Les, the opposite of "liberal" is not "conservative." It is "illiberal".
There can be conservative liberals, and liberal conservatives. But "illiberal liberal" is an oxymoron. A liberal who is illiberal is no liberal.
I was talking about liberal values for Pete's sake, values that this country was founded on, and that all true conservatives in this country share. I'll bet you do, too.
And take another look again at the context in which the word "Intolerance" came up:
..although the Jews were the primary target of the Nazis, they were not the only ones. The extermination of the Gypsies, for example, is something most people (myself included) know very little about. Then there were the outspoken political dissidents, the mentally retarded, the homosexuals, etc. -- in other words, everybody "different". That is why, if it were up to me, I would have Intolerance declared the Eighth Cardinal Sin.
I said nothing about who was or who was not intolerant in America today.
Now, as to your use of the term "Left". YOu seem to be using it as coterminous with the term "liberal". But like the term "Right", it was developed, in the context of Europe, to designate one of two extremes of the political spectrum, both of which were predominantly illiberal. When these terms are used, it is always assumed that there is also a center, which is where classic liberals and conservatives alike belong.
Whatever happened to the center in your scheme?
Left+Right-Center is not a very useful prism, IMO, through which to view this country. The true illiberal left never sank deep roots here; even at the height of its influence here, the US Communist Party had very few card-carrying members. As for the Right, we have had nothing like the Nazis, or the Action Francaise, or the Francoistas, except on a very small scale. Good thing, too, because the illiberal Right has always been tainted with anti-Semitism.
Americans have been, and still are, predominantly centrist. Moderate, if you prefer. My opinion, of course.
jbe
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