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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: frankw1900 who wrote (70754)	2/1/2003 11:56:48 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 281500

OT: Sullivan is a real conservative. Who is he supposed to align with? Sullivan is a very bright guy so I assume it's a question that bothers him a great deal of the time. Most likely he's written about it, since he appears to write about everything that bothers him. I don't know his views very well so it would be hard for me to place him. Clearly his foreign policy views of the moment align him with the Bush folk and that's what we all notice. I think that, with that one exception, his views would put him with the DLC folk or the Lincoln Chafee, Chuck Hagel, Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, moderate Republicans. However, he burned a ton of bridges with the DLC crew in his time as editor of The New Republic. I don't know the details but have heard sort of third hand reports that his break with Marty Perez was fairly striking. And involved a break that was larger than simply a personal one. But I don't know for certain. And while the DLC and The New Republic are close allies, there are some spaces between the two. So, back to your question, I genuinely don't know. Sullivan strikes me as yet one more illustration of a break down in traditional political alignments. Perhaps Christopher Hitchens is another. Kevin Phillips a third. These are folk who not only appeared to move from one alliance to another but are free thinkers, not comfortable in political alignments. Just give em a pedastal and step back. Frank, perhaps you know the answer to this question. My impression is that the left-right political distinction derives from the French Revolution. If so, and perhaps even not, perhaps it's time to retire it. One more comment that I forgot to make. I assume that one way Sullivan has to answer this is just how politically salient his sexual status is so far as politics is concerned. If, for whatever reason, he thinks it's a minor part of his political self, then aligning himself with the further right in American politics which moves from a sort of ungraceful tolerance of gays to outright bitter hostility, aligning with them may not be so odd. If, however, he considers his sexual status as a major part of his political identity, then his presence alliance is baffling. At best.