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Can it be said better?





I think not. Victor Davis Hanson chimes in on The End of an Era and almost makes one nostalgic for the 60's:



The mantras of the 1960s and 1970s were "coalition governments" and "free elections." The United States was supposed to predicate its support on representation of all spectra of views under democratic auspices, i.e., anything other that what had emerged for a time in Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Brazil, Greece, or Argentina. Such right-wing autocracies were corrupt, authoritarian, and murderous. In other words, like the present Palestinian Authority, they brooked no opposition, lynched or shot dissidents with or without show trials, and embezzled foreign aid. Yet today a democratic Israel — with a vociferous press, an antiwar movement, a plentitude of parties, regular elections, and a civilian-controlled military — is as demonized as Mr. Arafat is praised by Western intellectuals. Do we see protest signs that say "Support the democratic peoples of Israel in their struggle against sexist, homophobic, and fundamentalist reactionaries"?
The contradictions I read and hear every day from the left, Liberals, and Democrats (and I'm willing to separate the three out, rather than lump them into one amorphous pile of goo) get more and more hysterical. Find a web site or Blog that purports to be pro-Democratic and you read a stunning variety of whines, cries, sobs, and sheer bullshit the likes of which I've never witnessed. It's just possible that such things would have happened given the same resources during the Clinton Reign, but I doubt it.



As an example of the stimulating, intellectual debate and reaction from The Left, I give you Eschaton // Comments:



I, too, blame the American people. Sure, the Democrats are a putrid excuse for a political party, and yes, the media bias in favor of the right is hard to ignore. But in this case, it shouldn't have mattered. The last two years should have demonstrated to everyone with a pulse and a few functioning neurons how malevolent the Republican party is, how destructive their policies are, and just how much they cannot be trusted. This nation should have voted overwhelming Democratic for no other reason than to repudiate the Republican regime. Instead, millions upon millions of our fellow citizens -- and I call them that with shame -- enthusiastically decided to give these thugs total control. Fuck you, America. You deserve what you've got coming.




As pointed out by Andrea Harris.

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