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.
One can see this principle at work most illustratively in how Bush followers talk about Andrew Sullivan. In the couple of years after 9/11, Bush followers revered Sullivan, as he stood loyally behind Bush, providing the rhetorical justifications for almost every Bush action. And even prior to the Bush Administration, Sullivan was a fully accepted member of the conservative circle. Nobody questioned the bona fides of his conservative credentials because he ascribed to the conservative view on almost every significant political issue.
Despite not having changed his views on very many, if any, of those issues, Sullivan is now frequently called a "liberal" (at best) when he is talked about by Bush followers. What has changed are not his political views or ideological orientation. Instead, he no longer instinctively and blindly praises George Bush, but periodically, even frequently, criticizes Bush. By definition, then, he is no longer a "conservative."
As Atrios noted the other day, it'll be interesting to see what happens as Bush's lame duck presidency inches closer to sweet, final conclusion. The Republican Party has abandoned all of its supposed core precepts (things like smaller government, a limited executive, fiscal responsibility, respect for the Constitution, allegiance to state rights, and fealty to civil liberties) on the altar of "King Bush Our Infallible Leader". (Follow the link Greenwald hilariously digs up from the Free Republic, circa Clinton's presidency, in which Freepers get the vapors about a secret court that can issue secret court orders. How can people trust the government to not abuse such powers?!)
It's bizarre, like something out of communist North Korea.
What it takes to make someone a "conservative" in Bozell's eyes is the same as what is required in the eyes of all Bush followers -- a willingness to support Bush's actions because they are the actions of George Bush.
We see the same thing happening to hard-core conservative Bob Barr due to his criticism of Bush's violations of FISA . Similarly, the minute a Senator with years of conservatism behind them deviates from a Bush decree on a single issue, they are no longer "conservative." George Voinovich became a "liberal" the minute he refused to support John Bolton's nomination; John Sununu is now "liberal" because he did not favor immediate renewal of every single provision of the Patriot Act which Bush demanded, and Senators like Chuck Hagel and John McCain long ago gave up any "conservative" status because of their insistence on forming opinions that occasionally deviate from the decrees from the White House.
People who self-identify as "conservatives" and have always been considered to be conservatives become liberal heathens the moment they dissent, even on the most non-ideological grounds, from a Bush decree. That's because "conservatism" is now a term used to describe personal loyalty to the leader (just as "liberal" is used to describe disloyalty to that leader), and no longer refers to a set of beliefs about government.
Conservatism used to be a belief in limited government. Now, thanks to the Cult of Bush, conservatism means a belief in unlimited, unchecked powers for the executive. Bizarre and dangerous.
An, of course, subject to extreme revision, gross hypocrisy and packpeddling the next time we have a Democratic president. (Bob Barr and other conservatives argue against Bush's theory of omnipotence by raising the spected of President Hillary. The Bush Bots, in return, label them as "liberal".)
Is there anything more antithetical to that ethos than the rabid, power-hungry appetites of Bush followers? There is not an iota of distrust of the Federal Government among them. Quite the contrary. Whereas distrust of the government was quite recently a hallmark of conservatism, expressing distrust of George Bush and the expansive governmental powers he is pursuing subjects one to accusations of being a leftist, subversive loon [...]
The blind faith placed in the Federal Government, and particularly in our Commander-in-Chief, by the contemporary "conservative" is the very opposite of all that which conservatism has stood for for the last four decades. The anti-government ethos espoused by Barry Goldwater and even Ronald Reagan is wholly unrecognizable in Bush followers, who - at least thus far - have discovered no limits on the powers that ought to be vested in George Bush to enable him to do good on behalf of all of us.
And in that regard, people like Michelle Malkin, John Hinderaker, Jonah Goldberg and Hugh Hewitt are not conservatives. They are authoritarian cultists. Their allegiance is not to any principles of government but to strong authority through a single leader.
Really, the press loves to write the story of the aimless, drifting Democratic Party and its lack of core precepts. But here's a more dramatic story and it's all but ignored. This Cult of Bush is so pervasive in Republican Party circles that Republicans in Congress have all but abdicated their constitutional responsibilities as a check on the judiciary in order to let Bush run rampant in the executive. What better example of that do we have but Sen. Arlen Specter's refusal to swear in Alberto Gonzales last week when testifying about the NSA? Congressional Republicans aren't even able to demand that Bush's top lieutenants be bound to the truth when talking to them.
This Greenwald piece really is epic. Moving on the core motivations of these authoritarian cultists...
We have heard for a long time that anger and other psychological and emotional factors drive the extreme elements on the Left, but that is (at least) equally true for the Bush extremists. The only difference happens to be that the Bush extremists control every major governmental institution in the country and the extremists on the Left control nothing other than the crusted agenda for the latest International A.N.S.W.E.R. meeting.
And the core emotions driving the Bush extremists are not hard to see. It is a driving rage and hatred - for liberals, for Muslims, for anyone who opposes George Bush [...]
The rhetoric of Bush followers is routinely comprised of these sorts of sentiments dressed up in political language - accusations that domestic political opponents are subversives and traitors, that they ought to be imprisoned and hung, that we ought to drop nuclear bombs on countries which have committed the crime of housing large Muslim populations. These are not political sentiments, and they're certainly not conservatives sentiments, but instead, are psychological desires finding a venting ground in a political movement.
It's not an accident that Ann Coulter and her ongoing calls for violence against "liberals" (meaning anyone not in line behind George Bush) are so wildly popular among conservatives. It's not some weird coincidence that the 5,000 people in attendance at the CPAC this last week erupted in "boisterous ovation" when she urged violence against "ragheads,' nor is it an accident that her hateful, violence-inciting screeds -- accusing "liberals" of being not wrong, but "treasonous" -- become best-sellers. Ann Coulter has been advocating violence against liberals and other domestic political opponents for years, and she is a featured speaker at the most prestigious conservative events.
So of course, Greenwald's piece touched a raw nerve and the wingnutosphere erupted in a cacophany of whine (the truth hurts). Greenwald's response to that criticism is just as enjoyable a read as the piece that started everything off.