I’m sure Victor Gold is a brilliant man and by comparison I probably couldn’t hold a candle to him...however, I think his nostalgia for the “good ole days” has stolen his mind. Where to begin?
The Party Takeover-—Any change in the party vis a vis the emergence of neocons and “holy rollers” has been in response to two major events during my life: the Culture War and the Islamic War.
The Culture War. My general proclivity is to sympathize with Mr. Gold as I too believe the government should let people live their lives with little interference. However through the years as I’ve seen the radicalized justice system slowly degrade seemingly “basic” fundamental values that this country was founded upon, e.g. moral relativism, gay marriage, removal of God from the public square, etc., I’ve become convinced that those who believe that our nations founding principles are rooted in the Judeo-Christian ethic must not let a minority of leftists and activist courts erode the fiber of our society. This response that has rallied millions of conservatives around the country is in direct response to precisely what Mr. Gold decries, gov’t interference with OUR lives. Religious conservatives don’t want to tell people how to live their lives, what we want is to retain the foundation that our society is built upon.
The Islamic War. Once again, I feel I must state that I am a limited gov’t advocate. I want the gov’t (especially federal gov’t) out of our lives. I am/was an isolationist with respect to foreign policy. I rejected the interventionist policy in the Balkans by the Clintons. I believed Bush the Older was right in kicking Hussein out of Kuwait, but only because we had a national interest to do so. 9/11 changed all that. The attacks against US sovereign terrority in the 90’s (WTC ‘93, USS Cole, US Kenyan Embassy) should have caused this realization sooner, but it didn’t.
We are no longer a nation that can afford a lax attitude towards those who would murder us. A best defense is a good offense, and there are logically sound reasons to take the fight to the enemy. Mr. Gold says that our troops are dying for nothing. Hogwash! Our troops are fighting the enemy on a chosen battlefield. Much of our enemy’s efforts are put towards killing our troops in Iraq/Afghanistan. Were we not there, those efforts would be focused on NYC/LA/Chi. The only way our troops die in vain is if we give up, surrender. Who knows how this policy will turn out. But to say that the ideas driving the pursuit of our enemies who have murdered thousands of our citizens are against traditional conservative tenets is absurd.
The Islamic War has also caused a reduction of civil liberties at home. I guess! I’m told this is true, although I don’t actually SEE this happening. I’m more concerned about local municipalities using cameras to assess fines for traffic violations. Mr. Gold may believe that the Patriot Act is deadly to civil rights, but I’m still looking for the dragon in all of this. I do believe there is a line to be crossed somewhere, I’ll let you know when we get there. But in the mean time, if the gov’t wants to listen in on Jihadi’s cell phone calls, by all means go right ahead. The other thing here is where was Mr. Gold in 1942 when FDR was rounding up Japanese-Americans or using domestic surveillance on citizens or restricting the press. Sometimes national security trumps our freedoms. I suspect that Mr. Gold doesn’t equate our “problem” with Islamic terrorism as a war, and that may be the fallacy of his reasoning.
I do agree with much of what Mr. Gold had to say regarding the political class and the lack of independent thinkers as real challengers. Although I did find it amusing that he chose Ron Paul as an example.
We are all concerned about this, but for different reasons.
Did you listen to Drudge tonight?
Sometimes national security trumps our freedoms
Sometimes the excuse of national security has been employed to implement draconian measures, such as the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and the so-called Patriot Act, and the suspension of habeas corpus for persons identified as terrorists.
You seem to be an educated person. Do you agree with Franklin on the question of security?