SanFran Chronicle columnist Keith Thompson writes (EXCERPTS):
I walk away from a long-term
intimate relationship. I’m separating not from a person but a cause: the
political philosophy that for more than three decades has shaped my character
and consciousness, my sense of self and community, even my sense of cosmos.
I’m leaving the left — more precisely, the American cultural left and
what it has become during our time together.
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.
Like many others who came of age politically in the 1960s, I became adept
at not taking the measure of the left’s mounting incoherence. To face it
directly posed the danger that I would have to describe it accurately, first
to myself and then to others.
Takes a lot of guts. He’s about to find out who his real friends are…
He raises an interesting question – several actually, but one that caught my attention – to the liberals that believe religion has no place in public debate, shoud Martin Luther King have simply sat down and kept quiet?
“Show me a young conservative, and I’ll show you a man with no heart. Show me an old liberal, and I’ll show you a man with no brains.” Winston Churchill. So KT is aging and wising up. More power to him.
It’s going to be interesting to see that guy vilified by his former peers in the media, starting with his boss firing him when nobody is watching in a few months.
It takes guts to look at oneself in the mirror and admit decades-old lies. As Freud said, psychosis is a lie one tells oneself but then forgot it was a lie. The cure is in telling oneself the truth.
I wish him the best and success in the future.
Let this be a lesson to conservatives, also. As conservatism seems to have “found it’s voice” lately and approaches parity with the old liberal institutions, keep your EYES WIDE OPEN. Conservative institutions, too, can be seduced into choosing power over principle. Something akin to a continuing “examination of conscience” would be very healthy.
Tim J: Right on.
Yes, well said Tim J.
I think one of the most important lessons of this opinion piece is that if we get too attached to a political movement we can become blind to the realities of that movement. I think we are all susceptible to this, liberal, conservative and, as I like to call myself, neopolitan (a little from everything, with the ‘nea’ changed to ‘neo’ for humorous effect).
I’ve been reading these “see ya” articles since 9/11. Christopher Hitchens said goodbye to The Nation or some other leftist magazine several years ago. I remember a British commentator abandoned her post at one of the leftist Fleet Street rags after one too many anti-semitic articles. There have been several other, as well.
Have we seen this happen in the other direction? I can’t remember if I’ve seen any articles written by someone who just gave up on the conservative/libertarian side and decided that Kerry, Dean and Pelosi were just the political leadership for them.
Dispatches from the Front
Nothing lasts forever, however, even totalitarian progressive ideologies. People like Keith Thompson , who called themselves liberals in the 1950s and ’60s, are jumping ship. His reason: Progressivism has caused many on the left to become unhinged:
Andrew Sullivan . . . but for reasons unrelated to the War on Terror or economics or anything comparable. With Andrew, it’s all about homosexuality.
His big point illuminates something even larger for our society:
“My larger point is rather simple. Just as a body needs different medicines at different times for different reasons, this also holds for the body politic.
In the sixties, America correctly focused on bringing down walls that prevented equal access and due process. It was time to walk the Founders’ talk — and we did. With barriers to opportunity no longer written into law, today the body politic is crying for different remedies.
America must now focus on creating healthy, self-actualizing individuals committed to taking responsibility for their lives, developing their talents, honing their skills and intellects, fostering emotional and moral intelligence, all in all contributing to the advancement of the human condition.”
He points out that America worked to remove unjust barriers. This was due to many finally responding to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ministerial call to work for justice. Today’s conservatives stand at the forefront and preach the same Gospel, only America now needs to apply a different aspect of the Good news. Society needs people to take the dignity of human life seriously and to accept personal responsibility for their actions. Mr. Thompson clearly understands this. I hope others who call themselves liberal quickly follow his lead.
Sullivan is off-the-scale. He doesn’t count.
Have we seen this happen in the other direction? I can’t remember if I’ve seen any articles written by someone who just gave up on the conservative/libertarian side and decided that Kerry, Dean and Pelosi were just the political leadership for them.
There are lots of conservatives and libertarians who have taken issue with the War on Iraq. A couple of these even advocated voting for Kerry & Co. to punish the Bush Administration for its Iraq War policy.
Lauda:
Who?
I don’t mean to challenge you, or anyone else for that matter. I’m just curious. I don’t recall there being many switcheroos from conservative to liberal in recent year. Have they had columns published in major newspapers or heavily-trafficked blogs?
With Andrew, it’s all about homosexuality.
You don’t say.
Lauda:
Who?
I don’t mean to challenge you, or anyone else for that matter. I’m just curious. I don’t recall there being many switcheroos from conservative to liberal in recent year. Have they had columns published in major newspapers or heavily-trafficked blogs?
I didn’t say there were any “switcheroos” from conservative to liberal, I said that there were conservatives who disagreed with the Iraq War (just as the liberal whose article Jimmy cited isn’t becoming a conservative — he just disagrees with the Left over the issue of Iraq). Pat Buchanan is probably the most prominent example, but there are others (as you can see if you read his magazine, The American Conservative).
Jude Wanniski has been the most vocal Republican against the war in Iraq. He’s more centrist than conservative though. He’s a switcheroo who started as a Kennedy Democrat then helped elect Reagan. Unlike Buchanan, he did endorse Kerry as punishment for Bush’s foriegn policy.
I think that people are giving liberals too much credit. The liberal ideology is fundamentally marxist and its goal is not equality or justice, but supreme power.
All leftist movements considered that the problem was being human and therefore in need of a transformation, be it the “socialist man”, the “arian man”, the “liberal man”, etc. Justifying the most barbaric acts in history, from Ukraine to Poland, from China to Cambodja, from the contraception to abortion, from no-fault divorce to gay unions.
This demiurgical trace is deep down diabolic and will use any lie of the day to conquer hearts and minds, even if among several truths. Some, like the journalist in question, wake up from their nightmare, but most persevere in the fall.
God bless.