The Rehabilitation of the Cold-War Liberal (dangerous liberal alert - he makes some sense - long)

NY Times ^ | April 30, 2006 | PETER BEINART

[The Electrician]

On global warming, an America liberated from international restraint has acted irresponsibly

Only if you believe (as does the author) that damaging the US economy in an ill-conceived cosmetic scheme that will have no tangible effect on the Earth's climate is "acting responsibly".

[Admin Moderator]

Please do not post excerpt only articles in any way, shape, manner or form again.

AM

[Wuli]

When I can take the time, I will repost this with every lie, mis-statement, incorrect historical view, and incorrect perspective this guy has.

Who does this guy represent - TNR - The New Republic - a liberal magazine that was first, last and always Al Gore's most constant supporter in the media.

Mr. Beinarts problems stem mostly from the fact that like a true liberal, he believes their own myths.

[stylin19a]

In 2004, John Kerry substituted biography for ideology, largely ignoring his own extensive foreign-policy record...

3rd sentence...That's good ?

[Cacique]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/magazine/30liberal.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

A cardinal mistake. I have always argued that like our opponents we should export our ideology, not by imposing it, but by educating people in it. We haven't even done that simple act. The checks and balances that our republic affords. the staggered elections to prevent a "tyranny of the majority" etc.. Instead we are making the same mistake in Iraq by allowing a "parliamentary democracy system", the same system that brought us WWI, WWII and Hitler and Bolshevism to Europe. The same failed system that is leading Europe down the primrose path to extinction to prevail. We should translate the "Federalist Papers" into every known language and drop it from airplanes onto the populations. Heck, we should mandate that every American read it.

It pains me to no end the fact that most Americans are ignorant of the principles upon which this country was founded.

[Cacique]

In 1947, when the Truman administration announced the Marshall Plan to help rebuild postwar Western Europe, he resisted using the aid to recast European economies in America's image. Indeed, his administration assisted socialist parties, recognizing that while they might not always prove ideologically pliant, they represented home-grown bulwarks against Soviet power.

quote I was refering to above

[neverdem]

I agree with your comments about parliamentary democracies. Unicameral legislatures have similar problems. They are way to prone to mobocracy.

[RobbyS]

Beinart ignores that the Democratic Party always had its "progressive" left which was in sympathy with the Communists. Just looks at the way it defended Castro's dictatorship . By refusing to support Humphrey in 1968, they caused his defeat and in 1972 they took over the Party. Since that time their thinking has dominated the Party. After Nixon's fall in 1974, they took over the Congress and caused the overthrow of the South Vietnamese governmment. To this day they refuse look at what misery they caused the Vietnamese people.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Republicans are working to protect America from terrorists, tyrants, and totalitarians; Democrats are working to protect terrorists, tyrants, and totalitarians from America...

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SPOT ON!!!

[onyx]

BUMP and === placemark === for tomorry.

[Fruit of the Spirit]

Please remove my name from the Free Republic list.

I will log off and never come back.

[Valin]

Go to Google News and type in "The Rehabilitation of the Cold-War Liberal" it'll get you in.

http://news.google.com/news?q=%22The%20Rehabilitation%20of%20the%20Cold-War%20Liberal%22&ie=ISO-8859-1&hl=en&sa=N&tab=dn

[Valin]

(snip)
"Liberals don't have a script because they don't have a Reagan. Since Vietnam, they've produced two presidents: Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Carter's foreign policy is widely considered a failure. Clinton's foreign policy is not widely considered at all, because he governed at a time when foreign policy was for the most part peripheral to American politics. Ask liberals to describe a Carteresque foreign policy, and they tend to wince. Ask them to describe a Clintonesque one, and you'll most likely get a blank stare."

[Clintonfatigued]

Actually, Clinton did have a significant impact on foreign policy. He sold nuclear weapons technology for campaign contributions and emasculated the intelligence services. The effects of these and other policies are still being felt to this very day.

[Neophyte]

Ask them to describe a Clintonesque [foreign policy], and you'll most likely get a blank stare.

Possible, but only because it suits them.

The task isn't challenging at all.

A typical Clintonesque foreign policy example: support for the Albanian (Mohammedan) terrorists against Christian Serbs.