Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

He didn’t leave the left, the left moved to the far left

May 19, 2009 – 23:15 | by Mark Urbin

This is an interesting article from the archives of my old blog. From four years ago, is the story of a former progressive liberal, a campaign worker for Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern and a staffer for hard left democrat Senator Howard Metzenbaum, explains why he is leaving the left, more precisely, the American cultural left and what it has become.

Here are some highlights.

I choose this day for my departure because I can no longer abide the simpering voices of self-styled progressives — people who once championed solidarity with oppressed populations everywhere — reciting all the ways Iraq’s democratic experiment might yet implode.

My estrangement hasn’t happened overnight. Out of the corner of my eye I watched what was coming for more than three decades, yet refused to truly see. Now it’s all too obvious. Leading voices in America’s “peace” movement are actually cheering against self-determination for a long-suffering Third World country because they hate George W. Bush more than they love freedom.

Susan Sontag cleared her throat for the “courage” of the al Qaeda pilots. Norman Mailer pronounced the dead of Sept. 11 comparable to “automobile statistics.” The events of that day were likely premeditated by the White House, Gore Vidal insinuated. Noam Chomsky insisted that al Qaeda at its most atrocious generated no terror greater than American foreign policy on a mediocre day.

These days the postmodern left demands that government and private institutions guarantee equality of outcomes. Any racial or gender “disparities” are to be considered evidence of culpable bias, regardless of factors such as personal motivation, training, and skill. This goal is neither liberal nor progressive

I smile when friends tell me I’ve “moved right.” I laugh out loud at what now passes for progressive on the main lines of the cultural left.

Who would have guessed that the U.S. senator with today’s best voting record on human rights would be not Ted Kennedy or Barbara Boxer but Kansas Republican Sam Brownback?

He is also by most measures one of the most conservative senators.

All of which is why I have come to believe, and gladly join with others who have discovered for themselves, that the single most important thing a genuinely liberal person can do now is walk away from the house the left has built.

HT to Ms. Malkin

Tags:

Related Post

Put Your Related Post Plugin Code Here :)
  1. One Response to “He didn’t leave the left, the left moved to the far left”

  2. By Leslie Bates on May 20, 2009 | Reply

    I think the question that would define whether someone is on the Right or part of the problem that is the Left is whether or not they prefer to interact with other people on the basis of consent or through coercion.

    That is Contract or the Firing Squad.

Post a Comment