The American Spectator

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Sadly, Navasky may not be a dying breed. New Republic editor and Navasky wannabe Peter Beinart, the new darling of American liberalism, has come up with a solution to the implosion of the Democratic Party. A few months ago in the Washington Post, Beinart, who has just been given a large advance to write a book about how to salvage liberals from oblivion, proclaims that folks like Howard Dean and the elites who run the major universities need to warm up to the military. According the Beinart,

The biggest problem is cultural. Democrats should acknowledge that at times the Left's understandable anger over Vietnam degenerated into a lack of respect for the military.

Beinart is trying, but he just can't seem to make himself tell the entire truth. I'm referring to the phrase "the Left's understandable anger over Vietnam." If Beinart would investigate that phrase and the assumptions and deceptions behind it, his project to resurrect the DNC might be more successful. Like those he is trying to help -- or like an alcoholic who keeps drinking -- he cannot bring himself to face the painful facts that will speed healing. Peter Beinart cannot bring himself to say that communism, the cause of the Vietnam war, is evil, and that fighting it in Vietnam was noble -- that, in fact, there was no justifiable anger over Vietnam. Just anger.

Beinart is said to be attempting to revive the Cold War liberalism of men like Lionel Trilling and Scoop Jackson. The trouble is, Beinart is keeping the liberalism and leaving behind the unambiguous hatred of totalitarianism. Where did all the protesters and press disappear to once the U.S. fled Saigon and the communists began the mass murder and reeducation? Not being able to admit that basic fact, even in regards to Vietnam, is the sign not only of a morally weak party but of a diseased mind -- two traits that make it difficult to trust the Left with World War III, otherwise known as the War on Terror.

Still, I recommend Navasky's A Matter of Opinion. It's a feast for magazine and newspaper junkies like me, as well as a case study of the affliction of communist denial.

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Education, Books, Law, Military, Russia, Socialism, Communism