| Sunday, June 26, 2005 |
| Liberals rating low on the Kelometer? |
As much as I hate to be wrong, it seems that Malkin, Instapundit et.al. basically have it right when they point t0 the virtual silence of the liberal blogosphere on the Kelo ruling. (Sigh.) A quick cruise of the top lib blogs, including Kos, finds nothing much on the ruling, but lots of continued obsessing over Karl Rove. There are also gratuitous links today to this year-old story about Young Republicans members who love the war but aren't interested in signing up to fight it. (Only TPM seems to have caught the article-age problem...) Newsflash guys: nobody wants to sign up for what would surely be a one-way ticket to Iraq, and even if the Alex P. Keaton set did want to sign up -- which they don't -- their parents wouldn't let them. Yes, yes, noone of the righties served, Limbaugh was a Vietnam coward with a boil on his bum and on and on and on... what about this awful ruling, whose impact will be felt far, far from New London, Connecticut???
I couldn't tell you why this thing is shaking out the way it is, but my suspicion is that the liberal world in general suffers a kind of tissue rejection when called on to take a position that would align them with a certain group who decided the wrong way in Bush v. Gore. If the dissents in this case had found just as forcefully that the ruling sided with big developers over less-than-affluent homeowners, but been written by Souter, Ginsberg, et.al., I (sadly) have to assume you would have heard a louder hew and cry from the left.
Come on guys -- let's focus here. Karl Rove is not going to resign and you can't make him. Why would Bush give away his best political asset for essentially saying what Rush Limbaugh says about liberals every day on the radio? Glenn Reynolds calls you guys "the Kossaks" -- maybe he should resign or apologize, and I don't even want to tell you what Malkin says about liberals and Democrats alike (let alone her fellow minorities... this lady sounds like she'd like to inter the Japanese tomorrow...) The Democratic Party is supposed to be about supporting the little guy, it's supposed to be about upholding the dignity of the working man against the indignity of naked corporate greed, and about not allowing lobbyists, developers and paid-off politicians to run roughshod over our rights. That's why I'm still a Democrat, despite the many, many, politically stupid things my party does in the name of "pleasing the base."
Imagine the irony of the right wing universe getting out front to take up the cause of individuals against big business and potentially corrupt government -- against a practice their president has used to his own financial advantage, and which is more often than not wielded by his pet industry: Major League Baseball! And you know what? I don't begrudge them this fight, because it's the right thing to do. I don't care if I have to side with Clarence Thomas and his momma, this eminent domain ruling is wrong, wrong, wrong, and I hope the Congress will forget the flag burning amendment and get to work on legislation that would limit this ugly practice before some other homeowner gets run over by a Wal-Mart or condo complex.
I hope I'm wrong, and that I just need to dig deeper into the lib blogs to find the outrage. If not, I think this is a case where the liberal wing of the party has got its priorities all fouled up.
Previous posts on this topic:
Kelo rising
Don't come back now, y'hear?
Their eminence
Adventures in Eminent Domain
Eminent nonsense
This land is your land ... or not
In America? |
posted by JReid @ 1:17 AM   |
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