Liberals, Conservatives and the Cult of George W. Bush

GLENN GREENWALD

It used to be the case that in order to be considered a "liberal" or someone "of the left," one had to actually ascribe to liberal views on the important policy issues of the day — social spending, abortion, the death penalty, affirmative action, immigration, "judicial activism," hate speech laws, gay rights, utopian foreign policies, etc., etc. These days, to be a "liberal," such views are no longer necessary.

Now, in order to be considered a "liberal," only one thing is required — a failure to pledge blind loyalty to George W. Bush. The minute one criticizes him is the minute that one becomes a "liberal," regardless of the ground on which the criticism is based. And the more one criticizes him, by definition, the more "liberal" one is. Whether one is a "liberal" — or, for that matter, a "conservative" — is now no longer a function of one's actual political views, but is a function purely of one's personal loyalty to George Bush.

(This is part of a longer post here.)