DAILY TOL: Tree of Liberty

Tomorrow I may be a CommonSensicrat™ just to keep things even.

First I’d like to thank Tol for giving me the opportunity to post on his site.  I don’t know how often I’ll have something to say, but I will certainly try to keep it well reasoned and pithy.

Today I’m writing about the Left-Right divide.

My lovely wife is a rabid conservative and one of her best friends is a left of center Democrat.  They love each other dearly but do tend to snipe.  Today I was struck that their sniping was more pointless than usual because they were actually on the same side of the issue.  However, the ideologues that owned their labels were, as usual, quite far apart.

This issue at hand was President Obama’s response to the increasing carnage in Iran and how those on the ideological left and right chose to react.

My wife, let’s call her Kate, correctly pointed out that Obama and many on his left were rather tepid in their support for Iran’s protestors.  Where was the outrage from the bastions of liberal thinking, asked Kate?  They cared more for the President’s poll numbers than for their ideals.  Her friend, let’s call her Edwina, took offense because many of her left of center friends had been openly supporting the Iranian protestors and encouraged a strong American show of solidarity.

In this case, both women were right…and wrong.

The disconnect arose largely because of semantics and context. Kate defines “The Left” as the vocal minority of talking heads and members of the permanent political intelligencia. In contrast, Edwina’s view was informed by left leaners in her personal circle. The Left establishment has power and doesn’t want to risk losing it so they are dipping their toes in an issue that represents great risk to their power if it ends badly. Their sin lies in a willingness to place politics above a clear moral choice involving the grave matter of life, death, and freedom.

The Right establishment does not have power and covets it, so they encourage ‘bold” action because, for them, there is much to be gained and little to be lost. Their sin is merely a dark reflection of those on the Left. The greater sin, IMO, lies with the establishment Left in that they espouse core beliefs that, in this case, they willing forgo to achieve political advantage.

In short, Edwina’s left-leaning friends have been acting on their ideals because those ideals are more important that US politics. Good for them!!  CommonSensicrats all.

The establishment Right has been saying the correct things in too strident a fashion and for all the wrong reasons.

The establishment Left has been doing the wrong things for all the wrong reasons, chief among them is fear and an unwillingness to do something the Right suggests, even when it’s correct.

To those that would defend Obama with the Hungarian example or simply the “meddling” defense, ignore that great swath of land called, “middle ground.”

There is no reason why our country couldn’t have said from the outset, “America stands now and forever with those who seek to obtain and protect Freedom. Our hearts are with the Iranian people in their peaceful pursuit and our eyes are on the Iranian Government with the expectation that, as a society of laws, it will respect and honor the wishes of its people.”

I am Thomas Paine and I reject the notion that our country is Red or Blue.  I reject the notion that ideologues who blather within their coastal echo chambers speak for me or can define the beliefs of my friends and family.  Let them excoriate each other while the wise among us note that they exist on a mobius strip of ideas where extremes of Left and Right are but a hair’s breadth apart, driving our nation to ruin.

I reject it all and I reject them…in favor of Common Sense.