Between the Rev. Jerry Vines and his ilk on one side and the folks on that manifesto on the other, I'd have to say there's no shortage of fruitcakes on either end of the spectrum.
I do think that there is legitimate cause for concern at the manner in which the war on terrorism is being conducted. The powers given the executive to prosecute the war seem to me to be far too general and far too easily expanded to include anybody the administration happens to dislike. I don't trust Bush, Ashcroft et. al. any more than I trusted Clinton, Reno et. al., possibly even less, and I don't like the idea of giving them sweeping powers removed from any effective oversight. I can't help feeling that they will inevitably use the latitude granted by the war to push agendas that have little or nothing to do with terrorism.
Still, I wouldn't be signing the manifesto, even if I were as prominent an American as Starhawk (?!) or hip-hop "artist" Boots Riley.
No thanks. Not my sort of company at all.
The whole issue of who is a liberal or conservative is, of course, the subject of long and silly debate, and all that I can say about it is that since the terms no longer have any consensus definition, they have become practically meaningless. Like you, I am generally called a right winger in my own milieu, but a liberal here on SI. Different people simply define these things differently. Where I am, if you believe in capitalism, deregulation, private ownership of the means of production, free global trade, etc. You are right wing. Where you stand on abortion, sex education, gay rights, etc. is irrelevant, economics are the defining factor. On SI, clearly, it is different.
I remember some discussion of why Pim Fortuyn, whose positions seemed to us centrist, was consistently referred to as "right wing" by the European press. I discussed that with a Dutch friend recently, and he told me that much of Europe is so consumed with the immigration debate that it has become practically the sole defining factor in the right/left classification. Everything else is submerged: if you want immigration restricted, you are classified on the right.
The American perspective is, of course, somewhat different.
I'd love to see the terms right/left and liberal/conservative permanently retired as meaningless, but of course it's not likely to happen. |
