Paul Gottfried

April 22, 2008

The latest issue of The American Conservative (April 21, 2008) contains a noteworthy review by Tom Piatak of Sidney Blumenthal?s The Strange Death of Republican America, a screed produced from a partisan Democratic and socially leftist perspective which would not be worth mentioning , save for Tom?s incisive observations. Tom notes the fact that Blumenthal?s invectives against the neocons involve linking them to social traditionalists. Clearly Sid Poison and his buddies are not waiting to jump over to our side in a grand alliance against saber-rattling neocon. The neocons and the liberal Left share common ground; and this situation is not likely to change because of the Bush or McCain foreign policy. It is our guys, far more than the neocons, who embody the ?right-wing authoritarianism? and ?intolerant identity politics? that Blumenthal detests. Tom?s concluding advice is worth taking to heart: ?There must be a way out of the morass of contemporary American politics, where voters are offered the unappealing choice between a neocon-dominated GOP and a Democratic Party in thrall to the social radicalism of the 1960s.? But the options that are open to our side do not include marching arm in arm with the social Left: ?trying to construct an alliance between disenchanted conservatives and leftists who think as Blumenthal does will not work.?