There's an interesting profile of Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria in the New York Metro web site. Some think he may well be Secretary of State one day. He's interesting because he's Indian, Muslim, and a conservative all at once. He also says some things I've heard other East Indians say--and which I think more people on the political left ought to be thinking about, especially if they want to be wooing immigrant voters in the next couple of decades:
Zakaria became a conservative, he says, from observing the Indian state. "People often say, 'How could you, living in India, end up a Reaganite?' Well, the answer is, live in India. There are two things that people don’t understand. One is the degree to which a highly regulated economy produces masses of corruption because it empowers bureaucrats. It just has to be seen to be believed.The funny thing is, in earlier times and places, people who said things like this would have been considered the opposite of "conservative." It would have been considered a highly liberal viewpoint, rather radically so in fact."The second," he continues, "is that you are very quickly inured to the charms of pre-industrial village life. Whenever someone says the word 'community,' I want to reach for an oxygen mask."
I have often wondered how it is that the political Left in this country came to be the statist authoritarians. Yet that seems to be where we are anymore, since the political left seems to have no answers to any issues that don't involve more action and more power by the centralized state. Why this is considered "liberal" or even "left wing" is beyond me.
Of course, as I've said many times, I don't believe "left" and "right" have any fixed meanings. But I think that until the political Left learns again how to respect the value of free enterprise--and many do, although they seem strangely silent anymore--they are going to continue having trouble winning people over to their message.
It's certainly a good part of why I no longer consider myself left-wing, even though I maintain, quite staunchly, that I am still a liberal--without qualification, and proud of it.
(Via Stuart Buck.)
* Update * Matt Welch has some comments that are, while on a completely different subject, very closely related. In my mind, anyway.What ever happened to the party of Pat Moynihan, or of Bill Clinton circa 1992? The one that said government had a role in people's lives, but could not do all the heavy lifting? That people needed to lift themselves up, educate themselves, achieve for themselves, and compete in a free market and a free society? I could vote for that Bill Clinton, or a candidate like him, or at minimum not be afraid of him. When the hell did "common sense" and "self-reliance" become a synonym for "conservative?"
‘My friends all say i’m going to be Secretary of State,” fareed Zakaria muses from a banquette in the Grill Room at The Four Seasons. “But I don’t see how that would be much different from the job I have now.”
Bwah! This reads like a parody over at The Onion.
A banquette in the Grill room at the Four Seasons??
...the hell?
No wonder more than one observer has compared him to Dr. Kissinger.
I guess life is good at Newsweek.
Ooops.
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OK, I read the whole thing and I'm charmed, actually. You know what got me?
“Fareed is one of those people who believe that specialization is for insects,” says [David] Frum.
How can you not love that?
“You need to be able to talk about what should be done in Baghdad while quoting Swinburne over duck that you’ve cooked yourself.”
Hee.
too much work. bread and circuses for all!
a certain type of people like being told they're lazy, worthless, inept, and incapable -- and that there's nothing wrong with being "differently abled"! nothing is expected of them, and they get to guilt everyone else into providing for their "needs" since their "needs" are so great.
That reminds me of one of my favorite Heinleinisms:
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Why do I think that's no coincidence? :-)
Of course, having been raised in the era of the
Indian Congress Party of the Nehru-Ghandi's whose
brand of socialism complete with periodic states
of emergencies, is not that much different from
Baathism (that explains the affinity)the only
rational alternative would be a 'neoliberal' read
center-right free market. Of course a residual
anti-americanism does seeem to seep through, (re
the Arrogant Empire expose) the earliest aspects
of this was seen in a early New Republic piece where he accused North, Poindexter, & co; of conducting themselves like an "American Junta"
the kind of rhetoric you only hear now from the
likes of Gore Vidal