I don't think "right" and "left" are well-defined terms. When I was growing up during the Cold War, right-wingers were hawks, since the enemy was communism. But historically, the Right has actually been isolationist. Is Ron Paul to the right of the Republican party as a whole, or to the left of it?
Conservatives are for small government, except when they aren't. Ditto for liberals.
When I was growing up during the Cold War, right-wingers were hawks, since the enemy was communism. But historically, the Right has actually been isolationist. Is Ron Paul to the right of the Republican party as a whole, or to the left of it?
Isolationism doesn't mean being the peace party. Buchanan is a classic 'isolationist' in the sense you mean, but he was all on board with fighting wars, real and proxy, against communists. I don't think you'll find inconsistency there, since communism was a case where being an isolationist didn't mean you'd be left alone.
4 comments:
This isn't new. People were saying this since Pat Buchanan. It just wasn't mainstream conservatives.
Real headlines will be this coming election, with 'Liberals saying a vote for the Iraq war was the right idea at the time', for obvious reasons.
He seems to be saying that GWB wasn't conservative enough, that he was a disaster because he was too far to the left. Maybe I'm misreading it though.
I don't think "right" and "left" are well-defined terms. When I was growing up during the Cold War, right-wingers were hawks, since the enemy was communism. But historically, the Right has actually been isolationist. Is Ron Paul to the right of the Republican party as a whole, or to the left of it?
Conservatives are for small government, except when they aren't. Ditto for liberals.
When I was growing up during the Cold War, right-wingers were hawks, since the enemy was communism. But historically, the Right has actually been isolationist. Is Ron Paul to the right of the Republican party as a whole, or to the left of it?
Isolationism doesn't mean being the peace party. Buchanan is a classic 'isolationist' in the sense you mean, but he was all on board with fighting wars, real and proxy, against communists. I don't think you'll find inconsistency there, since communism was a case where being an isolationist didn't mean you'd be left alone.
Post a Comment