The Collapse of Liberalism (pukes!)

[carrowsboy]

The Wall Street Journal, by Robert L. Bartley

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110004485

"With both Republicans and a rightist third party running strong, many people are talking about a "swing to the right." We find it both more precise and more profound to talk about the collapse of the left.

For some 35 years New Deal liberalism has been the prevailing intellectual creed in this nation, embodied in the Democratic Party as the prevailing political force. Even allowing for some recovery by election day, that the Democratic nominee should fall to 29% in the Gallup poll suggests that important new tides are flowing not only in politics but in public thinking."

[King Coal]

1. It goes in circles.

[bryant69]

2. Republicans are over reaching

And although they don't have nearly as many divisions as we do they do have some pretty significant ones. The one that will sink them will be old style, libertarian Republicans vs. fanatic religious Republicans. The Fanatics are running things right now--but their excesses ARE going to catch up to them. And when they do the Democrats will be the sensible alternative.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[carrowsboy]

3. troglodytes @ loseranne

Reply 4 - Posted by: ShannonM, 1/2/2004 10:50:29 AM

"...more profound to talk about the collapse of the left."

We are having a war on terror and the left is collapsing. Coincidence?


Reply 5 - Posted by: Hobbiest, 1/2/2004 11:04:45 AM

The irony is that most of those who now call themselves liberals are reactionaries.

They haven't had a new idea in 50 years. They worship the old order and openly stifle debate. Rich beyong avarice, they continue to see themselves as rebels even as they define a corrupt and out of touch establishment. From their gated communties they ooze contempt for those the see as less enlightened. They patronize those they seek to help.

Add in their contempt for middle class morals and their obsession with sexual license and you have a fair description of the worst excesses of the French aristocracy before 1789.


Reply 6 - Posted by: Talk2, 1/2/2004 11:16:07 AM

Let's see what liberalism stands for -

redistribution of your hard earned income to those who made bad life decisions; restricting your freedom of choice by using the federal judiciary to make laws common sense legislatures refuse to make; weakening the moral foundation of the country so nothing is black and white, but everything consists of shades of gray so there can be no right or wrong; and, the most dangerous agenda of liberalism - changing this country into a socialist/communist eutopia where the old communist credo, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs," pertains.



Reply 7 - Posted by: DakotaGuy, 1/2/2004 11:19:32 AM

many people are talking about a "swing to the right." We find it both more precise and more profound to talk about the collapse of the left.

I don't care who calls it what...It works for me!


Reply 9 - Posted by: TmjUtah, 1/2/2004 11:34:56 AM

I think water is finding its own level.

Pop culture depends on the organs of intelligentsia and media to give it legitimacy beyond entertainment value. Politics of the Left were consumed by 'what do I say today to get what I want tomorrow' and the country's needs got lost in the quest for power.

We have paid a terrible price for allowing our society to forget what is important and what is not. Important is families, raising our kids to understand WHY they are free, teaching our kids skills for life and employment instead of processing them through an education system designed to enrich unions and not students.

9/11 was the boot to the head that years of coercion, incremental abuse, and liberal falsity could not muddle or misrepresent.

The enemy that can kill us lives in caves and mosques. The one that can destroy us lives in blue states and in our college campus faculty rooms.

You win battles when an enemy collapses. You cannot win a war by celebrating a vacuum - only by presenting better ideas and accomplishing progress is the victory realized.


Reply 10 - Posted by: Nikkidog, 1/2/2004 11:36:04 AM

"In our time liberalism has come to mean dependence on the powers of central government to solve nearly all problems. "

You can't make any more simple than that.


Reply 11 - Posted by: gone2pot, 1/2/2004 11:38:57 AM

I'll believe it only if W wins in a landslide. I just don't see it. Those of us here at LDot understand the danger of the left, but man, remember 2K when Algore should have lost big, what with The Big Impeached He's presidency and the completely unreported recession Clinton gave us that started in the Spring of 2000? But, weren't you as stunned as me when Florida happened and the popular vote went to Algore? There's no way that should have happened but it did. It did because it's my opinion that MOST American voters are brain dead idiot morons when it comes to knowledge of politics and most (most is a hair over 50% of voters) believe what the alphabets tell them a few days before the elections. That and MTV are their sources of voting information, NOT LDot, Matt, CNS, Fox or any like minded source. I hope I am completely wrong but nothing is proving otherwise even with the left's meltdown into a Jim Jones looney bin. We know the meltdaown is happeneing because we pay attention to it. Joe Sixpack is still wondering why Friends doesn't have its own channel as he scratches his groin, burps and really does believe in Martians. That doofus gets to vote as well as his MTV lovin' eighteen year old kid. It ain't over and for me, I'll have confidence if W wins big.


Reply 14 - Posted by: mswest, 1/2/2004 12:04:39 PM

This is a profound psychological event, this collapse, individual and collective both. Some are finding themselves without their traditional anchors. They cling to the outworn for fear of finding themselves adrift in a world undergoing profound changes.

For some people, it will take time to adjust. Others underwent a period of profound shock after 9/11 and made the transition to seeing the world in new ways and did it relatively quickly (Christopher Hitchens comes to mind, and some others). A necessary adjustment, but not an easy one. Politicians may be the last to make the adjustment, having so much invested in the status quo. The rest of us know there has been a shift. The status quo wasn't static after all.

[Cary]

4. Riduculous, but. . .

I'm hearing a lot of this b.s. at the moment.

Is this kind of b.s.: a) overconfidence by conservatives in the wake of their perception of a reawakening economy and vindication of Bush's foreign policy; b) wishful thinking; c) spin; d) truth; e) backlash from having the Democrats campaign against each other; f) truth; or g) something else?

What is our best response? I admit I'm taken aback a little by this, which is exactly what the pukes want.

I'm also amazed. They all seem to be getting on this victory bandwagon, ignoring the fact that Bush lost the popular vote and should have lost Florida. What's it about? What's the answer?

[carrowsboy]

5. repeating the lie

They are repeating the lie that liberalism is dead so that when the swing voter goes to the polls in Nov. he will be more likely to jump on the "victory bandwagon."

You just have to keep asking yourself the following...

1. How many people that voted for Gore in 2000 are now going to vote for Bush?

2. Since Nader is no longer the Green candidate, how many that voted for him in 2000 are now going to vote for Bush?

I think we'll be ok.

[Robbien]

7. Just the normal breast beating swaggering of bullies

Just trying to demoralize the left. Our response should be: be proud, become active, and vote, and get others to vote. The more the right wing bullies swagger, the bigger they will be surprised when they lose in November.

[BOSSHOG]

6. When the GOP Led "Government" fails the masses

then millions will discover they are really liberals at heart. New tides aren't flowing. The Right wing media machine is working to the point of shutdown, as it truly will.

[demothinker]

8. Is this a joke? Or did everyone miss

That this is a rerun of a column that appeared in 1968, running In Memoriam of Robert L. Bartley? The 35 years since the New Deal reference should have been a clue...

[Cary]

10. I confess--I missed it.

And that actually makes me feel a little better, demothinker. Thanks for pointing it out.

It's funny how this could be something the pukes would put out today, isn't it. They accuse us of not changing to meet the times?

[demothinker]

11. Yep

>They accuse us of not changing to meet the times?

Absolutely. All they ever do is repeat the same mantras over and over, hoping that eventually they'll seem relevant. It certainly is true that someone tries to rush out and proclaim the "death of liberalism" every 10 years or so-this article, the 80's under Reagan, the "centrist" Clinton and the 1994 GOP "revolution" <gag>, now the BFEE in control. But liberalism always seems to hang around an play a part, doesn't it? Wishful thinking on the part of the repugnantcans.

[mmonk]

9. While conservatives

have the upper hand currently, their over-reach tendencies will be their undoing. I've been hearing about the collapse of the left since the election of Reagan. It hasn't collapsed.