Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Why Liberals Are So Predictable

In an earlier post in which I summarized why I didn’t want a liberal for President, I said that I could easily predict a liberal candidate’s policy or position on an issue, despite what he or she may actually say on the topic. Let me explain where I am coming from.

The Left has a very rigid orthodoxy, with little variation that I can see. On almost any issue their positions are uniform. So if a liberal takes a position on an issue that is different from the left-wing orthodoxy, then either they are lying or they aren’t really a liberal, but probably a moderate. Both Hillary and Obama are liberals, and their positions on issues are almost identical, with only slight variations.

The reason I mention this is because the Right is always being accused of rigid orthodoxy. I actually see more flexibility on the Right (although not the Far Right) than I see on the Left. Interestingly, both the Right and the Left don’t know what to make of moderates, who don’t fit neatly into any of their categories. So people like Lieberman and McCain are not warmly embraced by the Left and Right respectively because they are not viewed as orthodox (in the political sense, not the religious).

What happened to Lieberman makes a strong statement about the Left being intolerant of any deviation from liberal orthodoxy. Because he differed from leftist orthodoxy on the war in Iraq, he was summarily dumped by the Democratic Party, which vigorously promoted his opponent when Lieberman was up for re-election for the Senate in Connecticut. He was rejected by the party, despite being their vice-presidential candidate at one time, and serving his state and party well in the Senate for many years.

There is another case of leftist intolerance. When pro-life former governor Casey of Pennsylvania wanted to speak at the democratic national convention years ago, he was refused because he was pro-life. So much for being “liberal” (meaning open-minded).

I haven’t been at all pleased with the Republicans, either. Bush has been a major disappointment, and the Republicans accomplished very little while they had majorities in both houses. They deserved to lose their majorities, and I’m glad they did. On the other hand, I haven’t seen the Democrats accomplish much now that they have majorities. I believe both parties are in the pockets of the special interests, so little gets done. They are generally more interested in conducting the party’s business than the people’s business. We all will suffer in the end. Congress fiddles while Rome burns.

By the way, I see this same sort of rigid leftist orthodoxy in the religious realm. The religious left is very predictable as well, despite their claims of being open-minded and tolerant. Therefore, it is sheer hypocrisy when they criticize the religious right for being so unyielding.

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