"Critics who have portrayed his behavior as the inevitable result of being reared in tolerant Marin County seem to have missed the obvious: Lindh's actions were themselves a rebuke of clichéd Marin liberalism. He not only implicated it explicitly, but determinedly chased its apparent opposites."Sorry, James, but it is you who have missed the obvious.
Clichéd Marin liberalism is not the opposite of Islam. The two are very much alike.
Furthermore, Marin is not tolerant. It is permissive of those particular things that it sanctions but utterly intolerant of those it does not.
My "Vote Republican" signs were jerked down minutes after I erected them.
Marin-type "Liberals" would love the taliban, as long as they can set the rules.
"Liberalism" and Islam are about equally intolerant. The rhetoric is different; that's about all.
Lindh's actions were no rebuke of clichéd Marin liberalism. On the contrary, they were its obvious extension.
Furthermore, one of the very hallmarks of Marin liberalism was to sit in your glossy, expensive house and rail against materialism. Then you might occasionally go off to some Third World country to have an "authentic" experience. Guess Johnny's was a little more authentic than he wanted.
I say he's a traitor and he got off way too easy.
Btw, what kind of parent just ships their 17-year-old off to YEMEN?