Geoff Garin, Clinton Chief Strategist, Once Called For Violent Revolution

With 60s-era radicalism now a hot topic in the Democratic primary, it's worth noting the (amusing, ironic) history of Sen. Hillary Clinton's co-chief strategist Geoff Garin.

Philip Weiss, who attended Harvard with Garin more than 30 years ago, recalls that he was "a special guy -- softspoken, funny, brilliant. He was also a radical. In 1973, on an anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, Garin called for violent revolution in the United States" in the student paper, the Crimson:

...America and much of the world is living dangerously close to oppression. ... Whether Americans will soon become steadfast in their resistance to oppression depends on their coming to understand what resistance is all about. The way we celebrate the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party will gauge the depth of that understanding.... Freedom is on the wane in this country and repression is on the rise all over the world. We can no longer sit back and swap stories about the good old revolution. We have to start worrying about the present. On this anniversary we must recognize that the patriots of Boston acted wisely in overthrowing their oppressors and the time is come to express our confidence in what our forefathers did by doing it ourselves. [my emphasis]

Following Agnew's resignation in 1973, Garin again spoke of revolution:

The government in Washington can not survive under these circumstances, and under these circumstances the government should not survive.... America will be governed in any case, but the question is by whom. If not by the people, then by a strong executive. These are revolutionary times, and we must decide now whom we want to win the revolution.

Of course, Garin was 20 years old when he wrote the pieces above. But as Weiss notes, "It is helpful to read his writings because they demonstrate: how much people grow, how common revolutionary statements have been in the left (even in the Jewish meritocracy, of which Garin and I are members). But mostly because they show that the continuum of left-center ideas, which are now coming back into American life, includes Wright, Garin, and Obama."

Comments

[ebanks84]

How can the news media be so controlled as to spend weeks on bringing Obama down and allowing Hillary to pass with all the "junk" she has in her trunk?

That is the question? If we don't ask that question, we will never find out. I just read where she was given a stay by the court until after the November elections to present her deposition in a huge fraud case she's involved in and NOT ONE MEDIA ANYWHERE HAS MENTIONED THE TRIAL OR ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

What's up America? Am I dreaming this or what? Is it really happening or what? Am I awake or what? Is this real life or what? Am I in another dimension or what?

I can't seem to comprehend the REAL WORLD anymore. Is it just me or what?

[vincealy]

Simply not in the story line the MSM wants to tell. Ratings spike on a continuing battle. Rewatch the movie 'Network'. The model for cable news

[vincealy]

Call Dan [the lawyer] Abrams and ask why MSNBC refuses to ask or even post any negative about thier gal Hill. Last night on his show he blocked discussion of how important a role a Clinton supporter played in the dog and pony show Wright put on for the press., Dan reminds me of the joke John McCain told . 'How do you tell the difference between a lawyer and a catfish.......

[eladora]

I agree. I get sick and tired of him allowing his guests to prop her up and tear Obama down and I emailed him . Havnt watched the show since.

[WFV]

I am really becoming bitter.

Every association of Barack Obama, current or former, is picked apart to the bone by the media. If anyone in his campaign structure had been considered radical in the 1960s, it would be touted as yet more proof Obama is "un-American". I am entirely sick of how the media is covering this election.

What is happening with the Clintons' FEC fraud trial in CA? What exactly is the story of Hillary's affiliation with a cult-like, power hungry religious group? Who are those contributors to the Library? What is really happening with Bill? Will she really obliterate Iran? Why does she seem more aligned with Republicans these days than her own party?

This media bias is maddening, or is it just laziness? The way I see it, Obama only has had one or two things to pick apart, so the media has gravitated on it like vultures on roadkill. The Clintons have so many things to investigate and report upon, it's just too much work. Is the media afraid of the Clintons? I just don't understand what's going on.

[Pammy1151]

I feel the same way. I am tired of all of this. I see so much infair stuff going on like never before. Especially by the MSN. It seems they run the country. I hope there are more like me and hang in there and show them in the end we can do what is right and fair. Please people hang in there!!

[justobserve]

The big donors invested too much in the Clinton with the assumption that she is the inevitable so Clinton now has to try to steal the nomination to repay the favors. Hundred millions are not just "talking to people" for sure. People like the Clintons are still on the scene is proof that what they did wrong don't count.
Just look what they make a meal out of Wright while the Clintons' own actions didn't raise an eyebrow. Wright matter only because the media and the Clintons want it to be so. Voters should make up their own mind. Don't vote a certified liar to the WH, you never know when she tells the truth and if she does, it may be for her own good not yours.

[ohmercy]

gee, too bad you didn't feel that way when they were trying to bury Clinton for nearly a year.

If you had been a little less smug and a little more fair then you might see a lot of Clinton supporters rallying behind you and agreeing about the terrible way this campaign has been and continues to be covered. Instead you were gleeful and enjoyed every moment of it in malicious celebration. Instead of being fair yourself/selves you supported the media with derisive and demeaning comments about Clinton "whining" and "complaining"... as did Obama. Instead of standing with your Democratic brothers and sisters in solidarity against the media you indulged yourself/selves in the divisiveness of hate speech. If you had spoken up with honor instead of relishing each cut they made and lustily making many more, if instead of anticipating with joy the destruction they wrought you had offered something more constructive you might have many voices joining you in complaint. If you hadn't enjoyed spreading malevolence with such elated triumph there would be Hillary supporters sympathetic to the injustice. If you just hadn't been so dead set on creating rancor and enmity you would probably be recieving friendly compassion from those you treated so spitefully.

Instead, I guess the only thing someone can say is yeah, it sucks. Stop whining.
or
How does it feeeeel? yeah, how does it feel?

[gregjones]

Special thanks to CNN, Fox News, especially Hannity, Joe Scarborough, Pat Buchanan, Laura Ingraham, Flush Limbaugh, and the gang for running the Rev. Wright story totally in the ground. Now that the whole Wright issue has been settled, all superdelegates can now come to Obama's side without fear that the Wright ordeal will be an issue in the GE. When the GOP brings it up in the general....it will be old news. THANKS MEDIA ! (can you say.....back-fired!)

FIRED UP....READY TO GO !!!!!!!!!!

Greg Jones
www.Blacks4Barack.org
(A Multi-Racial, Grassroots Org...Dedicated To Truth)

[jdenham]

This wont be picked up by the MSM because it does not fit the current strategy. The MSM will use this later if Hillary is the nominee, she is behind so they wont push the story. Business wants to have a pro business voice for President . Hillary is a DLC member and they will not go against the campaign contributions they recieve from big business. Insurance, Drug companies, Energy Companies, Banking, Mutual funds, Telecoms, and Defense Contractors have all contributed heavily to the DLC and Hillary.
Hillary or McCain will protect Big Business at the expense of the rest of the country. So if the MSM can make Hillary the Democratic nominee then they dont care whether Hillary or McCain wins. Obama's Contributions are from citizens in small donations and he is not tied to large interest groups. I believe Obama will act to do what is good for America not what is good for one interest group.
My proof is look who has voted and brought us the NAFTA, CAFTA, the Telecommunications bill, The Bankrupcy bill, nad the Iraq War. Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and the DLC have supported these bills. Good for Big Business yes they were. Good for American I dont think so.

[Chapmanp2]

Where are the stories about Paul vs. Clinton??? Not one of these ball less MSM organizations has covered it & the Judge entered a judgement on Friday. We hear NOTHING. The order will allow Clinton to avoid going under oath until AFTER the General election. What a conincidence. Meanwhile we sit with all Wright all the time... Hillary surrounded her self w/ radicals & Ayers makes the Breaking news for being Obama's neighbor. Here's the bottom line. There is a concerted effort taking place right now to make Obama the new Howard Dean. We need to speak loud, often & with great force to drown out the MSM.
The more they try to take Obama down the more we know this is our guy.

[ebanks84]

There you go. If we don't do anything, we will be allowing them to smash Obama like a bug. What is happening is totally unfair and so blatantly prejudicial. They will do anything to Obama before they will allow Hillary to lose.

[justobserve]

The judge even asked Clintons' lawyer to say Hello to his dear friend, Bill! That shows how powerful the Clintons are, even within the courts!

[evekendall]

>"Where are the stories about Paul vs. Clinton??? Not one of these ball less MSM organizations has covered it & the Judge entered a judgement on Friday. We hear NOTHING. The order will allow Clinton to avoid going under oath until AFTER the General election. What a conincidence."<

The news media (aka Republicans) must be saving the Peter Paul story so they can crucify Hillary if she wins the nomination. Then we can hear about Peter Paul 24/7 in the fall. (One thing is for sure: the Republicans will use it when the time is right.) Oh, but try to bring up ANYTHING about John McCain, his irrational statements, his lack of knowledge, his temper, his courting of worse-than-Wright insane televangelists, and you will hear from the tv hacks: "Yeah, but he is a nice guy." I am not making that statement up. I heard it with my own ears from a daytime anchor on one of the cable news shows two days ago. Unfortunately, most Americans get their "news" from television, and journalistic integrity does not exist on television anymore, except for PBS and Bill Moyers.

[mjc]

Just for the record, Ayers was more than a neighbor of Obama. He helped finance Obama's run for the Illinois Senate and the US Senate, held fund raisers in his home, and generally supported Obama. Nobody has asked him why, of course, but that is the bottom line. Howard Dean, btw, never had a preacher like Wright nor an unrepentant radical like Ayers backing him. The more I know about Obama the more I know he is not my guy and the scary he gets for the democracy.

[08timefortruth]

Just for the record........Ayers gave $200 to Obama's campaign for IL office, and Obama was taken to Ayers home by someone else. Ayers is very well known in IL and works with community leaders so it would not be unusual for Obama to "know" him.......stop trying to stir up sh** that even the biased msn has debunked......

[maryrat]

Ayers held one fundraiser in his home for Obama when he was running for the Illinois senate. When and where was the fundraiser when Obama was running for the US senate?
Cite where he helped finance anything beyond the ONE fundraiser. Cite where he "generally supported Obama". You need to read some and quit listening to Rushannicoulbeck.
You are the one scary for democracy, someone that spouts rumors and doesn't fact check, just throws them out there to be repeated. What do you think is wrong with America today? It's people like you.

[maryrat]

And if after the general Election Hillary is voted in, (shudder!!!) there is no way in hell she willl testify then. Executive privilege and all. She'll use every argument she can to get out of testifying.

[April]

What people are missing.........

Is this is class warfare.

The folks that promote Rev. Wright in the media endlessly are funded by the 'have mores' the richest of the elite class.

Isn't it time we all wake up to this. The people are happy to support Obama..... even those that are 'bitter', until the meritoracy said, oh wait Obama is wearing a suit and tie and went to Harvard.

Anyone who supports Obama should be speaking out loudly but respectfully, now.

It not now when?

[fanoftruthiness]

If you're talking of the superdelegates (those spineless idiots) I agree. People can speak loudly by showing up in November. AND THAT INCLUDES THE YOUTH VOTE!!!!

[TNT2008]

Geezzz Hillary has turned into a regular "G.I.Jane" with her statements about obliterating and now her new chief stratagist is a revolutionary! Almost sounds like terms you would hear from the present administration. Sometimes I find it's really embarrassing to be a white person; if Obama uttered any of these thoughts he would be attacked with a vengence!

Obama 2008

[w&cheneysuck]

Timeless writing; just like Ben Franklin "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. ".....hmmm.....

[ConnieB]

This won't matter to MSM because they are both white. It's a double standard plain and simple and so unfortunate.

[LittleSanityLeft]

Agreed. This won't make a ripple. Now if it was Obama's chief campaign advisor could you imagine the uproar?

[meanguy]

are you kidding? the obamanuts don't even mind him hanging out with someone who bombed the pentagon, and whose only regret was that he didn't do more damge

[TimmySlagle]

No,

It won't make it to the MSM, because it was something minor, that he said over 35 years ago.

It's not Llke Rev,. Wright, who keeps repeating himself, or William Ayers, an actual terrorist, who said in 2000:

"I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." and "I don't want to discount the possibility."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Ayers

[jarrodandlaura]

From the same wikipedia page:

"All charges against him were dropped due to prosecutorial misconduct..."

"currently a Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Education"

"was tapped by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley to shape that city's now nationally-renowned school reform program"

"Since 1999 he has served on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, an anti-poverty, philanthropic foundation established in 1941"

And Ayers addresses the "I feel we didn't do enough" quote in a recent blog entry here...
http://billayers.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/episodic-notoriety-fact-and-fantasy/

He says that he was misquoted. Of course, I'll understand if you take his words with a grain of salt, but I think it's helpful to get the full story.

[Toonbytes07]

Wrong. If this was Obama's strategist, we'd never hear the end of it. Wake up and figure out what is going on.

[swift goat pet for truth]

"We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace - business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
They begun to consider the Government of 6the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized Mob.
Never before in all our history have these forces been so against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me - and I welcome their hatred."

- FDR - Madison Square Garden Speech, 1936

Sounds like a guy I would vote for.

[obamasOHangel]

Though I strongly disagree with the guilt by association angle that the media is so intently focused on, I do have to say that the double standard that is applied is appalling. Had this man, or even the man before him had been Senator Obama's Chief Strategist it would have non-stop mainstream media coverage. The irony is that most of the MSM seems to get their political stories from either Huffington or Politico. Things that make you go "hmmm".

[AbstractImp]

Left Of Right

I am left of anything right. I don't care if it robs me of power. I was born in the gutter in America. I will die there. It is not power we seek, but justice. And we all know who are the enemies of justice.

You close with a very interesting observation, "that the continuum of left-center ideas, which are now coming back into American life...", but unfortunately leave that undeveloped.

This is an immense and important subject. Liberal democrats should examine this in detail, and watch democracy in action, in real life, as America returns to its humanistic roots and rejects the neocon antisocial agenda.

One million new voters have been brought into the system. If their voices are frustrated, and there will be many who will be silenced in their first attempt to vote, then THEIR ENERGY IS THE NEW AMERICA.

Coupled with the full investigation of the corporate misuse of media, the liberal democrats also have to review how the tradition of a free and independent press is actually a liberal idea at its very roots.

Apply these principles to the actions of the republicans in controlling the election process, and the people will regain control of their own voting system, and see to it that it becomes fair and equatable.

This could be the last free election in America, or it could be the last one controlled by the republicans.

Good luck...

[likeicare]

Oh, I see . . . it's THE END OF THE FUCKING WORLD if anyone even remotely associated with the Obama campaign is linked to such remarks, but if it's someone in the Clinton campaign, we hear . . . . crickets.

[samandally]

Hillarys dirty laundry has been out for a long time,Oblahmas scid marks are just showing up now.

[FastMovingCloud]

This particular 'dirty laundry' has not been made public before. But, God forbid, we should scrutinize her with anything close to the microscope under which the media places Obama.

[Zogtastic]

He was just recently appointed co-chief strategist, after Mark Penn resigned. But how dare we give Hillary the same media coverage as Obama...

You don't get to pick your family, but you do get to HIRE your strategists.