The Last Public Liberal?
With Tony Blair’s recent defection, the stable of folks willing to proclaim liberal values is dwindling. Somehow, eighty years of “realist” foreign policy promoting stability through the creation of a dangerously unstable Middle East, followed by four years of incompetent liberalism trying to promote individual rights, dignity, and self-determination, is now seen as a repudiation of liberal values. The architects of our criminal abandonment of our basic values when it comes to the people of the Middle East are reasserting themselves at center stage. Perhaps, if they have their way, we will soon return to the status quo ante. The Bakers and Gateses and PapaBushes and Carters and Brzezinskis of the world will all draw a sigh of relief as we once announce our abandonment of the people unfortunate enough to live int the Middle East to the hands of dictators, capable of imposing stability upon them for their own good. Perhaps our European friends will soon return to their secure little caves, confident in both their own superiority to the non-white savages of this planet, as well as the misguided do-gooding Americans.
Fortunately, at least someone out there notices the moral bankruptcy in this position--someone, that is, with something of a bully pulpit though not much authority. Christopher Hitchens says what needs to be said over at Slate. Sadly, his is one of a dwindling number of liberal voices. Has everyone else lost the ability to differentiate right from wrong? Have they abandoned their values? Casual conversations around San Francisco are hardly encouraging. Many of the folks I meet deny the existence of right and wrong. Most of the others accept the distinction, but are too lazy to think through its implications.
We are entering very dangerous times.
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