Walzer s Razor: Is a reasonable, responsible Left possible?

National Review ^ | Steven Hayward

[junta]

The Left is Robert Mugabe.

[Interious]

The Walzer article is excellent. A must read.

[IronJack]

Just as the heart of conservatism is tradition, so the heart of the Left (and a black one it is) is Marxism. Since Marx defined all conflict as class struggle, and all human conditions in terms of an economic dialectic, the Left filters all its "ideas" through a similar lens.

Is a "reasonable" Left possible? Maybe. If it could jettison the Marxist baggage that has been so thoroughly discredited in the last century. But you'd have more luck dehydrating water. Marxism is the soul of the Left, the sine qua non of that vile philosophy.

[aculeus]

Pinging.

[IronJack]

By the way, I recommend Steven Hayward's book The Age of Reagan.

[The Duke]

All liberals are, to one extent or another, insane.

[ijcr]

There are no Liberals,they are really Pseudo-Liberals.

Pseudo-Liberals is awkward, but there is no suitable, printable four-letter substitute.

They generally believe that the organised coersion of government is the universal cure for all men;s problems.

These new "Liberals" are hypocrites.They detest the wealthy, yet hit upon them for contributions.They profess to love the common man, that man or woman in the local bar or supermarket yet isolate themselves from groundroots society, living in regal splendour on the taxpayers dime.

Apart from the Media and Hollywood where do these "Liberals" work? The vast majority operate out of Campuses and Universities or Federal appointments, all sucking on the teat of taxpayer monies while living in an ivory tower being attended to, by mindless acolytes. An apt description of an American college is 12 acres surrounded by reality.

[serune]

Brilliant junta. Read the article first, then come back and slander the left!

[junta]

Yep I'll stick with what I said, Mugabe perfectly encapsulates what the Left has become. Is it possible for change of course, the Left in my lifetime went from advocating class hatred to race hatred so I expect they again could shift the spots on their mangy coat.

[My Identity]

Also posted here.

[Orual]

A very good read and somewhat heartening.

[serune]

Sir, you underestimate your opposition. I do not deny your reality, your opinions, your ideology. And I do not detest anyone of good faith. You are conservative. Good for you! Now instead of denial and mindless labeling, how about some thought? Does anyone know the topic? Has anyone read the article?

[Southack]

Also posted here.

[dighton]

... in recent decades the Left has been overtaken with elaborate theories of imperialism that give off an air of paranoia worthy of the black helicopter crowd. Walzer notes that many leftists revel in their self-marginalization and irrelevance.

As others have noted, it can be hard to distinguish looney left from looney right.

Here's a link to Michael Walzer's article.

[Rick_Hunter]

A number of prominent Leftists, such as Christopher Hitchens, have responded splendidly and correctly in the aftermath of September 11

----------------------------

I like Christopher Hitchens. Granted, I don't agree with *all* of his political views (he is, after all, a liberal), but I do give him credit for having enough sense to realize what a sleaze Bill Clinton was/is. I'd recommend reading No One Left To Lie To, Hitchens' excellent book about Bill and Hilary.

[Rick_Hunter]

Yep I'll stick with what I said, Mugabe perfectly encapsulates what the Left has become. Is it possible for change of course, the Left in my lifetime went from advocating class hatred to race hatred so I expect they again could shift the spots on their mangy coat.

--------------------------

With the possible exception of Mugabe's intense hatred for homosexuals (according to him, it's a "white man's perversion"), you're right.

[Tokhtamish]

A superb point that Walzer makes is that if power corrupts, so does powerlessness because it breeds fecklessness. The Left is only a force in academia and the liberal clergy, those sanctuaries of the incompetent. By and large conservatives rule and Democrats can only become president if they are white Southern males running as Northeast Republicans.

People who never expect to be in power can preach and pout and posture and whine. They never have to take grownup responsibility for results, for getting the job done. Leftists who chattered about 'turning it over to the UN' or 'treating it as a crime, not war' obviously do not care at all about actually achieving the result of protecting America.

For several years now, voices on the Left have argued that cultural leftism is a dead end cause and what they should do is to use antiglobalism to win back the white working class voters they lost in the cultural wars. Opposition to globalism falls along class lines, with blue collar voters who have seen their socioeconomic status plummet since 1972, being the most hostile. Blue collar voters, however, are culturally conservative and deeply patriotic and therefore alienated by the left. So some leftists, hoping to reverse the disastrous "Hippies vs Hardhats" rift that tore apart the New Deal coalition wish to get rid of the general infantilism of the Far Left. It comes down to those on the left who get off on being dissidents forever and those who want to seriously rebuild a mass base.