--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I think you aren't looking closely enough. As I > said, the conservative uses > different language so lack of respect will come out > in different ways. Use of > buzz words that convey an allegiance to "american > values" to obscure actions > that are harmful to many americans is indicative of > contempt for the american > public. I am thinking now mostly of talking heads > like Limbaugh, Hannety and > O'Reilly.
But Bob, again, we're just circling the point. They are actions that _you think_ are harmful to many Americans. But they aren't actions that _they think_ are harmful to many Americans. You might be right, but that doesn't make their opinions less honest. It just makes them wrong. Many conservatives (myself included) feel a genuine attachment to American values - in fact they feel that their defense against the assaults of the modern left is the most important objective of modern American conservatism. In order to feel that invocations of American values are indicative of contempt of the American public, you have to believe, first, that the people doing the invoking don't believe in those values, and, second, that the policies that they are supporting are actually bad for Americans. But I don't think they think so, any more than I think that (most) of the liberals who opposed welfare reform believed that doing so would hurt the poor. So I think we just returned to where we started. If they honestly believe that tax cuts (for example) are good for most Americans, then using American values to justify them is an honest (and effective) rhetorical argument. Again, the problem you're running into is why the modern left finds it so difficult to invoke American values as something to be proud of. In conservative circles, "we shouldn't do this because it's not the American way" is an extraordinarily powerful argument. It doesn't seem to me that this is true nearly as often (if ever) on the other side of the fence. Before the Vietnam War that wasn't true. Today, Michael Walzer rights essays asking if it is even _possible_ for there to be a decent Left, and his answer appears to be yes, but it doesn't exist right now. If the editor of _Dissent_ is saying that, then there is a problem, and that problem is at the center of this discussion. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l