September 08, 2006

"Left Wing Blog"

That's what I heard from my brother when I was home visiting family a couple of weeks ago. What's this I hear from [our niece] about your left wing blog?

Ooh. Scary. Left wing.

It's not like none of us - or no one else in the blogosphere - has thought about or commented about shifting and hence useless political labels. And I've thought about this before, especially when some random link to Bloodless pops up referring to us as a "liberal blog."

Even though we've been clear about this being a bipartisan group in lots of posts, there is no big banner headline that says it.

And I'll freely admit that we all got a little frothy around the election, which is pretty much the only outlet we foreign policy voters have. I still remember getting polled, and when they asked what my top voting priorities were, I said "foreign policy" and the questioner asked me to repeat myself. I could almost hear the check mark in the box marked "other."

If anyone asked me what I considered myself, I would say a moderate pragmatist/strong civil libertarian. I've actually had people say to me - based on what evidence I don't know...my clothes or something? - things like "well, you probably don't believe in the free market, so..." What the fuck? I don't believe in the free market? And this isn't a subtle conversation with fellow IR types who might be implying that states will always resist to a degree to protect certain industries thus inhibiting the absolute triumph of free market economics. No, these are people who are implying you're a commie.

This is tremendously amusing, especially for the "I now get to laugh at stupid presumptuous people" part, but it's also sad.

And I think about why people assume that I'm a commie. Aside from the beret and red star, of course. Seriously though, it's the civil liberties. I remember meeting Baltar back in the day, having heard about the new guy in the department. The libertarian. Thinking back, he and some of the other people I hung with (the super anti-authoritarian, the Anglophile gay conservative) were all civil libertarian types. And the really funny thing was that all the real leftie people and crypto-commies I knew thought that something was wrong with me, that I was some kind of closet conservative, or mealy moderate because I was hanging with the libertarian dudes.

Well, that and that I don't oppose war as inherently evil. On that I'm a pragmatist. I don't think war is either evil or good, necessarily. War is something states do. Period. I'd prefer that my states not get involved in stupid, unwinnable wars (and based on the headlines today, let me just say, did we not pay any attention to the history of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan?), or that if a state is going to be the hegemon, act like a fucking hegemon and build up all kinds of power including moral influence.

Oh and also that I do believe in the free market and economic competition. It's the economic competition part that causes the rub, of course, because that means being against things like monopolies, and corrupt alliances with government to manipulate markets. That brings up the nasty "r" word, I know, and that's what puts me in the "moderate" section. It's funny, every time I take one of those libertarian tests, I end up smack dab in the middle, halfway between Gandhi and Milton Friedman, but way more libertarian than either (especially Friedman... go figure).

Am I a libertarian? No. As Baltar and I have had discussions about numerous times, I find serious flaws in the ideology. Read around the web, there are plenty of other people who have written about it. I'm also a big believer in the "American Dream" as supported by our tax dollars. I don't want to pay for everything, but there is a collective benefit from holding the social fabric together through public works and public education. I've been to too many countries where the government doesn't take care of things like sewers and roads, and what passes for public education does nothing but remind regular people how unequal they are, sowing seeds for future political upheaval. We pay for that stuff, and hell yes we could stand to improve public education, but we get a lot more out of it than reading and writing. I'm happy to pay for that. It's an investment in national security from the inside. Again, that puts me squarely in the middle.

Ultimately the thing that makes this a "left-wing blog" (to my family at least) is the one part of my, and I'd say our (correct me if I'm wrong, comrades), ideology that spikes away from pragmatic moderate land. I'm with Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. If I had to choose one over the other, I'd take liberty over equality, because liberty at least gives the people a fighting chance at equality, where forced equality gives no such thing.

So I'm a commie, and this is a left wing blog simply because I don't think it's anyone's business what god anyone prays to, what people do in their bedrooms, what people do with their bodies. If you wanna buy it sell it drink it shoot it snort it abort it tie it up and spank it I don't care it's no one's business but yours.

Which as I recall, is about as diametrically opposed to "commie" as you can get.

Posted by binky at September 8, 2006 01:21 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Random Thoughts


Comments

Now hang on a minute.

I seem to recall Baltar telling/warning me, shortly before I met you in January of 1996, that you were a comunista and I should be careful if and when I chose to discuss politics around you. Was he mistaken, am I misremembering, have your views evolved, or has the Vanguard of the ProletariatTM ordered you into deeper cover since then?

Posted by: jacflash at September 8, 2006 10:46 AM | PERMALINK

I could throw something up here about how not only did conservatives used to see a big, pushy, nosy, intrusive state as "the enemy", they also seemed occasionally to they also used to have kind words for competence, efficiency and accountability. No longer it would seem in many cases. At least not those conservatives who work in DC.

But I think Colbert has said it best - "reality has a well-known liberal bias".

Posted by: Armand at September 8, 2006 12:17 PM | PERMALINK

Or the "When did conservatives stop being the grown-ups... a little boring but basically sane."

Posted by: binky at September 8, 2006 12:20 PM | PERMALINK

Oh and also that I do believe in the free market and economic competition. It's the economic competition part that causes the rub, of course, because that means being against things like monopolies, and corrupt alliances with government to manipulate markets. That brings up the nasty "r" word, I know, and that's what puts me in the "moderate" section.

I'm not sure what r word you're talking about, because this account of economic competition -- which I whole-heartedly share -- is far more libertarian than it is Republican. Even when the GOP had any credibility on the less-intrusive government front, no one could credibly dispute their tolerance of monopolies of which they approved (i.e., they may have been the driving force behind deregulating utilities and phone companies, but they also have been (and remain) a big part of redefining competition for Sherman Act purposes to connote two goliaths slugging it out while independents get squeezed by the two battling economies of scale, who agree on nothing except the need to unclutter the battlefield of all smaller players) or their serial meddling on behalf of companies whose fates concerned them (i.e., the airlines, again and again and again) for reasons that often surpasseth understanding.

Posted by: moon at September 8, 2006 12:28 PM | PERMALINK

Baltar was mistaken.

Especially back in the day when I met you guys, I was known to play with the imagery out of my collection of political paraphenalia. For example, my vast collection of PT pins, buttons, earrings, shirts and what not that I accumulated in Brazil. I also had stuff from right candidates, but they come without handy internationally recognized symbols.

And I would add, that he told me you were a complete raving gun nut libertarian, which you are also not. I think he was setting us up for success by preparing us for the worst.

Posted by: binky at September 8, 2006 12:32 PM | PERMALINK

The other "r" word [whispers]the one more often associated with Keynesian economics[/whispers].

Posted by: binky at September 8, 2006 12:33 PM | PERMALINK

Aaaand, it looks like I'm not the only one musing on the topic this week.

Posted by: binky at September 8, 2006 12:38 PM | PERMALINK

Binky, you so rock. ^.^

Posted by: StealthBadger at September 9, 2006 09:45 PM | PERMALINK
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