The New New McCarthyism

(Because the old one was so good, it needed a sequel!)

Now, I consider myself a leftist, leftwinger, whatever. I was born in 1981, 28 years after Stalin's death. By the time I was politically aware, the USSR had been dead for years. I've never been to Cuba, and would only ever go for the beaches, not the health care. I suppose I'm a social Democrat, small s big D - which is to say, I'm resigned to never seeing the policies I'd like actually put in place. So can we please find a new slur for the left aside from pro-Communist?

What's that? Already working on that? Some tool says that "the left" is aligned with the terrorists against the US. Glenn Reynolds ("Instapundit") says "If only he were wrong."

Now, I hate to burst the persecution-bubble of the Republican right, but even if "the left" existed, they'd still have a hard time organizing a bake sale without three committees and a commitment to Palestine. After twelve years of constant hatred spewing from the Republican Party, the Democrats are just now beginning to think that bipartisanship might not have been such a great idea after all.

This isn't simple political fighting, however. This goes beyond the bounds of acceptable political debate. Not content with controlling every lever of power in the US, the rightists are trying to portray everyone who disagrees with Bush and the Administration as enemies of the state. This isn't even about ideology anymore - it's about power, and the preservation of power.

One of the most distressing aspects of current American politics is the disappearance of the centre - the push by the right to the extreme, prompting the Democrats to either move to the left or get steamrollered. In the meantime, the centre of the political spectrum disappears. A similar process happened in the Weimar Republic, and we saw how well that ended. The Nazis and the Communists both did well in the last elections - meanwhile, the Social Democrats and the Catholic Party were greatly reduced. Something was really very sick in the Weimar Republic, and I worry about what is going on in the US.

(Of course, I could be worrying about nothing. But then again, if I wasn't worrying, I wouldn't be Left!)