Rare John Steinbeck column probes strength of US democracy

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

NEW YORK (AP) — Decades ago, as communists and suspected communists were being blacklisted and debates spread over the future of American democracy, John Steinbeck — a resident of Paris at the time — often found himself asked about the headlines from his native country.

The question he kept hearing: “What about McCarthyism?”

The future Nobel Laureate wrote that the practice embodied by U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin was “simply a new name for something that has existed from the moment when popular government emerged.”

“It is the attempt to substitute government by men for government by law,” Steinbeck continued in a 1954 column for Le Figaro that had rarely been seen until it was reprinted this week in the literary quarterly The Strand Magazine. “We have always had this latent thing. All democracies have it. It cannot be wiped out because, by destroying it, democracy would destroy itself.”

https://apnews.com/article/democracy-john-steinbeck-government-and-politics-29cf93a3781f0c020df22f00fdb2bcfe

[Just A Box Of Rain]

1. John Steinbeck is now a heroic "native son" in Salinas, CA (and in nearby Monterey)

but in the 1930s he joined radicals like Ella Winter and her husband Lincoln Steffens in supporting a farm workers strike in Salinas that the growers put down with armed force.

Steinbeck had to flee the area under threats of death. That part of his story isn't highlighted today, but...

Should any DUers happen to visit Carmel, the workshop of the blacksmith Francis Whittaker, who as another radical in this circle (and the head of Carmel's John Reed Club) is a charming restaurant called The Forge In The Forest, that preserves much of Whittaker's original forge.

[FakeNoose]

2. These days we call it the "Rule of Law" vs. Populism

... and Steinbeck nailed it, using the older terminology. I've always enjoyed reading Steinbeck, but it's been many years since I picked up one of his books. I need to give him another look.

I don't believe anyone who has graduated high school in the last 50 years has ever heard of Joe McCarthy. Since I grew up in the 1950's and 60's of course I've heard his name many times. But I believe I was too young to understand the concerns and fears about McCarthy, and it was never taught in our schools. Once he fell out of favor - and died - not many journalists have even mentioned his name.

So John Steinbeck was watching it all from a safe distance in Paris. I'm glad he understood what was happening.