Posted on 08/03/2004 12:09:31 PM PDT by dead
Opening Statement
Dear FRiends:
I once suffered two great frustrations in being a freelance political writer. First, the loneliness: you put an article out there, and you might as well have thrown it down a black hole for all the response you get. Second, the ghettoization: when you do get response, it would be from folks you agree with. Not fun for folks like me who reliish--no, crave and need--political argument.
Then came the Internet, the blogs--and: problem solved.
I have especially enjoyed having my articles in the Village Voice posted on Free Republic by "dead," and arguing about them here. The only frustration is that I never have enough time--and sometimes no time--to respond as the threads are going on. That is why I arranged for an entire afternoon--this afternoon--to argue on Free Republic. Check out my articles and have at me.
A little background: I am a proud leftist who specializes in writing about conservatives. I have always admired conservatives for their political idealism, acumen, stalwartness, and devotion. I have also admired some of their ideas--especially the commitment to distrusting grand social schemes, and the deep sense of the inherent flaws in human nature. (To my mind the best minds in the liberal tradition have encompassed these ideals, while still maintaining that robust social reform is still possible and desirable. My favorite example is the Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, author of the Serenity Prayer and a great liberal Democrat.)
Lately, however, I've become mad at the right, and have written about it with an anger not been present in my previous writings. It began with the ascension of George Bush, when I detected many conservatives beginning to care more about power than principles. The right began to seem less interesting to me--more whiny, more shallow--and, what's more, in what I saw as an uncritical devotion to President Bush, often in retreat from its best insights about human nature.
I made my strongest such claim in a Village Voice article two weeks ago in which I, after much thought, chose to say conservatism was "verging on becoming an un-American creed" for the widespread way conservatives are ignoring the lessons of James Madison's great insights in Federalist 51 that in America we are supposed to place our ultimate trust in laws, not men.
Finally, in what I see as the errors of the Iraq campaign, I recognize the worst aspects of arrogant left-wing utopianism: the idea that you can remake a whole society and region through sheer force of will. I think Iraq is a tragic disaster (though for the time being the country is probably better off than it was when Saddam was around--but only, I fear, for the time being).
I am also, by the way, a pretty strong critic of my own side, as can be seen in my latest Village Voice piece.
So: I'm yours for the day--until 7:10 pm CST, when I'm off to compete in my weekly trivia contest at the University of Chicago Pub. Until then: Are you ready to rumble?
Respectfully,
Rick Perlstein
Dear Rick:
Welcome, and thanks for your honesty. So few leftists seem to be comfortable with that title. It is refreshing to see someone prepared to come to a forum for honest debate.
Dear Rick:
Welcome, and thanks for your honesty. So few leftists seem to be comfortable with that title. It is refreshing to see someone prepared to come to a forum for honest debate.
Hope you have your Kevlar vest and flameproof underwear on.
:-)
Another Lib'ral shibboleth skewered...MUD
If you did, and he died, we wouldn't have to be plagued by Peterson and Bryant anymore!
Second point first; I'm not sure of the difference between neocons/paleocons or just garden variety conservatives. I would count myself in the latter group and I have often criticized W w/ no harmful side effects. generally, for someone to be banned here they must be abusive. Although, we have been experiencing a lot of "troll" activity wherein someone signs up and the next day begins to trash W for not being conservative enough. Its simply a matter of house cleaning, the Trolls are obvious, usually, and disappear of their own accord more often than not.
And to your first point; Surprise!! alot of people here like W, they like his straight forward language, they like his principalled approach (such a contrast to the bj administration). I'd also point out that as we near the election conservatives are going to coalesce, the time for inter-party squabbling must take a back seat.
No sir, I will not waste my time with this communist loser. His side will eventually end up on the ash heap of history along with other failed ideologies.
No shots or flames, just a "thank you" for giving the "right" side time to ask questions and give their viewpoints. Hopefully, you will receive serious and thoughtful comments.
I noticed that you apparently slept through the 8 years of Bill and Hillary Clinton
Do you honestly feel that the conservatives were even 10% as devoted to President Bush as liberals were devoted to Clintoon? I haven't seen right wingers devoted to a rapist, liar, draft dodging POS. Maybe because President Bush isn't any of those things?
First, I'm sorry that you do not have the time to surf FR daily. You would have found many, many posts critical of certain policies of President Bush, i.e. CFR, Education, immigration.Secondly, I have posted several critical comments and HAVE NEVER WORRIED ABOUT BEING BANNED. The "understanding" you mention is probably the disruptors (trolls) that register to make asinine comments that can be exported to DU for "proof" that the FR posters are evil, dumb, or whatever. When trolls become too ridiculous, they ARE banned. I have been registered her for serveral years and lurked here for years before that and have never seen anyone banned for disagreeing with other conservatives, unless they got profane, racist or made personal attacks.
Was there ever such a question on a Guard application? I seriously doubt it. Be it the Guard or the Active military, they will send your butt where ever they damn well please. As a member of either, you don't have a say.
Perlstein lost what remaining credibility he had with me when he announced that Berger had been "exonerated," when in fact what's really occurred is that Gorelick et. al. of the 911 Commission have said that Berger did not fail to turn over any documents to the commission.
That's the "impeached former president and his lawyer spouse"speak. Odds are Berger wasn't personally responsible for handing them any documents. (Thus, he didn't fail to hand them over. It all depends on what the meaning of *is* is.) ... That spin didn't address the documents the Archives were unable to turn over (because of Berger's actions) or that there is still an ongoing Archives investigation of Berger. Hardly an exoneration!
I also noticed that Perstein repeated the mantra that the impeached "former president" was never convicted of any felony. (Oh, really!? And he forfeited over his Arkansas license to practice law because he didn't want to have to continue to pay the pesky renewal fee or what?)
The list of other "facts" he distorted are too long to list. As are the number of questions he failed to answer directly.
BTTT!!!!!!!
Great post. I honestly hope to see the answers from Mr Perlstein soon.
Mr Perlstein, I need a source for your statement. Unless Texas is totally different from Missouri, there is no box "Not Vietnam", and never has been. Please cite source.
I saw, in all places, on CNN, a couple of weeks ago, the following item of interest. Apparently Kerry wrote an anti war, pro-NVN missive PRIOR to shipping out! Aid and comfort?
Did he ever answer? I haven't had time to review the 1000 plus posts. Please let me know if and when he responds because I feel that you asked excellent questions.
"Oh, what the hell. I won't wait. Worst lie: After the September 11 attacks, the EPA told New Yorkers it was safe to live and work near Ground Zero. It turns out that under White House pressure, the EPA lied about the data it had and omitted important information about the quality of the air and what New Yorkers needed to do to stay healthy."
That's the worst lie? Hmmm, not so bad. If you think back to 9/11 you will remember that heaven & earth could not have stopped the NYPD-NYFD-DSNY, or any of the thousands of volunteers that attempted to rescue and then recover in the aftermath. We sent all of them down to the site with food, supplies, whatever they needed. They worked till they were exhausted, caught a nap, and went back down. Nothing could have stopped them, certainly not "air quality".
As a hardware store owner here in NYC, I could not buy from my suppliers, a dust mask, respirator, bandana... for months. They were diverted to ground zero where they were freely distributed to anyone in the area.
For weeks after, when the wind was right, the stench of rotting bodies seeped it's 12 mile journey into our area of the Bronx. Anyone who ever smelled that smell would gladly have traded it off for a bit of "contaminated" air.
And now I question just how bad the air quality really was. Was it worse than what a coal miner is subjected to on a daily basis? Was it worse than standing behind a city bus as it's pulling out of a bus stop? Was it worse than the air quality one is exposed to while sitting on the FDR in rush hour? NO! Not according to Dr. Ed. He said that there was an issue with the air quality in the first two days, but that issue drastically discipated quickly.
Yet, you could have a valid point about the admistrations "worst lie". It certainly may have been beneficial for the EPA to tell NYC and the the world that the air quality at ground zero MIGHT have been un-acceptable, and that it MIGHT later cause disease, I'm sure that was their first priority, right up in front of further building collapses, the fire that took a month to extinguish, the possibility of live trapped victims, the threat of more attacks, and coping with the overwelming anguish that gripped this city, state, nation, and world.
To be fair, Dr. Ed did say that the final report is still a couple months off, and that it would take years for the final, final assesment. And he said there were issues with the proper cleanup of nearby residences. But my dear Liberal-Left friend Dr. Ed, who is an FDNY Doctor, and who is standing here beside me right now (grinning and shaking his head), also said that in the scheme of things concerning that tragic time, air quality was quickly assesed and deemed OK given the nature and scope of the calamity.
My guess is that Lawyers and Politicians squeeeeezed the EPA is a liar thing to pave way for lawsuits.
OK Mr. Perlstein, wanna try your second worst lie?
He did answer most, although the answers varied widely in quality, from abysmal to merely mediocre. Check out posts 314, 480, 690, 760, and 826.
IF Perlstein had ever served he's know that.
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