« My First Piece of Secure ID | Main | Don't Touch Me, I've Got Kids »
March 08, 2007
How to Win Mother’s Approval
Mother Jones magazine is unapologetically left wing at time when many people consider liberal to be a four-letter word. Their editorial position on immigration is that legislation like McCain-Kennedy does not go nearly far enough, and that the illegal aliens marching in the streets demanding amnesty are the newest foot soldiers in the ongoing class struggle against the forces of global capitalism.
So when Mother Jones profiled CNN's Lou Dobbs in an article entitled "Angry White Man," it was logical to expect that they would treat him, well, not kindly. But, beyond the sensational headline, Mother Jones offers some grudging respect for the man who daily excoriates politicians on the left and right for their failure to stop what he forthrightly calls an invasion. They stop short of endorsing Dobbs' views on immigration, but the article acknowledges that he makes some very valid points.
Mother Jones is far to the left of Democratic Party that now controls both houses of Congress. So if Dobbs' formula for addressing immigration can disarm even the hard left, it should certainly be applicable to winning the hearts and minds of the congressional Democratic leadership. "[I]t is in his anti-corporate stances that Dobbs distances himself from the bulk of the mainline right, even as he refuses to align himself with the left. Indeed, Dobbs shares no contemporary comparison," says Mother Jones. Instead, the affable CNN host is a modern incarnation of William Jennings Bryan, known as "The Great Commoner" for his late-19th and early 20th century crusades against "the influence of the robber barons, monopolies and trusts."
By packaging mass immigration together with other economic and trade policies that constitute "a war on the middle class," Dobbs has found the right language to at least get those on the political left to listen. In presenting the issue the way he does, Dobbs forces the left to decide whether multiculturalism is more important to them than economic egalitarianism. Even Mother Jones finds it's a tough choice.
Posted on at March 8, 2007 02:15 PM