That Extreme Left

The other day, one of our mystery reporters, who often defends the national news media against my protestations, asked me what publication represented "the left" or "the far left." I told him there was none. Yes, there may be some publication, but I'm unaware of anything out there. But that might mean that I don't know what O'Reilly's "far left" is. That's true.

I have no idea.

All day, I've heard ignorant pundocrats declare that "radical left," "extreme left" and "far left" commenters were against Lieberman and that only the "far left" of the Democratic Party supported Lamont. Only the most misinformed or rectally expulsive would even posit that Lamont's supporters would somehow be unrepresentative of the majority of Americans.

Yes, Cokie (she puts the "coke" in "Cokie") Roberts, David "I Sold My Brain for Merlot" Brooks and Charles "More Bloodletting, Please" Krauthammer support Lieberman, as does Rove. But no normal Democrat does.

And yet people like Cokie Roberts declaim on national news shows that "the far left" has taken over the Democratic Party, kicking those "moderates" to the curb.

On the basis of what? Nothing. There isn't one shred of evidence for anything that these national news assholes say about anything. All they do is assert.

If they were interested in evidence, they'd know that 60% of the population thinks that the Iraq War was a mistake and we need to get out. If they read polls, they'd know that the GOP is running scared. If they hadn't lobotomized themselves, they'd know that the GOP is doomed.

And yet you hear them asserting that the Democratic Party is making a mistake with Lamont. That "most Americans" want "security." That Democrats oppose the war at their electoral peril. Whomever asserts such is simply full of shit. They haven't read the polls.

Read the polls, Dems.

Bush is in the toilet. And he's not getting out anytime soon.

But they can't be bothered with "reading." Public opinion and the law are dead-set against them. Maybe next December they'll realize that that's the case.

There's a point here, and that is this. There is no "far left" or "exteme left." In fact, there's barely a "left." What there is is a "moderate" or "centrist" position, and that's the one represented by Ned Lamont or Howard Dean. Fiscal responsibility? getting out of a war we were lied into? Not "far left" positions. If anything, they're conservative positions. Civil liberties? Same thing.

Far left? Bullshit.

What's happened is what many other commenters have noted: The political center has shifted to the far Right. Now John Dean is the "left," which is absurd. Right now, the Constitution is the "far left." So be it. Most Americans are leftists. What do we want?

Rule of law.

UPDATE: The NYT agrees.