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If you recall from this thread,
we're told by this forum's right-wing denizens that it's the left who poses the greatest threat to freedom and liberty; apparently the enactment of speech codes on college campuses, coupled with some state legislator in Florida proposing that state documents prohibit the use of term "illegal alien", are proof positive of the grave threat that the American liberal poses to us.
Meanwhile, according to this narrative, it's the right who can save us from this liberal scourge. It's the right who can restore freedom and liberty from the claws of the decadence and moral depravity of the left.
Don't believe me? Just ask their intellectual godfathers.
We've already revisited
Bork's suggeston by "legislatively restraining" popular culture, we can actually
enhance liberty. What about fellow right-wing bellwether Thomas Sowell? Well, to his credit, he doesn't even want to bother with legislatures, the rule of law, or anything like that. Obviously we're past the point of no return there. No, Sowell essentially says "democracy ftw lol suckorz" and goes straight to outright lusting for a military coup to save us from 'degeneracy':
"When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup." -
Thomas Sowell
Keep in mind, I'm not even talking about fringe whackos like David Duke here. The right foists the likes of Bork and Sowell as paragons of contemporary right-wing intellectualism. So let's not attempt to suggest this is some attempt on my behalf to prop up fringe nutjobs as exemples of prevailing right-wing sentiment. The Bork's and Sowell's of the world are reputable and highly respected voices on the right.
So, on the one side, we have campus speech codes and euphemisms in state-documents. And on the other, we have legislative restraints on culture and military coups to save us from perceived moral degeneracy. Again, I wonder: where exactly is the threat to freedom coming from?
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I genuinely fear both the Right and the Left on issues of personal freedoms and civil rights. Come to think of it, there are precious few groups of any type that
do not instill such fears in me to some extent.
Bork's abysmal, absurd suggestion was discussed at length on this forum, but I forget the OP title under which we discussed it. (Just in case you missed it, you would probably find it interesting).
The quote by Sowell is rather perplexing, at the very least. I wonder what else he might have to say were he to elaborate. I can't envision any scenario in which his words would prove true, in which a military coup would save this country from our leaders' degeneracy (and in the event of a coup, who would save us from the
military leaders' degeneracies, I wonder? Bizarre.)
If we must try to compare the relative threats to freedom from Left versus Right, I would estimate that since the Bush administration took charge, the relative threat from the Right has increased significantly. (That is, if you consider Neo-Cons to actually be on the Right; more than a few don't, and many traditional conservatives are sick to death of them, considering them to be false conservatives who have sold out the country, involved America in a trumped-up and futile war, and spent the country into grave jeopardy).
In sum, I fear both the organized Right and the organized Left, and regard them both as threats to our essential liberties; but lately the Republicans have earned the greatest part of my distrust.
Thanks for reading, and for the interesting post to muse on.
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Hello John, as you are the 2+2 politics poster boy for moderately conservative moral relativism, care to expound on how Bork's suggestions are abysmal and absurd? You often get a pass from all matter of political persuasion on this board for your ever present conciliatory tone, but frankly I'd like to hear how you believe Bork's characterization of today's culture is abysmal and absurd.