Actually, Marx never made a big deal out of imperialism… if anything he though it was good because it would industrialize the less developed areas of the world. Hitler bitched about it a lot, but it called it interference from the ‘plutocracies’ (allegedly with Germany via some kind of Jewish / Capitalist / Anglo conspiracy)…

It didn’t become a leftie issue until the 50s and 60s. By then, it was obvious the plight of the proletariat was getting better (re: they wouldn’t not rise up and fight for them) and they needed new issues to be outraged about…

Its fun reading about lefty progressive history… real eye opener…

Another theory I’m floating (and this is a complete guess, since I don’t know much about the guy) is that his attacks on bloggers come from the fact that he sees them as a threat to his own livelihood– amateurs trying to usurp the pro.

Kundera also talked about the lure of the grand march of history

Some of the leftists still need that fix of euphoria that comes from “national liberation” movements, bright flags, camaradery. Seductive…for a time.

Deep in their guts, if not even consciously, the Left is convinced that terrorism is merely the logical blow back of our allegedly imperialistic policies. The terrorists are victims of capitalist exploitation. It is therefore foolish to fight these murderers when we should instead remove our foot off their necks. In other words, the Leftists are highly influenced by Marxism. Unfortunately, one is charged with McCarthism when pointing this out.

* Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
* Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.

I live in San Francisco and my journey since 9-11 has been similar to neo-neocon’s and probably many others reading here. I still consider myself a liberal and by these definitions I qualify.

But the US seems to have gone through the looking glass somewhere in the last decade or so, and the word liberal has been appropriated to mean identification with a very particular, dogmatic, and intolerant political viewpoint.

I didn’t expect to agree with the guy, but I certainly didn’t expect there to be strings of vitriol against people like Glenn Reynolds and Roger Simon. I mean, these guys aren’t exactly Rush Limbaugh… Wolcott has the sort of rage toward them you expect to see directed only toward people like, well, the 9/11 hijackers, for example.

Further sad proof, I guess, that there really is no room for diversity of opinion among the left anymore.

As for myself, I can do a fairly impressive Limbo…not to be confused with Limbaugh.