Looking for quality thought? Keep an eye on conservatives, these days.
Charles Krauthammer has a really interesting column in today's Post.
Anytime that a credentialed conservative like Charles says, "How many decades will it take before we acknowledge that the axiom that economic liberalization leads to political liberalization may not be axiomatic?" you should sit up and pay attention.
Crooked Roads to Democracy
It is Charles' first line that impresses me.
"'My mother always said, democracy is the best revenge.'
-- Bilawal Bhutto Zardari,
son of the late Benazir Bhutto
Of all the understandings of the democratic idea, none could be more wrong than this one. Democracy at its very core is an antidote to the kind of dynastic revenge young Bhutto was suggesting."
Now, I'm about to say something personal that I hope doesn't hurt Charles' feelings, too much, but I'm going to say it anyway because it's the only way I can explain why I was so impressed with this line and Mr. Krauthammer lately, in general.
I've always respected Charles Krauthammer. His intelligence. His secular outlook. His willingness to marshall secular thought to make cases for otherwise religiously-associated ideas (Charles' opposition to creating stem cells for research, for instance; he makes a really interesting case for why researchers and the market makes the discussion moot for all kinds of reasons that he thinks are good, although I'm not quite sure, frankly, what I think of the concern for not creating human embryos to destroy them. Something tells me we're not going to be seeing embryos protesting about it anytime soon).
But there has always been one thing about Charles that has stood out for me that has always meant that I never really quite trusted him, no matter how intelligent his analysis.
He always seemed like kind of a snotty and vindictive prick. He just had that air about him. Like Hannibal Lector without all the canibalism and serial killing. Really smart. And kind of creepy.
But I have to say that Charles has really impressed me, lately. And this column really kind of takes the cake.
It is a solid analysis of American strategic interests vis a vis democracy promotion with a much stronger appreciation for the need of local populations to determine their own destinies.
I would add a very important caveat: ultimately, no matter what we think, every individual, local population and sovereign authority for that population will and must be free to determine their own destinies. They will look backwards. They will be illiberal, often. But liberal values are best upheld by our example which respect the choices, learning, and free and voluntary adoption of liberal democracy and the values that sustain it out of the free will of individuals and self-governing populations alike. Everything else is a serious distortion of liberal values and even illiberal folks hostile to those values can sense it and are rightly hostile to our hypocrisy when it involves running rough-shot over their priorities, choices, and governance. We can and must criticize illiberal practices, in ourselves as much as in others. But when we defend our own illiberal practices, especially against the interests of other populations, cultures, or governments, and criticize or strong-arm the illiberal practices of others, we don't just get "branded" as hypocrits, we are hypocrits. And we need our behavior, including our talk and thinking, to live up to our liberal ideals.
Charles' piece is an excellent example of that, today, and I, for one, appreciate reading his insight and that kind of growth on the part of one of our brainier national columnists.
You know what I really appreciate, today? People of all ideological credentials, these days, willing to challenge the dogma of their own ideological stripes and searching deep for the principles and the liberal democratic values in those ideologies - the ideas in those ideologies - that are really worth valuing.
What I like about the smarter political folks out there is that you can see them doing just that, right now. At least conservatives, as they watch the frenzy of progressive piety sweeping the country, these days. It would be nice to see the same from liberals, these days. If only so I wouldn't have to be so ashamed that I come from roots in liberal political circles with folks who cannot live up to the true meaning of that name - liberal - and be willing to give more open-minded, open-hearted, open-ended, engaged thought to what in progressive ideology is just ideology - meaning a more temporary and less valuable political idea associated with a group and its political practices more than a sustainable idea which supports the learning and growth of people for whom those ideas are meant to serve - and what ideas are genuinely better ideas. Liberals will have to get off their high horses to do that. And that is exactly why I like watching the ideological pondering of those out of popular fashion, because it is then that most people do their best thinking.
