Blogosphere of the Libertarian Left
Posted on August 23rd, 2005 by Brad Spangler
Some of you may have noticed the banner ad for a webring called “Blogosphere of the Libertarian Left”.
It’s official. I am now a “leftist” — even though I haven’t changed any of my basic views in fifteen years. Claire Wolfe has a pertinent write-up.
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LOL.
Like you my public philosophy hasn’t changed but the labeling certainly has. I remember when Bill Moyers would have made a decent Republican, and I ain’t that old! I remember when my point-of-view was gently labeled a quaint form of Jeffersonianism. Michael Sandel told me I was a “civic republican.” Then just a few short years of 9-11 folks call me a “leftist liberal.”
I wonder what “left” and “liberal” and “conservative” and “progressive” are going to mean, oh lemme see, 10 years from now? My guess is that the labels will lack even more substance than they lack now.
These days it seems that being a civil libertarian who opposes the PATRIOT Act and the USAmerican war on Iraq is all that anyone needs to know about someone in order to label one a “leftist”–and we all know that leftists are commies and commies are Stalin and Pol Pot, eh? This kind of logic seems to work for the Limbaugh-Ingram-Hannity-O’Reilly-Faux News complex. It certainly works to decoy the minds of the American people from the real work of politics–cooperative participation in building a balanced social and economic environment that can sustain the good life.
Alan Avans
Prairie Village KS
Hi Alan: Yes, there is a realignment of sorts going on and it’s impacting us all — from radicals to moderates and everyone in between. As that purported ancient Chinese curse says, we live in “interesting times”. :)