Andrew Sullivan: The Camille Paglia IMterview (part 1)

andrewsullivan.com ^ | 07/31/2002 | Andrew Sullivan

[Jean S]

Your last paragraph sums it up well:
When we find ourselves cheering James Trafficant merely because every so often he gave a one minute speech we agreed with while he took bribes and kickbacks, we sell out our principles and our integrity.

Thanks for this great commentary.

[logos]

Ya done good, pard. Nice rant (and right on).

[gcruse]

 There is no middle ground, I am on an island
with very few other inhabitants.

I felt a pang of recognition as a conservative-side
libertarian.  Until I read you profile page.
I'll be pushing off for the next island, now.
Cheers.

[Dales]

You oppose repealing the amendment that gave us an income tax? Or the one that gave us popularly elected Senators?

Or you aren't pro-life? (If it is that one, that strikes me as odd since I put that in the post)

Or do you just hate Pittsburgh?

There isn't much in my profile other than that. (Or if you are confusing me with nutball freeper H.Akston, then you have stumbled across one reason I changed names back)

[John H K]

I have long described myself as a libertarian leaning conservative. That is an intentionally ambiguous phrase. Am I a libertarian, leaning conservative, or a conservative who is libertarian leaning? My mere existence on Free Republic has been minimized due to an unbelievable polarization of these groups. There is no middle ground, I am on an island with very few other inhabitants.

I know what you mean. The problem is, if you're a sorta-Libertarian then there's a danger of being perceived as a "moderate" and Rush Limbaugh, quite rightly, bashes them.

I think all drugs should be legal, etc. etc.....I agree with many Libertarian things, I think people would be well advised to think carefully about most everything (except some of the foreign policy stuff) the Cato Institute says.

But I'd never DREAM of throwing away my vote by actually voting Libertarian. And there really is a serious "raving loon" problem with the Libertarians, too, that needs to be addressed. And I have huge problems with Libertarian isolationist foreign policy.

I sorta consider myself a "PJ O'Rourke" Republican. He has a lot of Libertarian leanings himself, but really isn't one.

[gcruse]

I do not believe public institutions are the place for religion. Sunday schools and churches are there to fill that function. Maybe, in these days of manifold political permutations, the phrase 'no man is an island' breaks down at the affiliative level.

[Dales]

I hear ya, although when it comes to certain drugs I fall off that bandwagon. I know someone (very close to me) who became a crack addict and he swears that he was hooked after the very first time he tried. My beliefs about the foolishness of the drug war are very strained when I think about the drugs that are that unforgiving to mistakes in judgement.

[Dales]

I completely understand your point. Mine wording may be weak, but the intent is more aimed at preventing the imposition of militant atheism as a defacto state religion than anything else.

Our founding fathers did not hide the fact that they were religious, and did not hesitate to reflect that in their public roles. To my eyes, this is how it should be. Representatives from religious areas should be allowed to reflect that in their lives and vocations, just as representatives from areas that are more secular should be allowed to not. Nothing more, nothing less. Not the imposition of a religous state, nor the imposition of an atheist state. Jesus' realm is not Caesers'.

But more importantly, the fact that we differ in that regard should never turn me from people like you as allies, nor people like you from me. If either happens, then this is the exact problem that that particular wording (poorly constructed as it is) was aimed at trying to prevent.

Regards

[Dales]

Mine=My. The beer at Billy's Roadhouse is the culprit, I swear. :-)

[Neets]

The beer aside...excellent post as usual toots!!!!

[gcruse]

From your take on the WOD,
abortion, and religion in government,
I'd say you are a libertarian-leaning
conservative, making me a
conservative-leaning libertarian.
I can live with that. :)

[okie01]

"There is no middle ground, I am on an island with very few other inhabitants."

Actually, if you look around, you'd probably discover you are in the majority.

Observe that the libertarian-conservative flame wars usually involve only a few, though prolifically verbose, participants. Those threads are best ignored -- full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

[Dales]

Would it be safe to say that both libertarian-leaning conservatives and conservative-leaning libertarians should be able to find common ground by agreeing that the WOD as now waged is insane, and that the federal government should never, ever spend one dime promoting abortion?

[gcruse]

I would run that up the pole, salute it, take pictures,
and make a T-shirt. ;)

[aculeus]

I wish she didn't spoil it by liking Nader.

[Dales]

Then we can coexist on Freeper Island :-)

This is what I don't get. There is common ground. Lots of it. I again challenge anyone who is either a conservative or a libertarian to go to the RLC forum on this site and read the position paper that is posted there. What isn't there to like in what is in it? The most severe controversies between conservatives and libertarians isn't in it. It is what we have in common, and what we should be fighting for together!

[gcruse]

I have been there and read it. My voting habit has been to vote Republican at the top of the ticket (Pres, VP) and
libertarian the rest of the way down. We need people in local office proving their worth, I think, before anyone will trust a libertarian at higher levels.

[Lizard_King]

"CP: I'm still a Nader fan. His critiques of capitalism can save it. "

That is the funniest damn thing I've read in a while. For a woman that invokes Stalinism at the drop of a hat as a curse on her enemies, it seems profoundly ironic to praise this socialist greenie-weenie par excellence.

If she is a Libertarian, then I am a potted plant.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I wouldn't waste two seconds listening to that unctuous socialite, George Stephanopolous, or Paul Begala, a yapping mongoose with the ethical sense of a stone.

I enjoy reading everything she writes. Thanks for posting this. (I would appreciate it if you could add me to your Sullivan list.)

[Consort]

Coalition?