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.
This isn't new. People were saying this since Pat Buchanan. It just wasn't mainstream conservatives.
ReplyDeleteReal 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.
ReplyDeleteI 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?
ReplyDeleteConservatives 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?
ReplyDeleteIsolationism 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.