Policy:
Jay re "Liberals"

You asked for response to your rant claiming that liberal ideals have won in the 20th Century. Here are 3 areas where it is not at all clear who has or will win:

Vietnam and Other Wars

It's clear the Conservatives are making major headway here.

1. Overwhleming military might has been used 4 times times (at least) since Vietnam- Grenada, Gulf War I, c. Afghanistan, d. Gulf War II

2. US military doctrine continues to evolve toward an ability to project overwhleming force with fewer troops in more focused ways through advances in communication and logistics technology. The modern US soldier is so tricked out with high-tech gear she's like something out of an 80's sci-fi film.

Abortion Rights

The conservatives are consistently and incrementally winning back this territory. Laws are currently being passed that give a fetus civil rights separate from it's mother and making it a separate crime to harm a fetus when a mother is attacked. This is being done under cover of protecting a fetus from the abuse of a drug addicted mother. The precedence it is setting is clear: fetuses are humans with protection from harm under the law. It wouldn't surprise me if abortion is illegal again within 20 years.

Isolationism

Further evidence of Conservative wins comes in the US relations with the world community. The US has failed to pay its United Nations dues for over 10 years. Even under Clinton. With Gulf War II George W. Bush has taken us out of the community of civilized nations. People throughout the rest of the "first world" and "third world" think the US is crazy for trying to go it alone on the world stage. While the only thing that has allowed the US to get away with this is our overwhelming military superiority (which looks to continue to outpace the rest of the world for the next 2 decades at least), most people in the US seem to agree that this is the right thing to do. A clear victory for US separatism over world unity.

—Jay Ferm
June 2003

Leave it to two liberals (Jay and Steve) to point out liberal weaknesses. Healthy skepticism is a liberal trait. —JoT

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Gay Pride Parade, Seattle, 2003

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