Ready to rumble? Village Voice Author, Rick Perlstein, Here to Debate the Freeper Horde

08/03/2004 | Rick Perlstein

[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

[eleni121]

You mention Carter...Of all Presidents in post WWII America, Carter has been the most destructive to the interests of America...yes even worse than Clinton.

[Perlstein]

<> This is ignorant. Bush has unprecedented control over congress. He is the first president not to have to issue a veto since James Garfield. Republicans control both houses, and the White House's discipline over Republican members is notorious.

[Indy Pendance]

Hi BG. You won't get an answer. It's not a cut and paste or link kind of response.

[cake_crumb]

"Of course the left would demand we hold Bush 43 to the same standards we wanted to hold Clinton to. Here's the thing they don't get---we WOULD."

Actually, they DO get that we would, they just don't get WHY we would. That's why the left generated that rumor that Bush may have paid for an abortion sometime in the distant past. Also why the confusion and accusations of hypocrisy when we were underwhelmed.

It's easy to sit on high and think about conservatives all day long. Analyzing them in an iltellectually divorced fashion so as not to bias your conclusions, hypothesizing about them and becoming an all around expert on them.

Problem is, without throwing yourself into WHY we act, feel and think the way we do, you can study us for 50 years without ever knowing us. In the end, you've learned nothing, and your well laid plans fall flat instead of illiciting the response you expect.

[Ben Bolt]

and I am going to a more worthwhile thread.

Yeppers ..

[lugsoul]

"I've made no claim."

Sure you did. I quoted it. You can retract it if you want. But it seems you'd rather just run away from it.

[WOSG]

"Kerry strikes me as smart and competent"

Excuse me, but what actions has Kerry taken, what accomplishments has he made, in the past 25 years, that make him 'competent' to be a President of the United States?!?

He's never had a real management position, never had a private sector business job (lawyer). He's not even had a single executive position in the political realm except for a brief stint as the powerless lt gov under Dukakis for 2 years ...

He hasnt even led a Senate committee, what makes him fit to lead a nation?

So, please, what evidence for the 'competence' appellation on Kerry?

[don-o]

remain suspicious, since he never answered my questions in the original thread.

Good grief.

What will he say?

That Freepers are a pack of right wing nutjobs?

Relax. When I thought he might interview me, I read all I could find on the net.

I think he is akin tp some lefties that some of us like, sometimes, Hentoff. Hitchens --uh there another?

Maybe Rick will become the third.

[Brad’s Gramma]

He'll answer me. We've gone 'round before....

[Last Visible Dog]

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.

Source PLEASE!!!!!

You have already proved you play fast and loose with the facts so there is no way we can take your word on this.

[Indy Pendance]

Why did dead even bother with this thread? Your non answers are so typical of liberals. Many here have poised good honest questions, and wanted a sincere honest reply, and you've failed to answer the majority of them. Only those questions you can link an article to, or cut and paste a reply do you respond to. What a waste of a carbon unit.

[lugsoul]

I repeat: "I don't know if it has been spent, distributed, funded, burned, or flushed. What I do know is that one does not equal the other, and that it is disingenuous to cite to an article that says one thing in support of a completely different proposition."

[Perlstein]

And a senator honors the constiution by fulfilling the advise and consent function of the senate in judicial appointments--which is why Republicans held up Clinton judicial opponents, no?

Can you name for us one Clinton judicial nominee that was fillibustered and required to clear a 60 vote hurdle to get a floor vote?

If memory serves me right, every single Clinton judicial nominee except one got a floor vote, and that one was withdrawn by Clinton when it was clear that the nominee wasn't going to make it out of committee.
------

Huh? The reason is because there is a Republican majority in the Senate, so Senate Democrats HAVE NO advise and consent function if they bring a vote to the floor, because any Republican who voted against an administration appointment (unless they cut a deal for a release) would be destroyed. Are you not aware of this?

[lugsoul]

That one is "pretty well confirmed."

[paulsy]

"defending the spirit of the Constitution"

Mr. Perlstein,

I am more interested in defending the words and literal meaning of the Constitution. "Spirit" leaves too much wiggle room. We have a pretty good process for amending the Constitution. If the Constitution is not sufficient, then we can change it through the Amendment process. This is a fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives. Courts have taken on tyrannical shades, which liberals (and their trial lawyer support) seem to embrace.

Can you please speak to this point from a liberal perspective?

Paulsy from Texas.

[Critter]

The management of FR has been tolerant of my opinion of Bush and the rhetoric here. (read my tagline for example)

I guess maybe it's because I don't go over the edge with personal attacks or something, I don't know.

[F.J. Mitchell]

You are probably right Miss M. I have recieved not a reply from Ricky-but in all honest he agreed to this handicap match, and my suspicions before the match have been borne out. He bit off more than he can chew.

In my opinion, almost any of us could kick his butt in a nose to nose match.

Pick your challenger, Rick Perlstein and my money is on them.

[Bahbah]

I have heard that said about WH pressure, but I have heard many things "said". Can you point to supported evidence that this happened?

[cyncooper]

Fair enough.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..George W Bush's military record vs John Kerry's military record...

Perlstein's not a Kerry supporter, Tonkin. He wants Jesse Jackson Jnr to be president:

Will Jr. fail to honor the confidence I thus place in him? Almost certainly: no less than that flawed vessel Barry Goldwater; or, for that matter, Jesse Jackson Sr. Is he radical? If not, let us lead him to it. Will he sell out? If so, let us lead him from it. Or someone else. The man is not important, the principles are. Let us dare a political imagination equal to our hunger for victory. The former may well turn out, in decades if not quadrennials, to vindicate the latter.

I ask you- have you ever read anything so forced, so pretentious, so infantile?