Saturday, March 06, 2010
Dueling manifestos, Part II
David Brooks sees the same similarities as HB did a few weeks ago: New Left, meet New Right. ...
Hub Blog got into an interesting email exchange with a reader after my original ‘Dueling manifestos’ post. The point of contention (since cleared up): Whether the New Left was ever as powerful within the Democratic Party as the New Right is now within the Republican Party. That wasn’t my original point. I was looking at the eerie similarities between the New Left and New Right – and that’s all. But it’s still a valid point. So I’ll make clear: The New Right is now closer to power within the Republican Party than the New Left was within the Democratic Party – and that makes it a little scarier. Abbie Hoffman, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Tom Hayden et gang had an enormous radical influence on the left – and thus the Democratic party. But I don’t recall Abbie Hoffman ever hosting his own national television show at the peak of his power – nor serving as a keynote speaker at a presidential dog-and-pony show (Hoffman-Beck comparison via Michael Lind).
P.S. – Hub Blog thinks Brooks is focusing too much on the Tea Party. I’m lumping all the far-right factions together and calling them the New Right. The recent Conservative Political Action Conference was dripping with the same counterculture wannabe-ism that David attributes to the Tea Party movement, up to and including the issuance of a pompous manifesto and references to a ‘conservative Woodstock.’ I won’t even get into my groundbreaking theory that the hypocritical right, deep down, suffers from a profound inferiority complex toward the left. …
David Brooks sees the same similarities as HB did a few weeks ago: New Left, meet New Right. ...
Hub Blog got into an interesting email exchange with a reader after my original ‘Dueling manifestos’ post. The point of contention (since cleared up): Whether the New Left was ever as powerful within the Democratic Party as the New Right is now within the Republican Party. That wasn’t my original point. I was looking at the eerie similarities between the New Left and New Right – and that’s all. But it’s still a valid point. So I’ll make clear: The New Right is now closer to power within the Republican Party than the New Left was within the Democratic Party – and that makes it a little scarier. Abbie Hoffman, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Tom Hayden et gang had an enormous radical influence on the left – and thus the Democratic party. But I don’t recall Abbie Hoffman ever hosting his own national television show at the peak of his power – nor serving as a keynote speaker at a presidential dog-and-pony show (Hoffman-Beck comparison via Michael Lind).
P.S. – Hub Blog thinks Brooks is focusing too much on the Tea Party. I’m lumping all the far-right factions together and calling them the New Right. The recent Conservative Political Action Conference was dripping with the same counterculture wannabe-ism that David attributes to the Tea Party movement, up to and including the issuance of a pompous manifesto and references to a ‘conservative Woodstock.’ I won’t even get into my groundbreaking theory that the hypocritical right, deep down, suffers from a profound inferiority complex toward the left. …
