There were two rather profound offerings on CSPAN this evening. If you missed them you can still get your fill:
The first was an interview with Tony Blankley about his new book The West's Last Chance. Although the interviewer did her best to insinuate her own conventional anti-Bush agenda she was at least respectful and allowed Tony to make his points. I guess I see pretty much what Blankley sees, and I agree that we're probably at the turning point. The other program was the incendiary "debate" between George Galloway and Christopher Hitchens that ended with Galloway standing in a pool of his own intellectual and emotional vital fluid... a fact that I'm sure escaped him. One of the highlights was Hitchens' ridicule of the "Moveon Left's" brave opposition to Dick Cheney, which he compared rather unfavorably to the revolutionary courage and leftist bonafides of the Kurdish Workers Party, and the Pesh Merga; who are (he was quick to note) fighting on our side.
What I'd like someone to tell me some day is how and why a movement that gets its inspiration and financial resources from one of the most venal and amoral capitalists on the planet, and which tacitly supports nearly every authoritarian fascist dictator in the world, can properly wear the insignia of "the Left." How did that happen? Listening to Hitchens it occured to me that the Left may have a second wind some day, since at least part of it (admittedly the smaller part) hasn't betrayed its own principles.
The "turning point" that Blankley refers to may be very close indeed. I don't know how anyone who isn't brain dead could walk away from that Hitchens/Galloway debate believing that the anti-war Left is salvaging even a morsel of dignity. Wish it had broader circulation... There's lots more, including links to video and transcripts of the debate series on Hitchensweb. Really good stuff!
(Cross-posted by Demosophist to The Jawa Report)
Posted by Demosophist at September 26, 2005 12:57 AM | TrackBackI too, saw the debate. Wow. Did you catch the part when Hitchens calls Galloway out on how he stood with Assad of Syria and praised the 'heroes' (I think that was the word) who were carrying out operations in Iraq, and then stood with Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in one of those operations he praised.
That was a verbal uppercut *I* felt, let alone what Galloway may have felt.
I grudgingly respect those on the left who you can 'bleeding hearts' though I disagree with them.
But many on the anti-war left are filled with outright hate, and it is destroying them.
Posted by: lee at October 4, 2005 06:18 PM