4/3/2004
So I went up to the antiwar demonstration in Central Park this weekend, hoping to hear some persuasive arguments. After a couple of hours there, listening to speeches, reading the hate-America literature, I still don’t know what to think about Iraq—will an attack open a Pandora’s box, or close one?—but I think I know what I feel about this antiwar movement, or at least many of the flock who showed up in the Sheep Meadow.
Thus begins one of the most fascinating and enlightening articles I’ve read in years. Ron Rosenbaum, a dedicated liberal thinker bids farewell to what he calls the “knee-jerk, neo-Marxist idiocy” of many on the left in his article, “[url=http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/story.asp?ID=6434]Goodbye, All That: How Left Idiocies Drove Me to Flee[/url].”
With that said, neither does Mr. Rosenbaum claim any interest in conservatism. As a matter of fact, he still identifies himself as a “contrarian, libertarian, pessimist, secular-humanist, anti-materialist liberal Democrat who distrusts the worship of ‘the wisdom of the market.’”
I wonder if perhaps Mr. Rosenbaum is looking for the liberal ideology of old; the kind embodied in people such as FDR, or even Zell Miller who recently published a book entitled [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0974537616/qid=1080977617/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-4340202-2107950?v=glance&s=books&n=507846]A National Party No More[/url], which, in part, also critisizes his party’s embrace of leftist ideology poisoned with neo-Marxist influences.
As a conservative, I couldn’t tell you much about what it means to be a liberal, but it seems increasingly apparent to me that there is a growing divide among Democrats on its meaning. Unfortunately for Zell Miller, Ron Rosenbaum, and others, it seems that their view of liberalism in general and the Democratic Party in particular is a shrinking minority viewpoint.
Or is it? Democrats across the nation have much the same view of the world as Republicans. They love their country, they support their troops, they are proud of their heritage. While these Democrats may not like George Bush or his politics, they like the politics of John Kerry even less. They vote Republican, or fail to vote altogether, because extremists have steered their party in a direction that they find disturbing.
So they remain loyal Democrats, liberals, and Americans, but feel increasingly isolated from their party leaders. It’s just as Ronald Reagan once said, “I did not leave my party, my party left me.”
What does all this mean for the Democratic Party? I think that is a point open for debate. The upcoming presidential election will be particularly telling.
Regardless of what you think of my points here, I urge you to read [url=http://www.nyobserver.com/pages/story.asp?ID=6434]Mr. Rosenbaum’s article[/url]. We all have some things to learn from this man.
David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com
2 Comments
If you can get past the stylistic narcissism of his essays (the written equivalent of someone who likes to hear themselves talk), Rosenbaum has little to offer his readers.
He writes as though you are already party to his views, as though the simple act of Ron Rosenbaum trashing Gore Vidal or Pete Seeger, or extolling Chris Hitchens is enough. We don’t need facts or reasoned arguments, just read a passage where Ron gives it to some whacko lefty.
And what about all those lefty whackos? I mean how can they possibly entertain ideas that are so far beyond the mainstream that even Ron Rosenbaum cannot countenance them. Oswald didn’t kill JFK? Get outta here! Yoi’re joking right?
On the plus side, writers of Rosenbaum’s caliber will only ever “preach to the choir.” Rosenbaum is a literary Rush Limbaugh. Theirs is a style of polemic that compels neither thought nor reflection. Mind pap for the mindless wishing to remain that way.
I’ve read my last Rosenbaum piece. Life is too short to waste on bad logic and self-enamored writers.
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