The Lee Harvey Oswald Democrats

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Lee Harvey Oswald, arrested after an August 1963 pro-Castro protest

“The alienated radical suffers from feelings of helplessness and insignificance and, unable to find satisfaction in ordinary life, seeks to vindicate himself — to prove that he is a person of historical importance — by grandiose gestures on behalf of fringe ideologies, savagely lashing out against ‘the system’ he rejects in a sort of sour-grapes rationalization: Feeling rejected by society, he rejects society in revenge.”
— Robert Stacy McCain, “Squeaky Fromme, Sara Jane Moore, Lee Harvey Oswald and the Radical Impulse,” Aug. 27

What happened to the Democrat Party? When and how did the psychological impulses of radical alienation seize control of a large segment of our society, infusing them with the anti-religious, anti-family, anti-capitalist, anti-American spirit that dominates the souls of Democrats today? George F. Will describes the pivotal turn:

The transformation of a murder by a marginal man into a killing by a sick culture began instantly — before Kennedy was buried. The afternoon of the assassination, Chief Justice Earl Warren ascribed Kennedy’s “martyrdom” to “the hatred and bitterness that has been injected into the life of our nation by bigots.” The next day, James Reston, the New York Times luminary, wrote in a front-page story that Kennedy was a victim of a “streak of violence in the American character,” noting especially “the violence of the extremists on the right.” . . .
A Soviet spokesman, too, assigned “moral responsibility” for Kennedy’s death to “Barry Goldwater and other extremists on the right.”
Three days after the assassination, a Times editorial, “Spiral of Hate,” identified Kennedy’s killer as a “spirit”: The Times deplored “the shame all America must bear for the spirit of madness and hate that struck down” Kennedy. The editorialists were, presumably, immune to this spirit. The new liberalism-as-paternalism would be about correcting other people’s defects.
Hitherto a doctrine of American celebration and optimism, liberalism would now become a scowling indictment: Kennedy was killed by America’s social climate, whose sickness required “punitive liberalism.” . . .

Read the whole thing. Hat-tip: My smart-ass friend Ali Akbar on Twitter.

 

 

118 comments

  4. I wouldn’t go that far, but Rockwell does have problems. I will also add that the Warren Commission’s purpose was to paper over the killing, not get answers. There are a lot questions about the report, and Snarlin’ Arlen’s Magic Bullet theory doesn’t work. We’ll never have the truth on the Kennedy murder in this life. YMMV.

  5. Veeeeeeeeeeery special. Just they all see themselves.

    By the by. I rarely see invective tossed around here. Mockery is kettle of a different color. We all love it with a very special kind of love.

  6. No need for that. Conspiracies don’t normally appeal to me and I find Alex Jones pretty abysmal but the Kennedy assassination is something else and there are too many unanswered questions and holes in the Warren Report plus you had some very powerful people(Mafia/CIA)with some very strong motivations(Bay of Pigs, Kennedy’s vow to break the CIA, RFK’s mafia witchhunt after they helped his election in Illinois not to mention their interests in Cuba, his reluctance to commit to Vietnam. I wouldn’t call it a right wing conspiracy because frankly that’s absurd. It’s just power and the same people work with Presidents whether left or right if they are willing to cooperate. Just look at Obama. Kennedy was rocking the boat though.

    And why is Rockwell a nut job? I’ve heard racism accusations but other than that he preaches a pretty sound economic policy and doesn’t trust the state. I dont think that makes him nuts.

  7. Why is that? because he thinks the traditional conservative is often full of shit, and generally ineffectual?

  8. Yeah, but you had all those radical anti-communist, John Birch types down there who hated Kennedy and thought he was soft on the USSR and blacks so the idea isn’t that far fetched since that was where most of the hate toward him was coming from. I’m sure if someone tagged Obama we wouldn’t be looking for a liberal and definitely would assume it was a Tea Party type taking into account the irrational hatred some of you have for this President.

  9. In reality democrats are center-right and nowhere near as liberal as western Europe, and only appear leftist when standing next to the proto-fascists that make up the conservative movement and Republican party.

  10. The Single Bullet Theory works and has been reconfirmed making use of technology not available in 1964.

    The most notable promoter of the notion that it did not has been Josiah Thompson. One source of error has been relying on schematic drawings of a birds-eye view of the limousine which show the two couples seated one behind the other and aligned on all axes. Gov. Connolly and his wife were in jump seats; the Governor was on an axis several inches to the President’s left and several inches closer to the ground.

    The trajectory can work when you take that into account.

  11. I am not saying the single bullet theory is impossible. Weird things have often happened. It is, however, very improbable and smacks more of Specter grasping for straws than anything else.

    What you are proposing as a demonstration does not prove anything. It might show that it is within the realm of possibility, but engaging in such is just a higher grade of speculation. As an Engineer engaging a forensic investigation I’ve seen such things, but have encountered no one that thought anything was proven thereby.

  12. I for one, am willing to entertain your hypothesis: No more than 20 to 28% of Americans are worthy of the legacy of liberty secured (temporarily it would appear) by our founders.

  13. So how is a group that desires a reduced amount of government made up ‘proto-fascists’?

    You know, bringing out the ‘fascist’ card means you have no real argument, only insults to bring to the table.

  14. The loons are out in full force today. Fascism and socialism are kissing cousins there Mr. Full of Shit. If that is your real name.
    We believe in individual liberty and a constitutional republic. We don’t believe in the governmental slavery that is being forced on us be this slimey president.

  15. Every time I think my conservative friends are going kooky, somebody shows up with a Classic Gold™ Conspiracy Theory, and the Kennedy assassination is the gold standard of conspiracy theories. Then, to top it off, they use Lew Rockwell as a source! What, no Alex Jones?

    But I shouldn’t laugh. There are more people living today who got their version of history from Oliver Stone’s conspiracy movie than from witnessing it at the time. Young people today don’t realize it is fictional, they think it is a docu-drama.

  17. Well, at least they aren’t full-on fascists, like your pal barack and his army of barricade enforcers.

    Democrats went over the far left edge years ago. They are so far gone they ally themselves with the jihadists, hoping their new best buddies will kill them last when the Arab Spring is over.

  18. Yeah…

    Yeah. And didn’t Mark Levin dedicate the Liberty Amendments to Mitt Romney, his mentor in all things Constitutional?

    Yeah. Probably.

  19. Definitely. Look how they manage to keep barack’s approval rating just above 28 percent, despite the overwhelming evidence of his total destruction of the economy.

  20. You must not be from the South.

    Some of the most gleeful at news of Kennedy’s assassination were Southern Democrats who couldn’t stand the idea of a Catholic in the White House.

    I still remember them looking at the paper going, “Good!” Nasty people. But then, they still are.

  27. Finny mentioned it earlier, but it bears underscoring… I was about to comment on a story at Politico, then I noticed the comment section was pretty much owned by gibbering nutjobs doing the same, tired, squirrel-cage roundyround. (Same old accusatory crap, over and over again.) It was like someone programmed a robo-Schmellfardt.

    So I decided to see what’s up at NRO. Same crap. Total amateur hour at a supposedly pro website.

    Now juxtapose that with a study of events dealing with the cane-assault on Sumner by Brooks in 1856. Sumner was an ardent abolitionist, and he decided to heat things up with personal invective in his incendiary, two-day speech that angered so many Southerners. People worried he was a’gonna get hisself killt fer shore.

    Brooks meanwhile was not only non-apologetic after his surprise, cane attack on an unarmed man trapped in a bolted-down desk (while an associate held others at bay with his own cane), but even filed a letter afterward saying he had no choice but to do so. If his cane hadn’t broken, it would have been murder.

    So take a look at a collection of editorials from the period, focusing on the event. Then ask yourself if we’re there yet.

    Because like Finrod, I’ve freaking had it with these loons. Politico sucks on a good day, so it figures that the loons rule the swamp there. But some respectable Conservatives still hang out at NRO. Why they molycoddle the loons in the bleachers I have no idea. Worse, I’m sure that a simple “FOADIAF” response to them attracts the mods, but the gibbering nastiness of the lefties goes untouched unless they use a key word or phrase.

    The point of this ramble is that we’re nearly past the point of any discussion with them. They not only refuse to be reasonable, but they refuse to utilize reason, almost as a point of bravado. You know where it’s going to end up. All you have to do is read your history. Human nature has not changed perceptibly since the Romans or ancient Greeks.

    So we’ll plan for peace. We’ll ask them politely to stop pushing their totalitarianism on us. But the smart ones will prepare for more kinetic activities. Spite in the head of state leads to slaughter as sure as statism leads to oligarchy.

    I used to think we had more years ahead of before we arrived at this state.

  29. Rockwell had his moment. Then it all seemed to devolve. I think it came from his being susceptible to cons. Either that or he had health problems that damaged his resistance to them.

    The old rule about it being difficult to con an honest man has a corollary: an otherwise honest man overly preoccupied with pushing a viewpoint is highly vulnerable to confidence men.

    So I guess the way to avoid that trap is to not let yourself believe your own bullsh*t. Not too much, anyway. Leave room for some doubt. And try to stay honest even so.

    I’m mostly typing this to remind myself here, but I think others can benefit from it, too.

  30. Thompson’s original argument was that the trajectory was impossible. Not so. His schematic drawings were bad.

    More granular work has lined up the autonomic reactions of the President (arms akimbo) and Connolly’s reaction to the bullet passing through him as seen in proximate frames of the Zapruder film.

    The ballistics identify the bullet as coming from Oswald’s gun. There is no evidence of any second gunman; the acoustical mess relied on by the House Select Committee was discredited in short order by amateurs whose work was reconfirms by the National Academy.

    As can be seen on the Zapruder film (and testified to by Mrs. Connolly) the brain matter went forward.

    And, of course, the ‘patsy’ Lee Harvey Oswald, having shown up for work carrying a package of ‘curtain rods’, later wasted a Dallas cop named Tippett.

  31. The big problem with Rockwell is that he is an ideologue. Theer’s nothing wrong with having an ideology as long as you keep at the level of a guide and not the end of all you are doing. Most ideologues do not take human nature into account and when they fail, they wonder why. What Rockwell is pushing does not take human nature into account anymore than liberalism does.

  32. The Dimocrap Party is so far left it would take a starship to attend a meeting with them. You demonstrate a basic, and abysmal ignorance, as do all you trolls, of what Fascism is how the political spectrum is constructed. Left of center is statism until you reach total statism of the type pushed by Stalin and Mao. Right of center you get less government until the extreme is reached and you have anarchy. Sinful man can not live in an anarchic state because he has no internal governor unless he is specifically trained and even then they are tempted to slip that internal leash and do wrong. With no accountability, anarchy soon slips into chaos and people demand order, even if it is a sorry state formed by some criminal like Stalin or Mao. All of the the left wing governing philosophies fall under fascism, which is a statist ideology that demands full control of society. To call conservatives fascists, is to accuse the founders of fascism, something that the loony left does not hesitate to do.

    You loon balls on the left show your gross ignorance at every turn.

  33. You don’t have to worry. We’ll always have your establishment arrogance to set us straight. While I have problems with Rockwell, some of what he says is sensible. I’m willing to eat the fish and spit out the bones. You would rather reject everything and starve.

  35. Someone has said NRO may not have a Mod. It’s quite possible. At times, however, even if your response is not FOADIAF it will be deleted. While Steyn is occasionally published there, I think NR and NRO are a loss. Buckley went senile and turned things over to a set of cowardly idiots. The defenestration of Derbyshire was the Rubicon and NR and NRO are sinking into the left wing swamp more and more. I think Steyn and Krikorian are in their last days over there.

  36. Then you missed the Shirley Sherrod post AND the first reply to me here. Maybe people should cure the plank in your eye before complaining about the plank in the “Left’s” eye

  38. As a lawyer, I will submit that Mark Levin’s desire to return America to Articles of Confederation was less than persuasive. As an amateur historian, I can think of few people in the entire country whose public persona is less concerned with what the Constitution says than Levin. He would destroy it in order to save it.

    In fact, adding veto points for States is not only antithetical to the actual Constitution (and pretty much what the Articles of Confederation were), but it’s also anti-democratic.

    I understand people on the far right like him because he yells at the rest of the right and the left, but his public persona is as a grifter and nothing less.

  39. You were a jerk in those posts. In life, you get what you give.

    And since you are complaining about just desserts, yes, you are a Very Special Snowflake™. I suggest seeking professional help.

  40. In fact, adding veto points for States is not only antithetical to the actual Constitution (and pretty much what the Articles of Confederation were), but it’s also anti-democratic.

    Multiple things strike me about this –and BTW, I’m also a lawyer and avocational historian. First, the states under the un-amended constitution had considerable “veto” power in the form of additional checks and balances beyond those among the three branches of government routinely discussed. Having Senators elected by the states’ legislatures is the first that comes to mind. There are many others, including the Electoral College to name one. The states were always meant to have greater power than the federal government.

    Second, this country is not a democracy but a republic. Democracy was what the founders feared most, because of the tyranny of the majority. We have a system which is (nominally if not in practice at the moment) designed to cause interference in private concerns to occur at a glacial pace. Only if/when the majority of stakeholders, i.e. citizens and states together agree to a course of action, is it allowed to proceed.

    The progressives hate this, because it limits their ability to impose their will. They want a “more democratic” system, because it eliminates those brakes on the system. It would allow this country to be run a a majority of coastal elites without regard to the welfare of the rest of us. Levin is trying to get back to that point in practice, and good for him for doing so.

  43. And did you bother to read the Warren Report? Because it doesn’t “paper over” anything. The “magic bullet” isn’t magic, once you actually use the positions of the people in the car. Hint: no mid-air turns are involved. Further, I have done a fair amount of shooting. Yes, a bullet can pass through bodies and be that nearly pristine. It’s counter-intuitive. However, it happens.

  44. Considering that Kennedy succeeded Eisenhower, at the time, his high approval ratings weren’t all that surprising.

  48. I always found it horribly ironic that Hubert Humphrey, who made his bones by purging the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party of Communists and fellow travelers in the 1940s, was celebrated as a hero by the ideological sons and daughters of the people he kicked out of the DFL.

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