Friday, October 13, 2006

Only The Left Is Allowed To Dissent

Peggy Noonan pens a great column for OpinionJournal.com in which she points out, as so many of us have for so long, that the Left stifles the very free speech they claim to promote. How else do you explain so-called "hate speech" as well as the four recent incidents she points out?
They are always saying they want debate, but they don't. They want their vision imposed. They want to win. And if the win doesn't come quickly, they'll rush the stage, curse you out, attempt to intimidate.

And they don't always recognize themselves to be bullying. So full of their righteousness are they that they have lost the ability to judge themselves and their manner.

And all this continues to come more from the left than the right in America.


The column ends thusly:

What is most missing from the left in America is an element of grace--of civic grace, democratic grace, the kind that assumes disagreements are part of the fabric, but we can make the fabric hold together. The Democratic Party hasn't had enough of this kind of thing since Bobby Kennedy died. What also seems missing is the courage to ask a question. Conservatives these days are asking themselves very many questions, but I wonder if the left could tolerate asking itself even a few. Such as: Why are we producing so many adherents who defy the old liberal virtues of free and open inquiry, free and open speech? Why are we producing so many bullies? And dim dullard ones, at that.


You don't have to be intelligent to be a leftie, just overly emotional.

Update: Further commentary on the topic here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Excellent catch, Darren. I'd add that as much as the left continues to complain about not winning elections, they'd be a lot more likely to win over people if they'd show more of that grace that Noonan mentions in her article. The old saying is that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar...

Too bad that the group that needs to hear Noonan's message the most are the very ones she's writing about who are intolerant of anybody who dares to disagree with them.