Oh, so *now* Richard Cohen wants to be a neoconservative. Because Obama.

Point (Richard Cohen, “America’s Left Slides Down A Slippery Slope In Iraq,” 2014):

…people will die of starvation or thirst or a bullet in the back because we didn’t do what we could easily do.
This is not who we are. This is not who we should be.

I recognize that these are not easy issues. I recognize further that we are a war-weary nation and that events in the Middle East are so convoluted, they redeem the preposterous plots of “Homeland.”

But, Lord, how did the moral center of the American left get so isolationist and selfish? How did it manage to cede the moral high ground to the right? Why does it see no difference between a moral obligation to save lives by avoiding murder — not just with humanitarian measures — and a kind of militarist lust for yet more adventure?

Counterpoint (Richard Cohen, “The Myth of American Exceptionalism,” 2011):

…the problem of the 21st century is the problem of culture, not just the infamous “culture of poverty” but what I would call the culture of smugness. The emblem of this culture is the term “American exceptionalism.” It has been adopted by the right to mean that America, alone among the nations, is beloved of God. Maybe so, but on some days it’s hard to tell.

[snip]

Therein lies the danger of American exceptionalism. It discourages compromise, for what God has made exceptional, man must not alter. And yet clearly America must change fundamentally or continue to decline. It could begin by junking a phase that reeks of arrogance and discourages compromise. American exceptionalism ought to be called American narcissism. We look perfect only to ourselves.

So, to answer the original question: I guess what happened is that they learned it from you.

Dick.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

8 thoughts on “Oh, so *now* Richard Cohen wants to be a neoconservative. Because Obama.”

  2. I would argue there may be some hope at least for Richard Cohen, I normally don’t see any talk of morality from leftists.
    –
    As far as people on the left being disconnected from reality, I blame all the drug use.

    1. I like to quote Ray Stevens at times like this: “There is none so blind as he who will not see.”

      1. “They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.”
        ― C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

  3. The “moral center” of the American Left has been selfish and isolationist since the late ’60s…even as a kid, I could see this.
    .
    This tw*t wouldn’t know the definition of exceptionalism if it bit him in a personal and private place.

    1. How many licks does it take to get to the moral center of the american left?
      .
      The world may never know .. reality keeps biting their asses off.
      .
      Mew

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