It’s compare and contrast time: first, here’s a quote from a November 4th online chat with Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker, a magazine that’s named after an American city in which Islamofascists tried twice in the space of eight years to bring down its tallest building, and succeeded with their second attempt in September of 2001:
Germantown, Md.: Do you believe the president will strive for unity? Or will he skew more hard right?
Seymour Hersh: in my view, he’s got his mandate and he’s going to carry on with his mantra — bringing democracy to the middle east. pretty scary.
Meanwhile, that same day, for contrast, here’s a story from NewsMax:
‘Millions’ of Iranians Celebrate Bush Victory
On the streets and in the gathering places of Iran, millions celebrated the re-election of President Bush with congratulations and discreet V for victory signs to each other.
The Student Movement Coordination Committe for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI) Web site reports that not just a few, but millions of Iranians hoping for reform in that country are excited about President Bush and his promises of democracy for the whole region.
However, SMCCDI reports, “As Iranians and especially the younger generations have become happy, those affiliated to the Islamic regime are seen deeply worried about their future.”
It says the ruling regime in Iran, and all of its lobbyists and apologists, spent piles of money hoping for a Bush defeat.They even organized a celebration in Tehran of the day the American hostages were taken in Iran in 1979, but could only manage a “few thousand professional protesters” from a city of 12 million inhabitants.
The site reports that “commemoration of one of the main Islamist act [sic] of terror ecountered another massive popular rejection.”
Earlier today, I was re-reading bits of Steven Hayward’s magisterial first volume of The Age of Reagan, subtled: “1964-1980: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order”, in which Hayward tracks the remarkable decline of liberalism from the New Frontier confidence of JFK, to LBJ’s Great Society, to George McGovern-style pacifism and pessimism to Jimmy Carter’s malaise.
You start to think that liberal thinking can’t get any more morose and nihilistic than that. But then you find that the chief spokesman for its modern, leftwing strain, who sat next to Carter at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, is proud that he’s being quoted by our enemies–the same men who, like Hersh, also consider the idea of bringing democracy to the Middle East “pretty scary”.
I can understand not agreeing their specific programs and agendas, but JFK and LBJ at least loved America. If the modern Democratic party wants to have a shot at returning to leadership in America, it might want to find and cultivate men and women who don’t fear democracy in the Middle East. Or heck, who don’t fear it in this country, either.
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