Broderick, Again - Last month,

Broderick, Again - Last month, we discussed Richard Broderick, a Green Party candidate for the St. Paul School Board.

In his initial press release last month, Broderick said

In order for our society to adopt these values [Green ones, noted earlier in the press release]-- as it must, if we are to survive on this planet -- we need to nurture the instinctively Green consciousness of our young people through the comprehensive application of these principles to curriculum, instruction, administration, and district-wide decision-making processes.

In other words, he's for using the education system to indoctrinate a generation of little Greens.

He's back.

A little bird sent me this note from the St. Paul Green Party discussion group - from a recent post by Broderick:

No, of course not. So here's my suggestion. Let's cut the Gordian Knot and have all the Palestinians, both the 1.5 million or so living in the Territories and East Jerusalem, as well as the 5 million living in the global Palestinian diaspora, convert en masse to Judaism, then exercise their Right to Return as Jews and take up residence throughout Israel and the Occupied Territories. Why, the way things stand now, the new converts who wanted to "return" to the West Bank or Gaza could even get subsidized housing, courtesy of the Israeli government, which is to say, courtesy of U.S. taxpayers. Now wouldn't that be a sweet deal?

And, in the end, if the new Palestinian/Jewish majority decided to bag the Zionist project and create a truly democratic, secular, multiethnic nation along the lines of, say, the United States, who could stop them?

Of course, there will be pain involved on both sides. For Palestinian Muslims and Christians it will not only mean giving up the faith of their fathers, but, even more discomfiting, undergoing circumcision if they are males. On the other hand, mass conversion should be a big financial boost to those authorized to perform bris, the circumcision ceremony. Mahmoud! Stop wincing!

It's obviously satire. It also makes Al Franken look funny.

But I come not to critique anyone's sense of satire - if you've read my blog this past 18 months, you'll know I'm not really qualified to do that.

Here's the real question: what's this guy going to be like on the board of a large, extremely diverse school district?

I doubt his "satirical" sense is going to win him any discussions. Of course, having his foot in his mouth won't help much either.

By the way - requests from St. Paul Greens for information on Broderick's press release were never answered.

Posted by Mitch at August 15, 2003 10:43 AM