Better Red than Katie

A local history professor of Spot’s acquaintance, when queried about Katie’s communists in the DFL column, said Poor Katherine--it is always the 1950s and the Commies are about to take over. In thinking about it a little, Spot has concluded that Katie probably recalls those days with nostalgia. Everything was so ordered, black and white, and utterly explainable. You see, like the president, Katie doesn’t do nuance very well. It makes them both confused and anxious. You can see it by the way they both try force everything into a pure-good and pure-evil paradigm. We good; they bad. If there is no “they,” W. and Katie will invent them. It’s just easier to keep things tidy in their heads that way.

It is sort of like the historian that Katie cites in her column, John Earl Haynes. MNObserver found this quotation about Haynes. It is the second section of Haynes’ Wikipedia entry, right after the description of who Haynes is.

Historian Ellen W. Schrecker said of Haynes: "...for some reason, complexity, nuance, and a willingness to see the world in other than black and white seem alien to Haynes' view of history. He seems unable to accept an interpretation of American communism that looks at its achievements as well as its sins (I suppose Haynes would prefer the word, "crimes," here)... it's getting a little tiresome to have to explain yet again that _in this country_ McCarthyism did more damage to the constitution than the American Communist party ever did."

No wonder Katie likes him!

Tag: Katherine Kersten