tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post1874452872027682662..comments2024-03-28T00:11:33.489-04:00Comments on bensozia: The Philosophy of Tea PartyismJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-10931316915670764332010-06-15T17:11:06.652-04:002010-06-15T17:11:06.652-04:00I agree. It's striking that, when right-wing ...I agree. It's striking that, when right-wing types are in power, leftists tend also to complain about denial of rights, the control held over them by huge outside forces, etc. But it's clearly very important to them which specific rights are being denied--the right to use marijuana, the right not to have to pray in school, etc. And it's clearly very important to the rightists that they see, not those rights, but other rights--their right not to have their taxes pay for abortions, their right to buy any weapon they wish--now under threat from Obama (remember, I'm talking about the rights the perceive to be under threat). This left-right divide is simply not allowed for in Bernstein's philosophy. If he says it is merely a distraction, I can only reply I'm not convinced. The more abstract a political analysis becomes, the more self-indulgent and irrelevant it usually is.<br /><br />After all, Confederates hated states' rights when they had to do with the rights of northern states not to return runaway slaves, and abolitionists hated federal power when it came in the form of, say, federal marshals apprehending runaways and fetching them back to their masters.<br /><br />To paraphrase Freud, sometimes it's really about the cigar.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08993570411881726772noreply@blogger.com