond the control
of President Barack Obama, wants Nicolás Maduro, Hugo Chávez's successor, overthrown.
Hayden shows no concern whatsoever
for the erosion of democracy under Chávez and Maduro, no compassion for unarmed
demonstrators murdered in the streets, no shock at the Venezuelan's utter
destruction of the oil-rich economy. This icon of "participatory
democracy" shows no outrage at the arrest of Leopoldo Lopez, the leader of
the opposition, no concern about widely-reported torture of demonstrators in
Venezuelan prisons.
He is concerned, Hayden writes,
that U.S. foreign policy is
being run by a "state within a state," dating back to "the CIA's
operations against Cuba."
He is not concerned in the slightest that Cuba itself is running a "state
within a state" in Venezuela, openly assisting the Maduro regime in
suppressing opposition and protest as millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil are
shipped to Cuba to prop up the brutally tenacious Castro brothers.
Hayden gives Obama the benefit of
the doubt: after all, "a friendly Obama shook the hand of Hugo Chavez [in
2009] before Obama's top adviser tried to sabotage the warming of
relations," after all. Yet he is worried that Obama's friendship towards Venezuela's
government will be undermined by "a secret network that works tirelessly
to undermine any Latin American threat to the dominance of American capital and
military power."
It is not shocking that a 1960s
radical would believe such stuff. It is, however, rather surprising that a
group that prides itself on its embrace of non-violence would circulate
Hayden's views with approval, shamelessly excusing any and all violence and
tyranny by the Venezuelan state. The next time you hear these progressive
Democrats complain about the U.S.
military or about Israeli occupation, remember their support for murder in Venezuela.
Tom Hayden
Tom
Hayden was a co-founder for the Students
for a Democratic Society, married to Jane
Fonda, and is an editorial board member for The Nation.
Note: Jane Fonda A.K.A Hanoi Jane was married to Tom Hayden, and married to Ted Turner.
Jane Fonda A.K.A. Hanoi
Jane
Ted
Turner was married to Jane Fonda,
and is a co-chairman for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director
at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think
tank), the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), was a board member for the International
Crisis Group, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think
tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with
Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population
control by involving the United
States in war)
Moises
Naim was a senior associate, International Economics Program minister of
trade and industry for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think
tank), was a board member for the International
Crisis Group, and the minister of trade and industry for Venezuela.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace (think tank), and the Center for American Progress.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a board member for the International Crisis Group, was a
supporter for the Center for American
Progress, and the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace (think tank), the Center
for American Progress, Media Matters,
the New America Foundation, the Roosevelt Institute, and the Climate Reality Project.
Eric
Alterman is a senior fellow at the Center
for American Progress, a columnist for The
Nation, and was a senior fellow at Media
Matters.
Christopher
Hayes is an editor at large for The
Nation, and was a fellow at the New
America Foundation.
Katrina
vanden Heuvel is an editor & publisher for The Nation, a director at the Roosevelt
Institute, and was a governor for the Roosevelt
Institute.
Arthur M.
Schlesinger Jr. was a co-chairman for the Roosevelt Institute, and a co-founder for the Americans for Democratic Action.
Richard Parker was
the president of the Americans for
Democratic Action, a co-founder for Mother
Jones, and is an editorial board member for The Nation.
Mother Jones: Study Shows Global Warming May Cause More
Rape
by William Bigelow 27 Feb 2014
Laura Delano
Roosevelt is a governor for the Roosevelt
Institute, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s granddaughter.
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was Laura Delano Roosevelt’s
grandfather, and Theodore Roosevelt’s
fifth cousin.
Theodore
Roosevelt was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s fifth cousin, and his great-grandson is Theodore Roosevelt IV.
Theodore
Roosevelt IV is Theodore Roosevelt’s
great grandfather, and a director at the Climate
Reality Project.
Albert
A. Gore Jr. is the chairman for the Climate
Reality Project.
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