A Bolshevik and His Trust Fund Babies in Tompkins Square

I chanced upon a man today, gathering signatures for Socialist Equality Party candidate for US Senate from New York Bill Van Auken, who was yelling, "sign this petition for our anti-war candidate, get the U.S. out of Iran now." I was intrigued enough to stand and watch a bit longer - he was getting many signatures in the East Village from people who heard his superficial cry, but did not bother to ask him about his overall views. It demonstrated to me a shallowness of some who dislike George Bush, his policies, or both so much that they would sooner help elevate a far more irresponsible regime to a whole other extreme of what they consider the Bush administration to be..

The man declared to hungry listeners, "the Democrats attack Bush from the right, they claim we are not being Zionist enough!" That got me mad. I approached him to demand an explanation of this rationale. He went into a tirade about illegal wars in Iraq, attempts at U.S. Imperialism and desire to control oil worldwide - all expected arguments. When a passer-by told him that pulling out of Iraq fast without a plan to withdraw that protects our interests is irresponsible, the Bolshevik asked, "who is the ‘our' you're referring to?" I said, "The United States." To which he ranted about America not being a homogeneous country and the he did not see any threat to his security or interests.

I prodded him on his Zionist comment and he went into another invective over Israel and Lebanon. When I asked him straight out, "When an illegal militia lobs bombs into Israel and kidnaps soldiers, what are they do?" First he suggested that it was a mere border dispute that all Israel had to do was swap prisoners.