On Aug 16, 2007, at 9:46 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> In Japan, as well as in many countries, it is the Right that sets the
> terms of debate. Should Japan revise the Constitution and expand its
> armed forces? That's the question the Right asks. The Left merely
> says no to that. But the Left should be asking, What's the point of
> revising the Constitution and expanding the armed forces if Japan does
> not have a foreign policy of its own independent of Washington's? Why
> doesn't Japan have a foreign policy that makes sense for Japan? --
> Yoshie
This almost sounds like a Nation editorial - "why don't the Democrats _______?" (fill in the blank). You make it sound like the reason the left doesn't set the agenda is because we don't say the proper things. But the reason the right sets the agenda is that they're the ruling class - they own the means of communication and do a lot to determine the terms of discourse. (As the old public opinion maxim goes, we can't tell people what to think but we can tell them what to think about.) You know I bet there are Japanese leftists asking that very question, but they're too weak to influence the terms of discussion. And it's not because they're not enunciating clearly.
Doug