Monday, January 08, 2007
More Klein.
Joe Klein has a new post up on Swampland, revelling in the way he's already managed to piss off Left Blogosphere. He trots out one a tired right-wing cliche -- that lefties who oppose Bush's policies hate Bush more than they love their country, and presumptively want the United States to lose on the battlefield if that's what it takes to prove Bush wrong. Setting aside the Chomsky fringe, are there any lefties who actually think this? I've never seen one, and of course Klein just smears a majority of the country instead of backing it up.
Meanwhile, Klein reiterates his own opposition to the President's policies, as if someone was doubting him. (Maybe someone was; I wasn't.) I don't doubt that he disagrees with the White House on policy. The problem is that he seems to have decided that he won't be taken seriously if he doesn't criticize Democrats at the same time, and since he agrees with them on policy he goes after them in a much more personal way. So Pelosi is ill-informed, Krugman is a dilettante, and lefties generally are rooting for Al Qaida. He thinks he's proving that he's open-minded, but the effect is quite the opposite.
Meanwhile, Klein reiterates his own opposition to the President's policies, as if someone was doubting him. (Maybe someone was; I wasn't.) I don't doubt that he disagrees with the White House on policy. The problem is that he seems to have decided that he won't be taken seriously if he doesn't criticize Democrats at the same time, and since he agrees with them on policy he goes after them in a much more personal way. So Pelosi is ill-informed, Krugman is a dilettante, and lefties generally are rooting for Al Qaida. He thinks he's proving that he's open-minded, but the effect is quite the opposite.
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>Setting aside the Chomsky fringe, are there any lefties who...hate Bush more than they love their country, and presumptively want the United States to lose on the battlefield if that's what it takes to prove Bush wrong[?]
Could you give examples from Chomsky or his admirers of this viewpoint? If not, it seems like you're doing the same thing Klein is, except your scapegoat is Chomsky instead of "the lefties".
Could you give examples from Chomsky or his admirers of this viewpoint? If not, it seems like you're doing the same thing Klein is, except your scapegoat is Chomsky instead of "the lefties".
That's fair. I've read some Chomsky, but it's been a while and I'm not at all sure that he'd go there. I'm not sure that there's anyone who "hates Bush" so much that they want to see the United States lose on the battlefield. Though I should say that I'm not sure what "Bush hatred" would look like, as I use those words, but thanks to the NRO I've been reminded that Jonathan Chait wrote about hating Bush a few years back, so I think other people use those words more loosely than I do.
I think as one moves farther towards the left fringe, one finds people who identify more strongly with universal moral norms than they do as Americans, and who think it would be best all around if America lost on the battlefield, even if not in America's national interest. That's not Bush hatred, though those folks may hate Bush.
I think as one moves farther towards the left fringe, one finds people who identify more strongly with universal moral norms than they do as Americans, and who think it would be best all around if America lost on the battlefield, even if not in America's national interest. That's not Bush hatred, though those folks may hate Bush.
But let me add that I'm not "scapegoating." And I don't suppose Klein is, either. I think Klein is dumping this charge on lefties to marginalize them, and to make himself look more reasonable.
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