Might have been written by Ronald Reagan himself.
Wonderful article. Thanks for posting.
read later
His statement about the left wanting things both ways is so true. They are the have your cake, my cake and everyones cake and eat it too croud.
==== Most recently, the Iraqi election came under attack from the far left in the United States and abroad. British Prime Minister Tony Blair rightly opined that anyone believing in liberty and self-rule could not possibly oppose the election. But leftists were able to do so because of intellectual dishonesty and their belief in ends-justify-the-means politics.====
Just the other day I heard some leftist screaming about "Bush lied us into war" which is one of their favorite claims. They use the mis-characterization of his statement "British and American intelligence indicates there are Weapons of Mass Destruction" to assert that he lied. They KNOW that their assertion is a lie. Bush told the truth.
They also suggest that Bush never mentioned "regime change" or "democratic rule" in Iraq prior to the war and that he came up with that idea after the WMDs failed to materialize. This is also a lie.
Until they get to a point where the truth is under their feet, they can not make progress.. and that is good.
Very good article. Thanks for posting.
Excellent article. I concur with reading Radical Son. That was a good book to read.
Maybe you could send this one to Malinowski.
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"The right looks for converts while the left looks for heretics"
"It is best not to engage in too many political discussions until you are sure of what you now stand for, how to defend your new positions, and who you can trust. Reading magazine articles and books to develop a knowledge base is essential."
Good article. The above is excellent advice for the newly converted. I never considered myself a liberal; I've always been conservative, but putting your beliefs into words is a difficult thing to do, until you truly know what the heck you're talking about. When you stick to the TRUTH and you base your arguments on FACTS and not FEELINGS, it all falls into place. :)
Bump
And that is exactly what the public school system and lefty activist 'teachers' are doing. It goes beyond abuse, adding persecution. It has to be stopped.
A Conservative = A Liberal who gets mugged.
ping
I'm not sure that freedom from tyranny was ever a core conviction of the left. Their core conviction is anti-capitalism. How can we forget their suppport of Stalin, Lenin, Castro, their love affair with Che, etc?
Their support for the oppressed has been trumped every time by their support of socialism.
You illustrate well what the problem is with our country in that you present leftism as a disease (as I have seen people on the left present the rightist view). In the end, the truth is in the middle.
Did we go into Iraq to make Democracy? No. If that were true, we'd have gone into a horde of other countries long ago.
Is it good that the Iraqis are freed from the power of a brutal dictator? Maybe. We won't know the outcome of this for years, but I'm optimistic, even as one of those diseased leftists. They may turn into a realtively free country, or they could balkanize, and be ruled yet again by dictators.
Does one vote change everything? No. If the government can take that ball and run with it, and bring real improvement in the lives of Iraqis, then we'll have something. There is ample historical evidence that Democracy is not a cure all (Zimbabwe, Haiti, etc).
Have our efforts created a breeding ground for terrorists? Yes.
The Iraq war is not simple enough to exalt as a success or condemn as a failure on the basis of what has happened so far. What the US did was set a lot of pieces in motion, and I don't believe that anybody could predict where it would go. It may turn Iraq into a beacon of hope for the rest of the middle east, or it could devolve into a region-wide conflict.
Only time will tell.
Red Diaper Doper Baby