Howard Zinn Quotes
Sometimes the difference between two candidates is an important one in the immediate sense, and then I believe trying to get somebody into office, who is a little better, who is less dangerous, is understandable. But never forgetting that no matter who gets into office, the crucial question is not who is in office, but what kind of social movement do you have. Because if you have a powerful social movement, it doesn't matter who is in office.
Zinn, Howard. A Power Governments Cannot Suppress. City Lights Books, 2006.
Republican Party primary elections had become very contentious. The radical right and the Tea Party, though a minority of the party, had the power to destroy almost any Republican candidate’s chances. So those Republican political candidates were forced to pander to the extreme right and then try and backtrack to the center for the general election. As a result, few people believed the statements of Republican office seekers as no one knew what they really believed including members of their own party, Bush, no longer running for any political position, found himself with much more credibility and influence in the party than those who were running for office. The problem of appealing to party extremes was not unique to the Republicans at that time, but the degree and extent was unprecedented accounting for the distrust.
A school desegregation case from Clarendon County had reached the Court. However, Frankfurter was a leader in getting the court to demur and send it back to the lower court for more fact-finding. One of the clerks thought that the court was ducking the issue because it was so controversial. In addition to the election issue Frankfurter and Justice Robert Jackson had only 4 votes for desegregation, but the 5 justice majority consisted of some very old men. Frankfurter and Jackson tried.
Abramoff had bribed over 100 Congressional offices by a combination of campaign donations, paid golf junkets all over the world, free elegant meals at his own fancy Washington Restaurant, free tickets for the Congressmen, their staffs and their major constituents, to Concerts and sporting events including his own Skyboxes, and promises of future employment at very high salaries. Ironically, we was convicted of cheating some of his lobbying clients and did a jail term, but his “bribery” was technically usually legal. In addition to Abramoff, only one Congressman was charged and convicted of corruption, when many if not most had engaged in these corrupt practices. Congress makes the rules with loopholes so that what is bribery and corruption in any other setting is often not against the law if Congress is involved.
Although he had majority support, he reacted very badly to anyone who challenged him or his party about anything. One of his decisions to transform a park into a shopping center drew crowds of peaceful protesters. He grossly overacted as he believed in a “winner take all” view of democracy. So long as he could bring more followers than the protesters, he was right and they were wrong. This had the effect of polarizing a population that had been a democracy since the 1920s. In his view, dialogue, discussion, and debate are not valuable processes, and minority views can never be correct, but whoever can muster the majority gets to call the shots and make all the laws and decisions, regardless of the views of minorities.
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn wrote over 20 books, including his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United States in 1980. In 2007, he published a version of it for younger readers, A Young People's History of the United States.
