Trotsky Fans of the World Unite!
I certainly agree with Clive James that Leon Trotsky was a bad man and a Communist, but is it really true that there are lots of people "who even today persist in seeing him as some sort of liberal democrat; or, if not as that, then as a true champion of the working class." James doesn't have any, you know, examples of such people. But if you're out there it's true -- Trotsky and Stalin fell out over interpersonal rivalries and Trotsky's view that Stalin was proceeding too slowly with collectivization. That said, this seems a little pointless. Will Slate pay me to write some anti-Nazi articles?