In reply to:
Riehl World View: The Cultural Values Discussion(Not sure what the story with this one is... The blog doesn't appear to be moderated, but when I try to post my comment, I get a message that says:
"We're sorry, we cannot accept this data". It's possible my reputation precedes me (he is a regular reader at Donald's, apparently), or maybe my comment is too long or has too many links... I intend to e-mail the blog author, so he can explain or laugh in my face--depending--and I post it here, the home of potentially (and occasionally "actually") refused comments.)
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Much of the let it all hang out cultural disintegration often associated with the Left in the culture war is a myth. When it suits neocons like Mr. Douglas, they recall that many folks on the left voted against gay marriage in California, and are just as concerned about cultural values as many folks on the right. But then when it's time to make another point, "the Left," en mass, becomes the enemy, again. And while your
no enemies on the right campaign makes some sense--there are some core values that pretty much everyone on a given side should believe in and fight for--there are real differences in values and in tactics among the sub-groups on those sides that are almost as important. And while Mr. Douglas has some difficulty recognizing such differences
on the Left, he seems to be wanting to have the
unified cake you're baking, but slice up
divisive pieces of it (Charles Johnson @ LGF, paleo-conservatives--AmCon, paleo-libertarians-Ordinary Gentlemen) when that better suits him.
Personally, I think you're both a bit right. Whether left or right, there are core values that make you a part of the group and should allow you to fight together toward the same political and social goals. But left and right, there are other values and ways of doing things that can divide. Defining a whole group by the worst few morons is wrong, whether those morons are kids dressed in black who throw things at cops and break store windows at peace protests, or people who shoot doctors or bomb clinics at anti-abortion rallies. While they claim to be working for the same goals you are, they do not represent the movement toward those goals as a whole, and it's foolish and dishonest to hold them up as though they do. (And, of course, the same goes for leather-clad pony boys as representatives of homosexual men. Many of us probably know a gay person or two, but I'm willing to bet that few of us know anyone who dresses in the leather chaps and codpieces featured in the picture at Donald's American Power blog. I'm not saying those folks don't exist--any more than I'm saying the black bloc kids or clinic bombers don't exist--but they are hardly representative of gay people, or even of the gay rights movement.)
There are real differences between the groups of Cons that Mr. Douglas approves of, and those he does not. But that doesn't mean you folks can't all work together toward those overriding common goals, as long as someone keeps an eye on the bomb-throwers in the group. Even in a "No enemies on the Right" (or Left) strategy, there sometimes are enemies, right there under your nose.
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Deemed unacceptable for reasons unknown, and thus unsubmitted. (Good chance I'll e-mail this post to the blog author though, to find out why...)
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UPDATE: on the advice of The Riehl World via e-mail, I commented there with a link to here:
Riehl World View: The Cultural Values Discussion. Since I mentioned playing for the other political team, I don't know how many'll come, but at least my comment got posted...
And, should I ever be lookin' to move off of blogger, this'll serve as a good lesson as to why I will avoid Typepad. Spam filters shouldn't be refusing legit comments...
