The Neoconservative Cabal

AEI ^ | 9/3/03 | Joshua Muravchik

[zacyak]

I think that just the mere fact that Sharon has started building this wall suggests that he accepts in principle a 2 state solution, even though he's afraid of coming right out and saying so for fear of losing some of his supporters. Even Bush said he wants a Palestinian state. The Israelis wouldn't survive a cut-off in aid from the U.S. coupled with an economic boycott from Europe. They can try and prolong the inevitable as long as possible, but eventually they'll have to concede to some sort of Palestinian autonomy.

[William Wallace]

You're too kind, np. Thank you.

WW

[elbucko]

Now you are making sense - or rather explaining a reaction that doesn't make sense.

Respectfully, I think the reaction is normal. I long ago dismissed the notion of "racism" as being basically legitimate, though it can have superficial influence. I base my conclusion on both personal experience (anecdotal) and recorded history. If racism were as potent as its detractors claim, than how is it that blacks were complicit in supplying other blacks for white slave traders? Or, that the Japanese, though Oriental Asians, were such lousy house guests when the Japanese army paid a visit to their cousins in Korea and China during the last Century. And the Germans,as I recall, tended to have attacked fellow white Europeans rather than other distinct races. IMHO, the answer is that "Groupism", for want of a better word, is the operative dynamic in human affairs and not race. The "group" one is "raised in" or is perceived to belong to, has more power than, I think, we as humans are willing to admit. That's why it seems irrational, it is actually a paradox.

I'm not one to share this irrational prejudice against converts. Ever hear of the phrase 'the fervor of a convert'?

Yes, as well as the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. I am not casting aspersions on Horowitz due to his Left Wing origins. But there is something inate in the humand mind that shies away from trusting a "traitor" to ones group of origin too far. Jim Jeffords cannot ever become a Republican again, nor will he ever be trusted, completely by the Democrats. After all, he is a turncoat at worst, a mere brat at best. Either way, he is a man without a party.

As a conservative who grew up in a liberal household...

Exactly! You knew who you were despite your surroundings. You were already a conservative, despite your environment, which is distinctly different than any group you may have been born into, rather than "raised-in". You looked at the world through conservative eyes and processed the information through a conservative mind. Now to me, that does not render you a "Neo-Con", if that's what you claim. You're just a conservative. I would join your army and follow you into battle.

Regards, Buck.