With the death of
Nelson Mandela, some American conservatives haven't spoken highly of South African
leader, particularly in reference to his background that included flirtations
with violence and Communism. But there are other voices on the right taking the
opposite view, recognizing his transcendent leadership and principled fight
against oppression.
Try this from an
article by longtime Mandela supporter Newt Gingrich:
Some of the people who are most opposed to oppression
from Washington attack Mandela when he was opposed to oppression in his own
country. After years of preaching non-violence, using the political system,
making his case as a defendant in court, Mandela resorted to violence against a
government that was ruthless and violent in its suppression of free speech.
As
Americans we celebrate the farmers at Lexington and Concord who used force to
oppose British tyranny. We praise George Washington for spending eight years in
the field fighting the British Army’s dictatorial assault on our freedom.
Patrick
Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” ...
Doesn’t
this apply to Nelson Mandela and his people?
Some
conservatives say, ah, but he was a communist.
Actually
Mandela was raised in a Methodist school, was a devout Christian, turned to
communism in desperation only after South Africa was taken over by an
extraordinarily racist government determined to eliminate all rights for
blacks.
I would
ask of his critics: where were some of these conservatives as allies against
tyranny? Where were the masses of conservatives opposing Apartheid? In a
desperate struggle against an overpowering government, you accept the allies
you have just as Washington was grateful for a French monarchy helping him
defeat the British.
Finally,
if you had been imprisoned for 27 years, 18 of them in a cell eight foot by
seven foot, how do you think you would have emerged? Would you have been angry?
Would you have been bitter?
Nelson
Mandela emerged from 27 years in prison as an astonishingly wise, patient, and
compassionate perso …
As much as any
person in our lifetime he had earned our respect and our recognition.
Before you criticize him, ask yourself, what would
you have done in his circumstances?
-------------------------
There is this from
the Washington Times:
Communists were right to support both the African
National Congress and the cause of ending apartheid. Conservatives were on the
wrong side of history on the issue. The true conservative position on apartheid
should have been to oppose it...
The oppression of blacks under apartheid was far more
morally odious than the oppression that the Founding Fathers opposed — and
fought the Revolutionary War to destroy. It is repulsively hypocritical to
maintain that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist for fighting for the freedom of
his people, while reverencing the Founding Fathers of America for doing the
same thing — under an indisputably less oppressive regime.
-------------------------
Finally,
conservative columnist Deroy Murdock admits he had been wrong about Mandela in
the National Review:
Like many other anti-Communists and Cold Warriors, I
feared that releasing Nelson Mandela from jail, especially amid the collapse of
South Africa’s apartheid government, would create a Cuba on the Cape of Good
Hope at best and an African Cambodia at worst...
Nelson Mandela was just another Fidel Castro or a Pol
Pot, itching to slip from behind bars, savage his country, and surf atop the
bones of his victims.
WRONG!
Far, far, far from any of that, Nelson Mandela turned
out to be one of the 20th Century’s great moral leaders, right up there with
Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also was a statesman of
considerable weight. If not as significant on the global stage as FDR, Winston
Churchill, and Ronald Reagan, he approaches Margaret Thatcher as a national
leader with major international reach.
-------------------------
RIP Madiba.
Links to the quoted articles:
Newt Gingrich
Washington Times
Deroy
Murdock/National Review:
The moral outrage seems to come from the far right simply because the word Communist was used to describe him. The far, far right never seem to think beyond the words that they see.
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