Sunday, Sept. 04, 2005 - 1:13 p.m.
I don't know if it's weird or not that the best summary I have seen of this week in America is this cartoon. Just a straight-up Old Testament metaphor. I guess that's the power of the Christian narrative, even for those of us who don't think we buy into it. That cartoon is as rich and thick as a metaphor can be. The only part of us that matters is huddled on that damn ark, and that dove just keeps going out, day after day, and as of yet there's been no olive branch. A few scraps of leaves, maybe, but no branch. The gyre keeps on widening.
This week brings home something I've seen in myself and others, which is that a lot of liberals have chosen the libertarian rather than the socialist path in reaction to the neocon trend of the country. Conservatives stopped being conservative, and a lot of us stepped in to fill that void -- we took over the civil liberties angle and forgot about taking care of people. Yes, of course social justice is compatible with the main goals of the left lately -- taking back patriotism, fighting imperialism, valuing critical inquiry and dissent, fearing the government. But it's so easy to forget the poor and the sick. We always do. Over and over again. All of us.
It's the Hobbesian decade. [bugmenot] Also, you should bookmark this TPM post right now, because in the coming days and weeks you're going to need to refer to it regularly.