It isn’t just the conservatives who are trying to define themselves for the post-Bush era, liberals are doing so too. In the NYT, columnist Patricia Cohen chronicles the efforts of “liberal intellectuals” to define what it is the movement represents:
(S)o many of the authors offer an analysis of why liberalism, which once defined America‚Äôs political life, lost support, and they identify a list of larger theoretical and policy issues that split the liberal camp, including national security, globalization and immigration, and tension between communal interests and individual rights, as well as liberalism‚Äôs recent arms-length relationship with religion and traditional values…
She also quotes American Prospect editor Michael Tomasky’s proposal to paper over the divide between liberal hawks and liberal doves by reminding the latter that the promotion of democracy abroad was once a liberal value, so long as the hawks agree to renounce the current adventure in democracy building.
There is also an emerging and almost charming confidence in the power of government to solve problems - contingent, I imagine, on the people electing the right correct sort of problem solvers. That’ll cost money of course, and while reducing or ending the military engagement overseas could fund some of those programs initially, all wars end in time while government programs are forever.
I’ve said before that I think that the problem the progressive movement has today is that it has won nearly all the great and important battles on civil rights and social justice. The remaining corners left to be filled in are either massive intrusions of government into places it has not previously demonstrated competency - single-payer health care, for example - or else a deeply controversial superimposition of the federal writ in places customarily regulated by the states and about which no unified social consensus exists, like gay marriage.
In a Newsweek article, Fareed Zakaria asks the broader question of how to restore America’s place in the world:
We have become a nation consumed by fear, worried about terrorists and rogue nations, Muslims and Mexicans, foreign companies and free trade, immigrants and international organizations. The strongest nation in the history of the world, we see ourselves besieged and overwhelmed.
Not for nothing, as it turns out and Zakaria’s prescription - that we should come to expect a certain degree of domestic terrorism from time to time, but stiff upper lip and after all they can’t kill us all - does leave a bit to be desired.
Finally - and there’s no coherent narrative here - the human condition is on display. This particular facet was revealed to me in one of those strange internet twists - I’d been looking for the back story on the Navy doctor who’d been arrested for surreptitiously filming Naval Academy midshipmen making the beast with two backs at his house. That tale crossed with the DC madam kerfuffle here - and led me to the sad tale of Brandy Britton.
Britton was a PhD sociologist who’d lost two academic jobs, ran afoul of the federal by misspending grant funds for research and eventually turned to prostitution out of her house in a middle class, suburban neighborhood. Eventually she was arrested and was on the brink of losing her house, but hung herself before she could either be convicted or evicted.
As an example of a fall from grace, it was a compelling enough tale in itself, but in this blog post a kind of 21st century Greek chorus chants out increasingly revealing personal information, most of it anonymously and some of it bordering on character assassination. The depth of hostility is breathtaking, with many clearly gloating as the woman’s life falls apart and some of them explicitly wishing disaster upon her:
Anyone who has been around Brandy for more than an hour will tell you there is a duality to her personna. One is hyperintelligent, exclusively self centered, without conscience and able to lie and absolutely belive them, and is very accomplished at manipulation. The other has superb social skills and can be incredibly convincincing,and seems to be fully engaged with you. It suggests a schitzoid (sic) personality,especially as the “good” Brandy seems to be cracking more and more as she becomes increasingly isolated from people except for her children and animals. Or perhaps more accurately, she is a borderline personality, with sociopathic tendancies (sic). One wonders when she underwent the change? During grad school? it seems there is a vast disconnect beetween (sic) her undergraduate personality and that aparent (sic) in her professional life and later. Perhaps the respondent that is a friend of her first husband can enlighten us.
It all takes a sudden wild swing in the other direction as her suicide is revealed in time and the tone largely moves to a “judge not lest ye be judged” tone. It closes at it almost has to, with an anonymous commenter - displaying neither self-awareness or any appreciation of irony - saying to her earlier attackers, “You people are fuking dispicable (sic). I wish misery and pain to you all.”
The tale will make a good book, so long as the reader isn’t looking for any heroes.
9 responses so far ↓
1
Casca
// Jun 3, 2007 at 2:33 pm
My Lex, but you DO get around. Perverts at the Naval Academy? I’m shocked sir. This is what comes of stepping on the natural hedonism of the young. It’s time to shutter that place. Kill the goat, and farm the kids out to State U’s where they can sink or swim academically with all the distractions of a university education; i.e. booze and scantily clad coeds. If you’ve never seen or read Porterhouse Blue, you really should.
As for Madame Professor, like many suicides, she got herself in a tight spot, and lacked the imagination to find a more sensical out. Had she but called it some kind of absurd research in her field, no doubt she’d have been welcomed back to academia with open, er, uh, arms.
Her bigrapher’s description did remind me of any number of the modern, single, middle-aged women, that I’ve met out there on the market. They’re not out there wanting a mate because they are kind, loving, compassionate souls.
I was going to say something about all that rediscovery of liberalism and conservatism, but you’ve managed to wash it all out of my consciousness. Thanks!
2
Babs
// Jun 3, 2007 at 5:59 pm
“I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢d been looking for the back story on the Navy doctor who?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢d been arrested for surreptitiously filming Naval Academy midshipmen making the beast with two backs at his house. ”
Oh My God! I certainly hope that this piece of news gets past most Plebe parents that don’t live in the Annapolis area…
I will say that my son’s sponsor parents were absolutely outstanding, wonderful people. I can’t say enough about them… They had no furniture in their living room because they had turned it into a Midshipman storage depot. I don’t know how my son would have gotten through without them, I really don’t…
Without my son’s sponsor family I think I would have needed a rubber room for about 3 years…
I won’t ramble on but I am reminded of your post last week about the Mids that you invited to your home so many times Lex… You can’t imagine how much the parents of Mids appreciate the hospitality extended to their sons and daughters.
And Casca, I’ll tell you, I have another son that is currently a Junior in a civilian university. It is beer and skittles (and heavy on the beer) as compared to the academy. I spent four years by the bay vicariously and I wouldn’t care to repeat it.
3
Babs
// Jun 3, 2007 at 6:06 pm
And Casca, if you think Mids have not had to deal with “scantily clad coeds” in their lives then I invite you to observe a high school bus stop. The “coeds” start dressing in a scanty fashion in about 7th grade. I think you would be amazed by what comes off the high school bus…
What do you think? The females only start looking like sluts when they get to college?
I hate to say it but, you are so wrong…
4
Casca
// Jun 3, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Babsly, you’re precious. I’m talking about that point in life where mom and dad aren’t expecting their boys and girls home before midnight, or where one might blow-off classes altogether because a better offer was on the… table.
5
Babs
// Jun 3, 2007 at 8:54 pm
You know Casca - that only tells me how out of touch you are. Home before midnight? How many high school babies do you think were conceived before midnight???
I’m not going to get into an argument with you. I am just sick and tired of the “close the academy down and let them go to a real school meme”.
I have seen both sides up close and personal and that, my dear man, is a bunch of hooie…
6
lex
// Jun 4, 2007 at 7:40 am
The academy has had its equal legions of critics and defenders pretty much from the beginning - the “Spoiled and pampered pets of Uncle Sam” learned the words to that 19th century song in 1978, at least - and I bet they learn them still.
Through inertia, if nothing else, it chugs along.
7
Casca
// Jun 4, 2007 at 8:44 am
Babs, you’ve reminded me of a joke. What do you say to a virgin? Thanks for nothing!
Now you’ve ruined my mood! I’m no longer interested. Good Night!
8
Therapist1
// Jun 4, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Well that became ugly rather quickly, and here I thought the article addressed how people in all professions and walks of life can be just as twisted as the next.
A good friend of mine was “casually dating” a local dominatrix. She would comment about the amount of clientele she had from the 5 sided office building. I doubt all of them were military academy grads.
9
Casca
// Jun 4, 2007 at 11:53 pm
LOL, oh jeez, unless I’m talking about something serious, my comments should be considered tongue-firmly-in-cheek, particularly when it comes to the boat school, and those who have sprung from her bowels. Sex, and the human condition are high on that list too. Babs clearly missed my humor, and kept on driving.
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