Pine Belt Progressive

I don’t know why you’d think that. It’s an absurd comment to make. “A test for the world” does not mean “We must use our military to solve this problem.” What an rash and hasty conclusion to jump to. Did you even read that piece I linked to?

Now I am going to write some things. The first, and most important thing I want to say is that I hope your son who has been to Afghanistan three times and Iraq twice comes home safe, if he’s not home already. I am not too clear about where he is at the moment.

The second thing is that if you don’t read this whole comment, you are definitely a troll and I just don’t have time for trolls.

“Worker’s Paradise” – the phrase you ineptly use against me on your blog, is so cold war and so McCarthy. The days when you can just insinuate that people who hold views like mine are commies and expect us to be quiet are gone. We’re wise to crap like that, we’re committed to our very American principles, and we are determined to restore the rule of law in this country.

Do you enjoy saying things like you say about me on your blog, or have you seen something here that makes you feel threatened? I would honestly like an answer. Please prove your good will to me by giving me one.

I find the title of your blog dishonest. You can’t employ the sorts of authoritarian rhetorical tactics that you’re using and expect informed readers to do anything but laugh when you call yourself libertarian.

I want you to know that Jesus loves you. I pray that you will learn, one day, that talking about people the way you talk about me on your blog isn’t helpful and hurts you more than it hurts them. I’ve only learned that recently. It is a hard lesson.

“And the tongue is like a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness that can ruin your whole life. it can turn the entire course of your life into a blazing flame of destruction, for it is set on fire by hell itself.” — James 3:6, NLT. (I recommend reading verses 2-10.)

My dad served in VietNam — another rich man’s war. My uncle went to Korea. My grandfather and two of his brothers served all over Europe and the Pacific. My mom’s uncle was in Europe when Germany was liberated. All but one were enlisted men. Some of them bled. Some of them lived the rest of their lives in the shadow of those wars. Friends I went to high school with came back from Kuwait after the first Gulf War so sick they couldn’t work. So don’t patronize me. If you’d like to have an adult conversation some time, I’d love to know what war you served in.

You don’t get the pingback. It’s deleted. If people really want to read immature, ham-fisted attempts to intimidate honest American citizens who feel a duty to write and talk about the situation in our country, they can click on your name. I am about productive discussion here, and I will not direct people to things like the post your wrote about me tonite.

I hope you’ll take note of the fact that I am turning the other cheek and reaching out here. You can respond however you wish, but you really ought to take a look around here and compare the quality of my work to the quality of yours before you think about escalating this encounter by directing further negative, dismissive, or intimidating language in my direction.

It wasn’t the question in your comment that set me off, Patrick. It was the tone of the post at your place, which I took to be mean-spirited, dismissive of me, and questioning my love of country.

I agree blogging not a contest, and I hope I did not insult you. I just thought you should look at more than just that one tiny post before you wrote too many more mean things about me. I respect your right to do whatever you wish with your blog and to express your idea of libertarianism however you see fit. One of the things I love about blogging is that we can all do pretty much what we want on them.

I am sorry to hear about your Dad, and I will keep your son in my prayers. Thanks for your service. My Dad was drafted right at the end of the war and was discharged as a Staff Sgt.

God bless and Happy Easter.

Patrick,

I want to explain what set me off in a little more detail. It occurs to me that you seemed genuinely puzzled by my response, and I want you to understand where I am coming from.

First, I didn’t do a really good job of making my point about Tibet. My point is that the things the administration has done overseas have undermined our ability to tackle situations like Tibet diplomatically. We can’t go to the U.N. and condemn these actions and have people take us seriously because of the Colin Powell fiasco, among other reasons. We can’t go to Russia and say, “Lets work together to do something about China in Tibet” because of the way we’ve handled the NATO expansion, among other reasons. We can’t threaten economic consequences or a Western boycott of the Olympics, because if we try that, China and most of the British Commonwealth will point it Iraq and laugh in our faces. That was my point about Tibet.

The reason I was offended by the way you framed my post in the piece you wrote at your place is that I got the idea you were insinuating that I am a socialist of the most undesirable sort. I am not a socialist, but I will say that the history of socialism has some things to teach us. We shouldn’t simply ridicule it or dismiss it or lump this long tradition all into the category of Stalin, who was really just an authoritarian dictator using the word socialist for his own convenience. Democratic Socialism in Europe is faring pretty well these days. Look at the health care they have and the success of the Euro. They had a rough ride in the 70s and 80s, but these are free and prosperous people governing themselves with social democratic principles.

For my entire life, whenever I’ve raised difficult questions, people have used that “socialist” label to try and shut me up. So I am sensitive about it. Especially since I am not, and never have been, a socialist. Our country was founded on the idea that we have room for lots of different voices in the public discourse. Hamilton says in the Federalist papers: “Faction is to liberty as air to fire.” No factions, no liberty. So said Hamilton. There is room in this country for a real Left. We are not dangerous Anti-American people. We used to have something called a Rockefeller Republican in this country. They understood the conservative ideals of moderation and reciprocity that Cicero writes about. They don’t exist any more. The Conservative Movement (as opposed to conservative people) ran them out of the party and used a very simplistic idea of “socialism” to exclude the Left from the discourse in the 80s and 90s. All we’re we’re saying is we want our voices to be recognized and we want to be able to criticize without being attacked as dangerous to the well-being of the country. And that we want Republicans to be held to the same standards that they hold everyone else to.

So, I hope that helps you understand a little better where I am coming from. The country has taken a hard shift to the right over the past 30 years. If this were 1975, I would be a moderate. I only seem “way out there” because everyone to the Left of me has been run out of the forum. The pendulum has to swing back in the other direction. If it doesn’t, the structures and processes that allow us to govern ourselves peacefully are simply going to break. If that happens, I suspect that you and I will both be in the same boat, since we’re both just regular people of the sort that always get screwed when the social order breaks down. So even though I am sure we have lots of differences on policy and on what acceptable social behavior is, let’s not be enemies.

My Dad, I mean. I remember he had a Black Horse on his shoulder patch. He doesn’t talk about his Vietnam experience.

Thanks for the comment, in2, and for the honesty. I mainly blogrolled you to keep up with that anarchy discussion, and in the hope that I would find more discussion of that sort at your place. I’ll simply reserve my right to change my mind and leave it at that for now.

That’s cool, Patrick, but wasn’t entirely necessary. I seriously doubt the ones we have are paying much attention to China – but that’s just my opinion. I got no facts to back that one up.