Suzi Gablik titles this post “Why I’m not a liberal anymore,” and while I wholly share her contempt for this piece of anti-Obama tripe by Christian Parenti, I would point out to Gablik that Parenti is a leftist. Barack Obama is a liberal. And leftists have long regarded liberals as their worst enemies. So stick around, Ms. Gablik. You’re exactly the kind of thoughtful person we liberals need.
I don’t agree with the idea that Obama has “derailed his presidency” with his Afghanistan decision, but if anyone can derail it, it will be a coalition of Parenti-style leftists and what Reihan Salam calls “the new anti-war right.” Remember when Condoleezza Rice said that “the magnificent men and women of America’s armed forces are not a global police force; they are not the world’s 911”? And Republicans railed against Clinton’s intervention in the Balkans? That stuff’s coming back, and it could prove a potent electoral force. If the Parentis of the world hate Obama so much, they now have a chance to lock arms with the right and help elect Gingrich, Romney or Palin.
Time and again during this past decade, some wondered why I expended energy attacking the left, even in a period when the right was so dominant. Perhaps the answer’s clearer now. But I’ll say it again: I found much of the thinking of the far left just as insidious, and I refused to allow the likes of John Pilger and Arundhati Roy to speak for me. When I read them, or Parenti, or Michael Moore, I feel precisely as I do when I hear Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh. I mean it. The intellectual corruption, the unbearable mix of hypocrisy and smug certitude, is the same. Now that I’ve done my small part to help elect a liberal president — one I still support ardently — I’ll be making even more of an effort to challenge far-left ideologues, because in 2010 and 2012 it will be absolutely necessary. That much is already clear.
3 Comments
Hear, hear.
"Remember when Condoleezza Rice said that "the magnificent men and women of America's armed forces are not a global police force; they are not the world's 911" We do! We use that quote in our film to show her flip-flop in views. Check out American Faust http://www.americanfaust.com…you'll appreciate the Gary Lucas soundtrack
Yes! Yes!