Soccer Dad

Language of the left

Max Boot:
The leftwing blogosphere has found its next star. He is an articulate champion of a modern leftist sensibility:
. . .

• He bemoans that the White House is focused on Iraq rather than on the real dangers facing all mankind, such as “global warming resulting to a large degree from the emissions of the factories of the major corporations,” “the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes, and real estate mortgages,” and of course “the abject poverty and tragic hunger in Africa.”

Anne Applebaum

And now, ladies and gentlemen, time for a quiz. Three guesses as to who said this:

"And Iraq and Afghanistan and their tragedies; and the reeling of many of you under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages; global warming and its woes; and the abject poverty and tragic hunger in Africa; all of this is but one side of the grim face of this global system."

Why the person so faithfully adhereing to these principles of American leftist thought is none other than the person claiming to be Osama bin Laden in the recent video.

Max Boot again:

But the overlap between bin Laden’s world view (at least as it’s expressed in his most recent videotape) and that of many Western leftists is uncanny. This does not mean, I should stress, that leftists support al Qaeda. It does seem to mean, however, that bin Laden is trying to rally the “antiwar” crowd to his side in language they understand.

Anne Applebaum again:

Bin Laden will sooner or later die or be captured. But he, or someone close to him, is trying to ensure that his ideology lives on. And he, or someone else, wants it to survive in a form that will appeal to Americans and other Westerners disillusioned with their own political systems.

So Bin Laden or the fellow claiming to be him left off the parts about concubines, the prohibition of abortion and the "protected" status of Jews to keep his leftist credentials. Imagine for a moment, if he'd mentioned that American was suffering because the country allowed abortions, we'd hear plenty about how he was somehow similar to the "religious right." I wonder how many others are going to emphasize that he sounds like the anti-war Left?

Which party is the Taliban of American politics?

osama bin laden.