Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Left’s JFK Conspiracy Theories

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…matter:

Talk of the “atmosphere” of hate will be familiar to anyone who read the left’s reaction to the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords. But whereas Jared Loughner​ was a nonideological madman, Lee Harvey Oswald​ was a communist bent on assassinating an anticommunist American president. At Hot Air, Allahpundit wondered why on earth Democrats wouldn’t just blame Oswald’s communism:

Oswald wasn’t a mainstream liberal or, Lord knows, a mainstream Democrat. He was a fringe leftist, an honest-to-goodness commie. The Oswald apologists could, if they liked, simply emphasize his ideological extremism — his fringiness — as the key to his anti-Kennedy mania.

But they didn’t – just as they defend the Occupy Wall Street protesters, whose movement has been marked by violence, rape, and in one case sympathy for – you guessed it – a would-be assassin who shot at the White House. This is one reason anticommunists had mostly left or avoided the Democratic party. Ralph de Toledano, Whittaker Chambers​, and others like them argued there was a design flaw in the American left which would forever hamper their ability and willingness to cast out the crazies, even when they didn’t sympathize with them.

They argued, as the historian of the right George Nash once aptly put it, “that there was a philosophical continuity on the left and that this was disabling to American liberalism, because it could not quite bring itself to have a vigorous enough response to the communists.”

And it still can’t. Nor can it to the Islamists.

9 thoughts on “The Left’s JFK Conspiracy Theories”

  1. He wasn’t a communist, he was a socialist and he explained the difference in a radio interview. Later he was more or less an anarcho-syndicalist. He probably was a psychopath the whole time. Few if any understand his motives.

  2. Frank Rich is not a communist, so why can’t he just admit the reality of what happened? Kennedy’s opposition to communism was a noble virtue, so why not say as much? Because though communist radicalism is far from the mainstream of the Democratic party, strident anticommunism is just as far.

    Sadly, it’s much simpler than that: “No enemies to the left; no friends to the right.”

    Moderate Muslims are frequently called out by the Right for failing to denounce extremist suicide bombers – they defer to the more zealous out of piety. Same is true for the moderate Leftist.

  3. From what I’ve read over the years, the Left wanted so badly to blame the assassination on Republicans and conservatives (sounds familiar) that they refused to accept that the left-wing radical Oswald could’ve done it.

    1. Correct, and they have constructed mythical images of both JFK and LHO that would lead you to believe they were fighting for a common cause… Denial is a powerful force. But I don’t think we understand the guy’s motives. He was most likely a nut, but then again there appears to have been some sort of strange rhyme and reason to his madness.

      Not that I think LHO’s mind is inherently interesting, it just leaves room for lingering doubt that there may have been outside influences on and that there may have been more to the assassination of JFK.

  4. But whereas Jared Loughner​ was a nonideological madman

    Strongly disagree. Yes, he is a madman but he was motivated by his ideology. People who know him, described him as liberal and Zeitgeist had a profound influence on how he viewed the world. Several of his internet videos referenced a “resource based economy”.

    Strangely enough we see many of the same ideas being pushed by the OWS crowd today.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/TZMOfficialChannel

    http://www.thevenusproject.com/

    1. Indeed, as Giffords was shot by someone insider her own camp for insufficient piety, like Malcolm X or, quite possibly, JFK*.

      (*Yes, that’s a SWAG. Haven’t researched it; not planning on it.)

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