Posted by GC on September 04, 2002 at 10:16:44:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: In Defense of HS Teachers posted by js on September 04, 2002 at 09:24:48:
Yes and no, Joe. Conservatives are just as prone to name calling as liberals, as you showed in your post. Every conservative talk show is a constant barrage of insults, stereotyping, and name-calling against anyone they disagree with. Calling Hey Joe a Socialist is simply stooping to the same behavior that you dislike. There's nothing in calling you a Nazi that makes him a Socialist. It simply makes him an arrogant jackass.
The Nazis were a Socalist organization in name only. Their philosophies were not in line with anything else that has ever called itself a Socialist movement (other than the various Fascist movements of the 1930's) and did not match the original concepts of socialism at all.
As for the NEA being a Socialist organization, I won't disagree that the national NEA has such tendencies. However, I've been an NEA member for 25 years only because my state organization is an affiliate, and that's only because the NEA has the best member benefits and insurance. There is no collective bargaining function in my state, and my state organization definitely does not think like the national. We go our own way, and are far more conservative than the national organization. We are merely a professional support organization, so don't tar all NEA members with the same brush.