Andrew Sullivan, on the meme that Obama is "far left":
But let's be clear. "Far left" means to the right of Clinton in healthcare, right? "Far left" means tax rates broadly within the post-Reagan parameters and certainly far to the right of, say, Richard Nixon. "Far left" means retaining the right to bomb Pakistan if al Qaeda is deemed a threat there. "Far left" means a policy of withdrawal from Iraq that, as Bill Kristol observes, is increasingly close to McCain's. "Far left" means a man that Joe Lieberman was thrilled to get to support his last Senate campaign. "Far left" means a "cap-and-trade" position on climate change very close to John McCain's. "Far left" means well to the racial right of Jesse Jackson. "Far left" means opposition to same-sex marriage and to a federal constitutional amendment (very close to John McCain). "Far left" means a policy on torture embraced by the Republican nominee and endorsed by every American president apart from George W. Bush.They think everyone more liberal than Joe Lieberman is "far left." Posted by Stephen Silver at June 3, 2008 05:15 PMThis "far left" meme is meaningless. It says everything about the intellectual bankruptcy of the talk radio right and nothing about the substantive polices and challenges of a president Obama.
I remember learning in school that "far left" is not a relative term. There's a political spectrum, and the far left would be anarchists, communists, and to some extend socialists. I guess it's now just used as a technique for neo-McCarthyism.
Posted by: Thomas Wang at June 4, 2008 02:20 AMNone of which changes the fact that John McCain is totally far-right.
Posted by: Gib at June 4, 2008 09:05 AMAnd if Lieberman had won the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 (ha), he too would have been labeled "far left".
Posted by: BZ at June 6, 2008 09:37 AM