posted March 09, 2005 10:57 AM            

Which only proves that there is a cure for progressives/communists and other collectivists.

Why Liberalism Has a Bad Name
David Horowitz
Tuesday, March 8, 2005

On Sunday, March 6, 2005, the New York Times Book Review ran a feature interviewing three leftists about the state of the Democratic Party. Of course that's not the way the Times described them: "Peter Beinart, the editor of The New Republic; Michael Tomasky, the executive editor of The American Prospect; and Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor of The Nation, are three leading voices for liberalism today." And I'm the Wizard of Oz.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, as users of DiscoverTheNetwork would know, is an anti-American radical, editor of the flagship of the pro-Communist, "progressive" left who thinks that the main problem in the world today is U.S. hegemony, or, as she coyly puts it in the Times roundtable, U.S. "military dominance."

I would venture that every article about the war on terror The Nation has run since 9/11 has been about the terrible things America has done – e.g., destroyed the Constitution while pretending to look for terrorists, killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis, traduced the laws of nations to get at Iraqi oil, and so forth. Not one, I am willing to bet – and I have read an awful lot of them – has been about how to win the war on terror, let alone acknowledged one good deed America has done in the war.

Michael Tomasky is a more intelligent leftist than vanden Heuvel, but he is a leftist nonetheless. Here is the way the Kirkus reviewer described Tomasky's "Left for Dead: The Life, Death and Possible Resurrection of Progressive Politics in America": "a thoughtful, goodnatured critique of the left by one of its longtime supporters."

Peter Beinart is also a leftist, but a moderate one who could plausibly be called a liberal. He wrote a sharp critique of the left in The New Republic calling on liberals to purge Communist fellow travelers from their ranks. Beinart referred to them as "Wallacites" after the late fellow-traveling Henry Wallace. Katrina vanden Heuvel would be a prime candidate for such a purge.

Unfortunately, Beinart was intimidated in the interview session by the two leftists present and, I would guess, by the Times' own political sympathies, which are also to his left. Under this pressure Beinart came up with this howler, which he probably already regrets: "There is no question that this war is going very, very badly."

Peter, a war is going very, very badly when Katrina and her friends force the United States to throw in the towel and the other side enters the capital cities of the beleaguered country as conquerors who proceed to slaughter two-and-a-half-million innocents, as the progressives in Cambodia and Vietnam did 30 years ago.

In the present case, the Iraqis have won their freedom with (dominant) American military support, and the terrorists are on the run. Moreover, the events in Iraq are inspiring a freedom movement throughout the Arab world. This happens when a war is going well.

The first question the Times interviewer asked the trio was this: "Why has 'liberal' become a dirty word for so many Americans today?"

Katrina: "I would being with the unrelenting assault on the term liberalism by the right wing." Tomasky agreed.

Beinart sidestepped the issue and tried bravely, but ultimately without success, to focus attention on the failure of those on the left to support the war for democracy in Iraq and the Arab world, to put it mildly.

Here's the reason liberal has become a dirty word. Because Communists, fellow-travelers, pro-terrorists and terrorist sympathizers have hijacked the word liberal and because organs like the New York Times have abetted them, using "liberal" to describe anti-American radicals and even totalitarian radicals like Noam Chomsky, Ward Churchill, Michael Moore, the organizers of the anti-Iraq and pro-Saddam "peace" movement, and Katrina vanden Heuvel and The Nation.

The nation's last truly liberal leader, a pro-Vietnam-war Democrat named Hubert Humphrey, had his presidential chances destroyed by the pro-Communist Tom Hayden and the Yippes nearly 40 years ago. Hayden, who even today is working to defeat America in Iraq, is invariably referred to by institutions like the New York Times as a liberal.

Wrong. I am a liberal – a believer in free markets and free individuals, a supporter of intellectual diversity on college campuses against the opposition of the ACLU, the AAUP, The Nation, and the progressive left generally (with one exception known to me).

When the cultural arbiters like the Times stop referring to totalitarians and anti-American radicals as liberals, the good name of liberalism will start the long road back to being a good name. Peter Beinart has made a stab at beginning this process. But if he continues to be cowed by the likes of Katrina vanden Heuvel, he's not going to get very far.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/3/7/175055.shtml

posted March 10, 2005 12:10 AM            

Liberals have been completely intellectually vanquished. Actually, they lost the war of ideas long ago. It's just that now their defeat is so obvious, even they've noticed. As new DNC Chairman Howard Dean might say, it's all over but the screaming.

In an editorial last week, The New York Times gave President Bush credit for democracy sweeping through the Middle East or, as the Times put it, "a year of heartening surprises." Yes, the Middle East's current democratization would come as quite a surprise to anyone who puts his hands over his ears and hums during the president's speeches.

Rolling Stone magazine is making fun of "moveon.org" for having no contact with normal Americans. Their Bush-hating cause has become so hopeless that moveon.org is on the verge of actually moving on.

Marking the first time Walter Cronkite and I have agreed on anything, Cronkite is ridiculing Dan Rather, saying he should have retired a long time ago.

No one, not even Chris Matthews, is defending the Italian Communist who claims American forces intentionally shot at her in Iraq. (But to be fair, Keith Oberman has been on vacation this week.) She may have lost some credibility when she backed her claim that Americans were targeting her by quoting her kidnappers. She said her kidnappers had warned her to stay away from the Americans because they would only hurt her. And then my rapist said, "Whatever you do, don't cry out for the police! They won't help you!"

Consider that less than 20 years ago, ABC's Peter Jennings and CBS' Mike Wallace announced at an "Ethics in America" panel that they would not intervene to prevent the slaughter of American troops while on duty as journalists — especially during sweeps. As Wallace said: "You don't have a higher duty. No. No. You're a reporter!" It almost makes you wonder if U.S. troops have ever targeted American journalists in the field during wartime. Maybe Eason Jordan would know something about that.

Now liberal journalists are pretending to support the troops. They hardly ever call them "baby killers" anymore, at least to their faces.

Democrats are even pretending to believe in God — you know, as they understand Her.

The only people liberals can find to put up a fight these days are ex-Klanners and other assorted nuts.

There's former KKK "Kleagle" and Democratic Sen. Bob Byrd, who compared the Republicans to Hitler last week. Byrd having been a charter member of a fascist organization himself, no one was sure if this was intended as a critique or a compliment.

Aspiring first lady Teresa Heinz claims the election was stolen through the machinations of a vast conspiracy involving Republican polling machine manufacturers. We eagerly await a Michael Moore documentary to flesh out the details. It's only a matter of time before Heinz announces that anti-Bush insurgents control most of the Red States, and that the sooner the U.S. pulls out of those quagmires, the better.

Howard Dean — chairman of the party that supports murder, adultery, lying about adultery, coveting other people's money, stealing other people's money, mass-producing human embryos for spare parts like an automotive chop shop and banning God — has called the Republican Party "evil." One Democrat in the audience, a preschool teacher no less, complained that Dean was soft-pedaling his message.

Teddy Kennedy's big new idea is to wheel out his 18th proposal to raise the minimum wage. He's been doing this since wages were paid in Spanish doubloons (which coincidentally are now mostly found underwater). Kennedy refuses to countenance any risky schemes like trying to grow the economy so people making minimum wage get raises because they've been promoted. Kennedy's going down and he's taking the party with him! (Recognize the pattern?)

I keep expecting the real Democrats to appear and drag these nuts out of the room, saying, Oh sorry, he's escaped again — don't worry, he does this all the time, and then Howard Dean will stand up and have no pants on.

So now, the entire country is ignoring liberals. I'm the canary in the coal mine. Twenty-six congressmen have signed a letter denouncing me for a column I wrote two weeks ago; for the past two weeks, I've been attacked on MSNBC and CNN, in The Detroit Free-Press and on every known liberal blog and radio show. (I especially want to thank Pacifica Radio in this regard.) I personally have shouted their complaints from the rooftops. Liberals had fallen into my trap!

But there was no point in responding because no one had heard about the liberal denunciations in the first place. It was like explaining a joke: OK, and then they said, "Call me a cab," and then I said, "Okay! You're a cab! Are you following this? ... Sorry, let me start over again."

This is like beating Dennis Kucinich in an untelevised presidential debate. That and $8.50 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbuck's. I'm tired of helping liberals publicize their attacks on me. Liberals are going to have to do better than that if they want a response from me.

It's not just that we're a divided nation, with liberals watching only CNN and conservatives watching only Fox News. I'm pretty sure liberals are aware of me, and I haven't appeared on CNN for months. It's liberals the country is ignoring. No one knows or cares what they're carrying on about in their media outlets. Liberals can't get arrested. They're even letting Martin Sheen off with a warning now.

I hate to sound selfish at such a great moment for the country, but this is nothing short of calamitous for completely innocent right-wing polemicists. Liberals are too pathetic to write about. I have nothing to do; my life is over. Where have all the flowers gone?