Oh, My Achin’ Head!
You know, sometimes I’m almost ashamed to be a blogger…but then I remember that I have plenty of OTHER things to be ashamed of, and I’m certainly not responsible for the ignorance of others when I have so much of my own. I’m talking about the outraged reaction from the Nutroots® to this uncontroversial, true-on-the-face-of-it post by Joe Klein at Huff’n'Puff:
There is a crucial difference between liberals and leftists, especially on foreign policy–even though Republicans (and leftist-wingers) have successfully conflated the two over the past few decades. The default position of leftists like, say, Michael Moore and many writers at The Nation, is that America is essentially a malignant, imperialistic force in the world and the use of American military power is almost always wrong. Liberals have a more benign, and correct, view of America’s role in the world and tend to favor the use of military force if it is exercised judiciously, as a last resort, and in a multilateral contect–with U.N. approval or through NATO. The first Gulf War, the overthrow of the Taliban and the Kosovo intervention met these criteria; Bush’s Iraq invasion clearly did not.
Are there really people who don’t understand the distinction between a liberal and a Leftist? This is the equivalent of denying a difference between Marxists and Democrats (an equivalency too often made by certain figures on the right, to be sure). Klein is quite right in broad terms, even if there is significant wiggle room on the details.
Ah, what we pass off as learned discourse!…
“tend to favor the use of military force if it is exercised judiciously, as a last resort, and in a multilateral contect–with U.N. approval or through NATO.”
Desert Storm met these criteria but Iraqi Freedom does not? This is one of the Big Lies that the left, including BOTH libs and hard Lefties, indulge. Sorry liars, Iraqi Freedom IS authorized by the UN, not that such a thing carries much weight with me but look up UN Res 1441. Also, go back to the Clinton years and forward. You will find some 18 odd resolutions that authorize use of force against Saddam by any member state to effect the aims of said resolutions. On the other questions, these are more a judgement call, but we do this thing wherein we elect people to make these calls. Of course Democrats famously think little of democracy at home OR abroad.
To be fair, Klein’s critics weren’t really attacking his Huffpo piece, but his original statement, which the Huffpo peice was meant to clarify. At an event attended by a bunch of other journalists, Klein made some comment about the liberal wing of the Democratic party hating America. And based on the reports of those in attendance, it seemed pretty clear that he was talking about liberal Democratic leadership (Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, etc.) not marxist activists. There is a big difference between leftists and liberals, but I really don’t think Klein was talking about leftists of the Che Guevera mold when he made his original comment.
Plus, there is a long running hatred of Klein on the left. This is just the latest. He calls himself a “liberal” but all he ever does is spout vapid beltway conventional wisdom about everything. He’s the least informed columnist out there and always seems to have the most superficial understanding of whatever subject he happens to be opining about at the moment.
Klein says he said ‘left wing’, not ‘liberal wing’…and therein, he asserts, lies the difference…