For sake of honesty, I've always been a pretty conservative guy, economically, morally, politically, etc. In my youth it was due to having a father who read articles from National Review to me. Kids want to please and emulate their parents, of course, so I adopted his views uncritically at the time. This was a fine arrangement until I made it to high school, at which point my father's views were clearly in opposition to what many of my teachers were telling me during the day. One can probably imagine the sort of discussions that might have erupted around the dinner table, had my parents not separated about the time I was coming of age.
When it really got bad, though, was when I went to college. I found myself at a ridiculously liberal institution (viz., the University of Michigan), whereat my father's views (and thus mine) were not merely opposed but outright excoriated as hateful, patriarchal, sexist, homophobic, bigoted, racist, species-ist, etc. Somewhere in the midst of all that leftist vitriol, I grew up. That is to say, I became an adult through taking charge of my own beliefs. Aging is mandatory but growing up is optional, for growing up involves taking charge of your own beliefs, which must be supported by at least some reasons if one is to be intellectually honest.
So I started looking into things around that time, out of a genuine curiosity to see which side of the political spectrum made the most sense. And again to be honest, I was really quite open-minded about it. I had already come to realize that my father was not nearly as smart as he thought he was in light of my education in higher mathematics, physics, chemistry, and so forth, and I was no longer committed to his view of the world. My father, for example, maintained steadfastly unto his death that the horizontal and vertical components of a bullet's velocity cannot be treated independently of each other in terms of its physics. For those who don't know what that means, suffice it to say that my Dad's understanding of much of science and technology was squarely against hundreds of years of theory and experiments.
It didn't take long to discover that while the other side of the political spectrum had an awful lot of really impassioned things to say, rarely was anything substantive offered in terms of facts or reasoned arguments. I speak pretty broadly, insofar as I'm including the environmentalist tensions of the day right alongside affirmative action, "progressive" taxation, abortion, nuclear power, animal rights, and so forth. When I would ask someone on the political left for the reasons they held their views, it typically became painfully obvious that neither fact nor reason had anything to do with it. The left's perspective was simply taken to be what intelligent and progressive people believe. Eventually, of course, those conversations would end with me being denounced (and subsequently dismissed and ignored) as a racist, a bigot, a patriarchal sexist, or whatever other pejorative label seemed handiest to the person in question.
Since that time, I've found that pattern repeated over and over again. I suppose it would be more understandable were the left actually right about something every once in a while. The reason I'm writing this today is because I simply cannot believe anyone takes the left seriously anymore. I think the folk at the liberal end of the political spectrum have been proven wrong, as well as outright foolish and sometimes even stupid, again and again and again. But the events since September 11, 2001 simply take the cake. It's about bloody time for the rational persons of the world to start ignoring the left, for, not to put too fine a point on it, their views are so ridiculous they no longer merit consideration. I'm going to explain why the recent past supports such a claim. To my readers on the left, I suggest you have your this-ist and that-ist pejoratives at the ready.
The Left: If we go into Afghanistan, we're never going to get out. The former Soviet Union spent eleven years fighting the rebels, and they never succeeded. It will be another Viet Nam.
The Facts: (round up the data that shows the war was concluded in about a month)
The Left: There is no evidence that Iraq is linked to terrorism. We should be going after the terrorists, not Saddam Hussein.
The Facts: On 04/16/2003, Abu Abbas, a noted terrorist responsible for atrocities in several nations over a period of decades, was captured at his home in Baghdad. Coalition troops also found a terrorist training camp south of Baghdad, consisting of roughly twenty buildings on twenty-five acres of land, which was operated both by the PLO, a known terrorist organization, and the Iraqi government.
Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi has long been loyal to Al Qaeda and was the commander of Ansar al-Islam, a group of fanatics under Saddam Hussein's direction in Kurdistan. Colin Powell fingered him as an Iraqi tie to Al Qaeda prior to the war. Since the war has ended, Hassan Ghul, a key Al Qaeda operative and "runner", has been captured with documents conclusively linking Iraq to Al Qaeda. "The Week", National Review 56, no. 4 (March 8, 2004): 12.
The Left: We have to remain focused in the war on terror. We can't go after Iraq and expect to be able to go after terrorists at the same time. (Note well how the lack of any link between Iraq and terrorists is assumed by this statement).
The Facts: On 03/01/2003, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the 09/11/2001 attacks, was arrested in Afghanistan, which comes at a time when the Bush administration was deep in the planning for war.
The Left: The war against Iraq will cost up to $600B (i.e., $600,000,000,000).
The Facts: The estimated cost, as of 04/17/2003, is $60B, which is $140B less than many conservatives suggested.
Judith Miller, "Illicit Arms Kept Till Eve of War, an Iraqi Scientist Is Said to Assert", New York Times, 04/21/2003. According to an Iraqi scientist, Iraq destroyed chemical and biological weapons and equipment just before the war began. He also said that such weapons had been sent to Syria since the mid-1990's, and that the regime was cooperating with Al Qaeda.
Thursday, 6/12/2003 - Fox News & CNN both report that U.S. forces found and destroyed a terrorist training camp northwest of Baghdad.