Just when you think it's safe to come out, and there really aren't any communists under your bed after all, someone comes along with a scary new revelation.
It turns out, according to Chris Horner at The Daily Caller that there's a frightening conspiracy between unions and environmentalists in Wisconsin right now. As evidence, he points to support from the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters and others, for the coalition opposing Scott Walker's union-busting budget review bill. Says Horner:
And amid the Madison, Wisconsin, rabble-rousing now metastasizing to other state capitals, their coalescence is as glaringly in-your-face right now as we have ever seen it.
it's to be expected, he says, because of:
a long history of co-operation between Marxists and environmentalists. Earth Day is held every year on April 22nd, a date deliberately chosen because it was Lenin’s birthday. R.J. Smith, the veteran champion of free-market environmentalism and private conservation, told Human Events:
“It is no accident it is on Lenin’s birthday, April 22,” he said. “It wasn’t a coincidence. I knew some of the kids involved. They thought, ‘What better day than Lenin’s birthday because capitalism destroys the environment?’ Most environmental ecologists believed the source of environmental degradation was the selfishness of capitalist owners. So we had to have a socialist system with a manager instead of an owner. Some of the constitutions of Communist states expressly forbid pollution….” (Joseph A. D’Agostino, Conservative Spotlight: RJ Smith, Human Events, Oct 29, 2001)
So there you have it. Compelling evidence, right? Of course "some of the kids involved" didn't choose the date. Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson did. And the amusing Lenin-Earth Day connection claim first surfaced in 1970. From Nelson's bio (by yours truly):
The right-wing John Birch Society did not like the date Nelson had chosen. April 22 was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin, and Earth Day was nothing but an ill-disguised attempt by radicals to honor the revolutionary Communist leader, they claimed. “Subversive elements plan to make American children live in an environment that is good for them,” a Mississippi delegate to a Daughters of the American Revolution convention warned. Nelson had chosen the date as the one that could maximize participation on college campuses. He determined that the week of April 19-25 was the best bet. It did not fall during exams or spring breaks, did not conflict with religious holidays such as Easter or Passover, and was late enough in spring to have decent weather. More students were likely to be in class, and there would be less competition with other events mid-week, so he chose Wednesday, April 22.
Nelson had no idea it was Lenin’s birthday, but he did some research and had a response ready when the question came up, as it did with some frequency. With only 365 days a year and 3.7 billion people in the world, every day was the birthday of ten million living people, Nelson explained. “On any given day, a lot of both good and bad people were born,” he said. “A person many consider the world’s first environmentalist, Saint Francis of Assisi, was born on April 22. So was Queen Isabella. More importantly, so was my Aunt Tillie.” His humor defused the question, but it continued to be asked, and some took it seriously. The Los Angeles City Council passed an Earth Day resolution on 20 April 1970, but only after sharp debate, and voting 8-6 for an amendment expressing “concern” about the date and a hope that the date would be changed in future years.
Amazing, 40 years later, to read those claims again. Don't be surprised if you see the Red Squad in the Capitol, looking for subversives.
Hang in, comrades!