Imagine, if you will, someone who read only the Wall Street Journal editorial page between 2000 and 2011, and someone in the same period who read only the collected columns of Paul Krugman. Which reader would have been better informed about the realities of the current economic crisis? The answer, I think, should give us pause. Can it be that our enemies were right?
This statement of course echoes Susan Sontag's from 1983, in which she challenged Communists' blindness towards what truly happened once a government adopted Marx as a governing text. Sure, American and European leftists were willing to point out the foibles and failings of their own societies and governments, but were totally unwilling to turn that criticism towards the Soviets or the Chinese. They felt it would have undermined their cause, and it would have, but the rigors of intellectualism should hold truth above allegiance to ideology. Sontag might have gotten booed of the stage, but the moment marked the beginnings of a reevaluation on the left of what Communism was, not just what they wanted it to be.
Could this be the same turning point on the right? The moment when those in the conservative movement more dedicated to truth and reason step back and are forced to see where their movement has taken them? Can William F Buckley finally vanquish Barry Goldwater? One can hope. Though I most likely will never vote for a Republican for anything more advanced that city councilman, I look forward to the day when the decision takes more than a moment of thought.
I would also like to point out that last night, I actually was reading the section of Christopher Hitchens' memoir in which he talked about that Sontag moment. Frum must have been looking over my shoulder.
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