Jonathan Chait, responding to a Joe Lieberman speech:
"Lieberman is simply making a classic conservative error. Yes, most American liberals devote more energy to opposing domestic conservatism than to opposing foreign totalitarianism, even though the latter is vastly worse. Lieberman's mistake is in assuming that this is because liberals think Bush is worse than bin Laden. In fact, it's because our society aggrees that Islamist extremism is evil, but it doesn't agree that the Bush administration is very bad, so we spend most of our time debating the point of contention. Likewise, American conservatives spent more of their time complaining about American liberals than complaining about Islamist extremists. This doesn't mean they think Nancy Pelosi is worse than bin Laden. (Except, of course for Dinseh D'Souza, who apparently does think this.)"Sometimes I do really feel like the right hates Hollywood liberals and Ted Kennedy more than it does the terrorists. Case in point: Stories on "The O'Reilly Factor" Monday about terrorism: 0. Stories on "The O'Reilly Factor" Monday about the use of the word "vagina" at a high school open mic night: 1. Posted by Stephen Silver at March 14, 2007 05:43 PM
Interesting argument, but the fact is that there is huge disagreement between left and right regarding the threat of Islamic extremism, unless you consider that wanting to defeat someone "bad" as being the same as wanting to give in to the grievances of the "bad person so that they will like us.
Posted by: J. Lichty at March 15, 2007 06:20 PM