When Did It Happen?
Published October 18, 2002
I would have added "5) People who disagree with me want to oppress women," but that one seemed to fade away after Clinton's impeachment. (By the way, am I the first one to notice that?) In any case, the shorthand terms for all of the above are "right-winger" or "the radical right."
At times it's sad to watch. The mighty New York Times is now a laughingstock. Even people who share the New York Times worldview roll their eyes at it. Left-wing journals of opionion like The Nation and The New Republic tend to be humorless and, while they may be angry or resentful, are usually just plain boring.
Even in the blogosphere, it seems almost painfully obvious: there are few left-leaning blogs, and the ones that exist rarely rise above "Bush is a non-elected President!" and "Enron and Harken and Halliburton, Oh My!" The environment's still going to hell and corporations are still destroying us, according to the Left. But in terms of intellectual thought, serious and robust argumentation? Concrete proposals for change and innovation? The silence is deafening. There seems to be little but ad hominem attacks, seething resentment, and, well, let's face it: irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas.
Somewhere, somewhen, there was a sea change in the American mind. The Left is now generally viewed as being dominated by the desire for coercion and control, while the Right has grabbed "individualism and free choice" as its war cries. And, increasingly, people associate "liberal" with being just plain dumb. Fair or not, that is the ascendant view of the moment.
It's remarkable. Where did it start? I can't quite say. Where does it all lead? The mind boggles. Without question, there is arrogance in this view. Is it entirely without merit? I don't know. But I do know this:
If conservatives want to stay on the intellectual high ground, they might want to start praying: "Lord, enlighten thou our enemies. Sharpen their wits, give acuteness to their perceptions, logic and clarity to their reasoning. We are in danger from their folly, not from their wisdom."
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The above article originally appeared on Dean's World in August of 2002. For more like it, feel free to drop by any time!
- When Did It Happen?
- Published: October 18, 2002
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- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: History, Books: Nonfiction
- Writer: Dean Esmay
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- Dean Esmay's personal site
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The Republican trend began with Reagan, who adopted ideas from Goldwater, a wise man if not an intellectual. The Democrat trend began with LBJ, Goldwater's nemesis. Liberalism started creeping toward socialism and government control. Nixon was more liberal than JFK, and the Republicans collapsed, pending Reagan. Carter was more liberal than LBJ, and the Democrats collapsed, pending Clinton.
During the 1990s, science became increasingly popular, and computers made documentation and statistical computation easy. We can track the effects of opinions and laws more precisely now. We passed "workfare" and saw positive feedback. We passed gun control laws, and saw negative ones. We bonded with North Korea in 1994, and learned its outcome today. Call it "outcomes-based public policy". Moynihan's grandiloquent class could justify any idea with educated rhetoric, but today's arguments sound much stronger when backed by living data.
The Republicans' turning point was Buchanan's leaving. Him gone, the Republicans today are the true liberals (in the sense of our founders and the free market proponents of the 19th and 20th centuries), and the Democrats have become socialist fascists. The Democrats' turning point was 9/11. The party maintained success issuing narcissistic rhetoric, and pandering to sub-groups, but has finally come to the edge of a cliff. Reagan lifted Republicans from the depths, and Dubya is standing on the shoulders his father would not. Clinton took the Democrats to the tippy-top of the mountain they started climbing in 1963, and 9/11 pushed them off the edge. Their collapse is not pretty, but beautiful.