LIberals: The New Conservatives

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But it still seems that
liberals are purely reactive. Barry Goldwater
may have been strong meat, but at least he had ideas. By contrast,
Americans Come Together’s entire raison d’

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6 thoughts on “LIberals: The New Conservatives”

  1. Gene, what an excellent commentary. It should be linked all over the place.

    I’d add a question, though: you are using “liberal” and “conservative” in their actual meanings. I think the problem is, focusing on liberals since that’s your discussion, that “liberal” is now seen as the same as “Democrat.” It isn’t. Ideology has been replaced by partisanship on both sides, but I think more so on the left. It’s not about ideas, although the ideas might get in place accidentally — it’s about not getting people elected who are called Republicans.

  2. Also, it’s from two years ago but there is this terrific piece from Ron Rosenbaum, who is ideologically extremely left but grew disgusted with the liberal culture. He talks about different issues but you might be interested:
    “Goodbye All that: How the Left Idiocies Drove me to Flee”
    http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/story.asp?ID=6435

  3. Well, I’m using “liberal” and “conservative” in their current political meanings, because after all, theoretically we’re all “liberals” (except, perhaps, the Christian factions who don’t believe in the separation of Church and state). My workmate is among the Nader supporters who agrees that “liberal” and “Democrat” are hardly synonyms (though convince the Republicans of that claim).

  4. Hmmm… Rosenbaum’s article is provocative, and it’s exactly the way I feel about the academic / lunatic fringe, but the problem, of course, is that all sides of all issues have their extremists. As a self-identified “liberal” I feel a greater need to call out stupidity in my own camp than in the other side’s — which, truthfully, is perhaps what is at the root of what Rosenbaum and others call the “self-hating” tendencies of leftist Americans.

    I think the piece also illustrates the way the Left has unraveled into two constituent camps: the communitarian/socialists and the libertarians (the latter of which Rosenbaum identifies himself with). I wonder whether the pressures of post-9/11 “homeland security” will likewise split the Right apart into its own communitarian/Christian and libertarian camps, or whether the fracture line lies elsewhere. Gay marriage, for example, is an issue that unites libertarians whatever their economic or foreign policy preferences.

  5. I guess what I’m thinking, in terms of terminology, that I get the sense, could be wrong, that most people declaring themselves passionate Democrats or Republicans are like ardent fans who follow a sports team — they get dressed in the colors and face paint, they scream and yell and cry and rage, but there’s not actual an underlying belief system attached. And so, the categories have been splintered from any consistent or coherent or even thoughtful ideologies. Anyway, I know you’ve never rooted for a sports team.

    On Rosenbaum, I guess the question is whether the “fringe” left has leaked into the “mainstream” left more than the “fringe” right has leaked into his mainstream. I guess I get the sense it has. As someone who doesn’t identify himself strongly with either side or party, I have to say I’m often in a room of left-leaning folks (after all, most of my time in the last few years has been in New York and Boston) when I feel I can’t say anything that remotely challenges their talking points. I haven’t felt this in right-leaning rooms when I’m diverging from theirs — or rather, maybe I don’t feel they’re as stuck to talking points, an expression I hate. Could this be? Or maybe, again, it’s that I’ve been in Boston and New York so those that are more conservative have to develop an ear for talking and listening while many who group themsleves as liberal can live in an echo chamber, something I guess Rosenbaum points out.

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