the stereotypical Blue State (BS?) voter at least has the advantage of
representing a statistical average of a sort. And I can imagine that
one could pin down a demographic of "epicene college professors with
subscriptions to the Nation Magazine who send money in to Amnesty
International and drive Volvos" and then figure out a statistical
average of their opinions. (Few, however, will admit to being
epicene.) But the idea of a "Western leftist" is a totally ambiguous
and excessively fluid category. What a "Western leftist" is seems to
be totally in the eye of the beholder. It's a typical strawman.
a check-list:
(1) I'm not epicene.
(2) I'm a professor (and tenured and full to boot!)
(3) I subscribe to the NATION (but also MONTHLY REVIEW and Z and a
bunch of other things).
(4) I don't send money to Amnesty International (but I do send some to
the ACLU, especially after 911).
(5) I don't drive a Volvo (but I do drive a Prius).
gosh, with a "liberal" reading, I'm 4 out of 5. Just shoot me.
--
Jim Devine / A Typical Western Leftist -- and Proud of It!
But redemption is at hand. Just like in Costa-Gravas's "The
Confession", all you have to do admit that you were completely wrong
on Iran and that Yoshie is completely right. Once that is out of the
way, you too can instantly be transformed into one of the saved. You
too will be able to read the inscrutable Persian mind. You too will
discover the allures of Lula, including his deficit hawkishness which
is necessary for Brazil to develop along solid Rostowian lines.
Finally, you too will be permitted to hurl the unsaved Western Left
into the bowels of hell for its decadent taste for caricatures of the
prophet Mohammad, its well-known ties to George Soros foundations and
its hostility to market socialism in China which is lifting up the
rural masses into the 21st century (granted there might be temporary
pain associated with that, but necessary like a baby teething.)
