More from Thompson
An interview with Thompson, from Thompson at Large:
"The left/right divide is not what it used to be — that's my point. Let me add that there many liberal Democrats are excellent on human rights issues. Back to your question: Have I moved right? What today is called liberalism is almost unrecognizable from the liberalism of the late 1960s. This is not to be nostalgic about the past — it's a question of being accurate. In his 1966 Cape Town speech, Bobby Kennedy declared himself unwaveringly opposed to communism because it exalts the state over the individual and over the family. He said the best way to oppose communism is to enlarge individual human freedom. Ronald Reagan understood this, but he added another element: increased defense spending as a means of bankrupting the Soviets. Powerful combination, and it worked.
Now what's interesting is that Bobby's speech about freedom is not one his brother is likely to make today. Not because Ted Kennedy is pro-Communist, but because it's a matter of record that he strongly favors increasing government control in and management of the economy and society as a whole.
The worldview that captured the imagination of left-liberals around the beginning and the middle of the twentieth century, the New Deal, has essentially exhausted itself. The New Deal was a sharp departure from the principles of limited constitutional government. We created a bureaucratic welfare state, and the results were terrific — assuming we were trying to foster generations of dependent citizens, broken families, and oppressive government regulations."
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