The Old Liberalism

Today, jet-set liberals bike to work, but flit across the country racking up frequent flyer miles, leaving plumes of carbon dioxide in their wake. They solemnly form candlelight vigils against the war in Iraq, then retire for a hunk of steak cooked by an underpayed immigrant worker. The Old Liberalism is more about indignancy than idealism.

Roger L Simon expresses the problem with todays 'progressives' beautifully:

Neither Boxer Barbara of the Senate or Sarah of The New York Times (part time anyway) are capable of processing the world around them. Times have changed but they have not. Senator Boxer goes on and on about missing WMDs as if democracy in the Middle East was an inconsequential side issue. Writer Boxer opines blithely about Iraqi bloggers as if they didn't exist as real people. Both these women have been reified. Their brand of liberalism is no longer a political or moral view, but simply an object of opinion, a stance of no more moment than sports fandom and equally substantial. Other human lives are beside the point. How they appear to themselves and their supporters is everything.

Today I received a forward urging me to not spend a 'dime' on January 20, as a means 'civil disobedience' against the war. Apparently Bill Moyers has declared that not supporting Walmart, Kmart and the big corporations on January 20 will send an appropriate anti-war message.

Pretty sad that today's progressive thinkers don't have a problem supporting the corporate behemoths 364/365 days a year. Pretty mean that they stand against the attempt to bring liberty to the oppressed. And pretty absurd that they regard 'not giving a dime' as a form of civil 'disobedience'.

It's therefore refreshing and a cause for hope to see the emergence of a new political attitude, embodied by people like Roger Simon. It's a perspective which isn't crippled by cynicism, which tries to live its ideals and which considers liberty and prosperity to be global, not local aspirations.