A vote is expected before Memorial Day. The best reformers begin with themselves. From their protracted days as anti-American radicals who allied themselves with the worst elements of the New Left, authors Peter Collier and David Horowitz had a long way to go before becoming credible critics of Marxists.
Conversions attract mistrust.
One is reminded of the sniggering in conservative circles years ago about the questionable number of ex-communists who then adorned the masthead of National Review. Still, men do change, and the authors have been trying to atone for their previous trespasses. From anecdotes about Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda to the early days of AIDS, and coveting topics ranging from racism to environmentalism, Deconstructing the Left is a compelling, if occasionally uneven, collection of essays by the former editors of Ramparts who have been having second thoughts publicly for some time. Some crimson comrades, such as Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda, have muted their tones a mite for public consumption of late, but have expressed no shame or sorrow for their part in sedition and consigning millions in Southeast Asia to either carnage or living death under communism. Collier remembers Jane Fonda calling him from India, where she had been meditating with the Mahareshi, to ask how she could become involved with the New Left.