It is sad that so often on either side of politics any trace of nuance or of being seen to try and see the good in other people and what they do is seen and reacted to as if within some simplistic Manichean struggle between good and evil.
He writes:
I see quite a few criticisms of recent articles of mine that read like this one:
I am a little more than concerned with your left leaning slant on some of your most recent opinion pieces. If I wanted to get a left bias of things I’d go to the ABC message board.
I find this criticism strange, to say the least.
Concerns seem to be raised most by the following three columns.
First, I criticised Tony Abbott for feeling “threatened” by gays, who I maintain - as all conservative humanists must - should be judged by the content of their character, not the orientation of their sexuality. Individuals, not systems or labels, are king. (Moreover, Abbott need no more fear the sexual approaches of a male any more than need any woman - and, indeed, he need fear them even less since he, at least, was a boxing blue.)
Second, I criticised Abbott for proposing a big-Government, big-Nanny, anti-business tax that even Labor’s Left thought too rich. Any one who thought Abbott’s parental leave a great idea is no real conservative themselves - or at least not an economic conservative.
Third, I praised Julia Gillard specifically for those things she’s done which conservatives have advocated for years, and warned against those things she’s proposed or maladministered which betray her big Government proclivities. Could a conservative, who should be impressed by evidence more than labels, have said anything different?
It seems to me many critics now questioning my principles, or purporting to see an inconsistency in my position which can only be explained by having been bought off or intimidated, suffer from one of two things. One is a tribalism that prevents them from acknowledging any good in their foes or any flaws in their friends. And tribalists aren’t conservatives as I define them. The other is that they aren’t conservatives at all, but Right wingers, and do not know the difference.
2 comments:
I agree with you - and with Bolt. I don't bother with comments there much these days, but that was one I did think it worth leaving feedback on.
Much as I enjoy getting FoxNews in Oz, I wonder sometimes if some of his more recent readers/fans don't expect him to be more of a Glenn Beck type. Are some of his newer fans personality-cultists in search of a personality to worship? Is that why they get so nasty with him when he fails to reinforce their every Liberal-party-cheerleading thought/belief?
Dunno. But good on him, anyway.
G'day Spot. Indeed. We shouldn't fall into the trap of lining up to take assumed positions. Too much of that on both (all?) sides of politics.
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