‘Now That Red Is Dead’

My question to Thomas Powers and the “red is dead” tradition (“What Next Now That Red Is Dead?” Opinion, April 23) is why does a dead movement have to die so many deaths? According to the Powers’ heritage of journalistic analysis, socialism died with either the Paris Commune, Karl Marx, the Second International, Lenin’s New Economic Policy, Stalinist dictatorship, intellectual disillusion in the West, “the end of ideology” theory, or now, Mikhail Gorbachev’s democratic reforms. Take your pick. There’s abundant precedent for all.

But then the Powers’ tradition has never been about foreign events; it’s been about popular attitudes at home. Powers even makes the point clear in a revealing sign-off statement. Like it or not, his obituary on socialism concludes, the American people have no alternative to the continued reign of Reagan-Thatcherism.

So there it is, the article’s real message. An Exxon dumps all over land, sea, and air, then thumbs its nose in true Reaganesque fashion. The Powers’ message to an agonized American public--don’t even think expropriation, because expropriation equals dead socialism. Public monies continue to buy out private bank failures. The Powers’ message to a confused American public--don’t even think you’ve purchased something, because public ownership equals dead socialism. The dwindling American voter stands before a paralyzed electoral system and sees one party where there’s supposed to be two. Same message, same result.

Really, Thomas Powers has earned a bonus from his employers for telling the American people they have no alternative to corporate rip-off as usual. He’s done his job for them in true workman-like fashion. There’s a pithy saying somewhere in Marx for the kind of service Powers and his historical brethren provide. But I think we get the idea anyway.

F.D. DOEPKE

Claremont