On Fri, 2 Oct 2009, Doug Henwood wrote:
>> And that's the this: the opposite of conservative is liberal. And if
>> the Nation asked the question Is Obama A Real Liberal? they'd not only
>> have to answer it emphatically Yes, so would you and Doug.
>
> Liberalism is a mushy philosophy. It's watered down social democracy,
> which is itself watered down socialism, with a dose of imperial
> self-righteousness thrown in. Actually I'm not even sure of that. Who's
> a liberal? Obama? He loves the market and doesn't have the balls to
> redistribute anything, even rhetorically. He once embraced single payer,
> but no longer. His policies on civil liberties and national security are
> little different from Bush's.
And that isn't your idea of a paradigmatic liberal?
You've sure seemed to give me that impression. Every time you criticize liberals, it's for being exactly like this. And you've insisted from the beginning that nothing Obama's done should have come as a surprise. If it's so completely predictable based on past behavior, I don't see how you can say it's unknowable.
What you seem to express is exactly the identity crisis I'm talking about. And I don't mean this as a personal affront -- I share it. We've got it, and they don't: a collective identity split into two irreconciable halves and opposed against itself.
Michael