I think the American Left is in serious trouble right now. And I speak as a pretty committed liberal. Hitchens and The Nation are just the tip of the iceberg – IMHO the Left has basically lost its ideological footing and has resorted to finger-pointing and name-calling. Basically, it isn’t fun to be a Democrat anymore. It ceased being fun after January 2000, and really took a turn for the miserable in the months after last September.
The traditional empathy of the left is manifest in a focus on root causes. I find that conservatives tend to favor action on consequences rather than root causes. Obviously what probably works the best is to do both. Build new prisons, increase police forces, but also give more after-school programs, job rehab, etc. in order to decrease crime. In the war on terrorism this takes the form of addressing issues behind worldwide anti-Americanism (which leads to painful self-reflection) versus unilateral action against Arab and Muslim targets. I oversimplify a bit but you get the point. One is a lot easier to do than the other.
The balance of action on root causes versus consequence-based actions has seemed to work well up until last September. Unfortunately, after the attacks, root-cause action fell very very much out of fashion. The American Left is in trouble right now because the events of last September were heinous enough to push us all into a reactionary mode: who can we kill to make this better? What kind of revenge can we get on those responsible?
That call worked well for about a year with the vast majority of Americans. Now, we are starting to see the first liberals piping up about root causes. Most Americans are still quite reactionary, and the standard political attack is that those piping up do not care about American security, are not patriotic, are commiting treason, etc. So the bulk of the Democrats are avoiding the issue altogether, at a point where we need serious debate on how to make our nation more secure. Stay away from thorny issues this close to midterm elections, agree with whatever is the most popular viewpoint for votes, etc. And it makes them look like chickens. Which they are. Like most politicians.
The fact is that security from terrorism is the most important issue on the table. The majority of Americans are still reactionary, and the Republican reactionary actions are all the rage. Now we are starting to move into phase 2, where we structure ourselves for a long-term fight not only against al Qaida but against all violent anti-American terrorists around the world. Now we start to structure our government to ensure the security of the American people. Will deposing Saddam give us more security? Should we give the President very broad powers to conduct large scale, long term operations against other countries based on a perceived threat, without divulging any reasons to the American people, let alone the international community? Is it in the best interests of liberty to suspend due process to those suspected of terrorism or treason? Is it necessary to compromise workers’ rights in order to create a new arm of highly-efficient, nebulously defined bureaucracy overseeing “Homeland Security?”
I obviously answer “no” to these questions. This opens me to criticism of not putting the American people first, etc. If I were running for office, I could very well see how this would hurt me severely. I don’t think that I would sacrifice my viewpoints and vote in the affirmative on the Department of Homeland Security package or the Iraq war resolutions to ensure popularity. But many Democrats (being politicians) are going to do exactly this. Because Bush criticizes them for politicizing (i.e. raising a stink) about broad-ranging, poorly-debated, powerful legislation. Iraq resolutions written so “the boys in Lubbock” can understand them. Because the Dems caving to labor union pressure in the OHS legislation is somehow far worse than the Reps caving to defense contractor pressure.
I rant. The Democrat ideology is not popular right now. The Left is stuck in a rut, and resorts to the old mudslinging and character assasination instead of taking firm stands on their currently unpopular but perhaps forward-thinking ideology. Things are not real fun right now.