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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: Dale Baker who wrote (28893)9/20/2006 9:54:02 AM
From: GST  Read Replies (1) of 541095
 
It does help Dale. Partisan exchanges are the dialogue of the deaf. But I might differ in one respect. I think Partisans look for reasons to defend their gang. They pretend to be about ideas and values but they are really about defend and attack and would for the most part abandon an idea in a heartbeat if they thought it would help their gang. It is all about spin and winning. In that kind of environment the center is apt to feel it has lost its moorings and is without a voice.

For those people who do identify themselves as in the "center" - and I make no bones about it because I believe my views to be of the center -- I also think some effort is needed to articulate the views of the center that have remained underformed. As one example, I don't think that most people believe that we ought to be torturing innocent people. I don't think that most people are ready to say that torture is normal procedure and we should get on with it.

I read a blurb in the morning paper -- over half of MBA students surveyed say they cheated in the last year. The article pointed out that a strong motivation was the belief that others were doing the same thing. This is the argument many make for torture and other war crimes -- all the other guys do it. If our laws hold us back from using torture then lets ignore the law (as we have) or get rid of it.

Is cheating the new norm? Is cheating the new view from the center? Is torture the new norm? Are secret prisons and unrestricted wiretapping the new norm? Is it now normal for Presidents to be above the law? I don't think so -- if these are the values of the new center then we as a nation have drifted perilously to the right.
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