61 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
61 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
What a responsible American Left would look like
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<p>The congressional Democrats have made Nancy Pelosi their leader.<br />
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Whether or not this is conscious strategy, it means they’re going to<br />
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run to the left. And very likely get slaughtered in 2004.</p>
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<p>It’s truly odd how self-destructive the American Left has become.<br />
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They’re like that famous line about the Palestinians, never missing an<br />
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opportunity to miss an opportunity. And there are so many<br />
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opportunities! So many good things Republican conservatives can<br />
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never do because they’re captive to their voter base.</p>
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<p>Herewith, then, my humble offering of a program for the American<br />
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Left. This is not sarcasm and I’m not trying to score points here,<br />
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these are issues where the Left could take a stand and gain back some<br />
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of the moral capital it has squandered so recklessly since the<br />
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days of the civil rights movement.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><em>Support war on Iraq, but insist on nation-building<br />
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afterwards.</em> Saddam Hussein is a genocidal fascist tyrant, exactly the<br />
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sort of monster the Left ought to be against. Support deposing him<br />
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— then be the conscience of the U.S., insisting on our duty to<br />
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help rebuild Iraq as a free country afterwards. Push us to win the<br />
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peace, not just the war.</li>
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<li><em>Derail the Homeland Security Act and other intrusions on<br />
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civil liberties.</em> The left hates John Ashcroft. So why don’t<br />
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we see more Left opposition to the law-enforcement power grab that’s<br />
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going on right now, or to the gutting of the Freedom of Information<br />
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Act? Many Americans would respond well to this.</li>
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<li><em>Stop the War on (Some) Drugs.</em> This is a civil-rights<br />
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issue. Blacks and other minorities are disproportionately victims<br />
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both of drug prosecution and of the criminal violence created by drug<br />
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laws. It’s a civil-liberties issue for many reasons too obvious to<br />
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need listing — how can any self-respecting liberal countenance<br />
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no-knock warrants and asset forfeiture? For too long the Left has<br />
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gone along with conservative anti-drug hysteria out of a craven fear<br />
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of being dismissed as a bunch of dope-loving ex-hippies. Time to<br />
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stand up and be counted.</li>
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<li><em>Support school vouchers.</em> Another civil-rights issue<br />
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— it’s precisely minorities and the poor who most need to escape<br />
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the trap that the public-school system has become, and black parents<br />
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know this. Yes, it will be hard to take on the teachers’ unions<br />
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— but you’re in serious danger of losing the black vote over<br />
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this issue, so switching would be not just the right thing but a<br />
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way to shore up your base as well.</li>
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<li><em>Speak up for science.</em> Religious conservatives are up to a<br />
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lot of anti-scientific mischief — banning stem-cell research,<br />
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excising evolutionary theory from textbooks. Make a principled stand<br />
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for science, secularism, and the anti-Establishment clause. Remind<br />
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the world that the U.S. is not a Christian nation, and seek to have<br />
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the tax exemption for religious organizations ended because it puts the<br />
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U.S. government in the position of deciding what’s a religion and<br />
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what is not.</li>
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<li><em>Stop the RIAA/MPAA from trashing consumers’ fair-use rights.</em><br />
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The Left claims to be on the side of consumers and against corporate<br />
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power elites. So where was the Left when the DMCA passed? If the<br />
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RIAA and MPAA have their way, personal computers will be crippled<br />
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and consumers will go to jail for the `crime’ of copying DVDs they<br />
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have bought for their personal use. Young people, who are trending<br />
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conservative these days, care deeply about the RIAA attack on<br />
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file sharing. Wouldn’t you like to have them back?</li>
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</ul>
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<p><a href="http://enetation.co.uk/comments.php?user=esr&commentid=84892010">Blogspot comment</a></p>
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