Crazies to the left of me, wimps to the right

Crazies to the left of me, wimps to the right.

Okay, this is probably a mistake. I haven't finished reading "Crazies to the Left of Me, Wimps to the Right" by Bernard Goldberg, but I'm writing my opinions on it anyway. Naturally, as what Goldberg would consider a liberal, I am a little critical of some of his key points. But I am surprised on how much I agree with his contentions.

Goldberg on Fox News: why liberals hate it so passionately - and why it's the fairest of the networks. There are tons of reasons why someone should have trouble with Fox News, and it isn't merely because it is run by Roger Ailes as Goldberg suggests. What it comes down to is that Goldberg suggests that Fox is fair because they SAY that they are fair. Fox likes to take a topic, and find people with opposing views and have them thrash it out. Here's the rub. Not every story has two equally valid sides. Do we REALLY need to have a pro and a con on the topic of child abuse? Fox treats every subject as equal and that all topics have equal merit pro and con. This isn't and shouldn't be the case. Sometimes editorial boards dismiss one side of the story because it is with minimal merit. That's what editorial boards are supposed to do. When Fox gives equal merit to the guy who thinks the holocaust never happened, that's a problem.

Goldberg on George W. Bush: why he has become for the Left the very personification of evil. Perhaps...but isn't Bill Clinton still the personification of evil for the right? I guess my problem is that Goldberg is treating the "Bush Boogie Man" argument as unique to liberals. The "Clinton Boogie Man" seems to be alive and well on the right. Secondly, conservatives miss the argument sometimes. People were critical of the post Katrina clean up due to how Bush and his appointees ran FEMA. However, several conservatives boiled down the criticism to liberals blaming Bush for the weather. No. That wasn't the argument. The point was that if FEMA was being run correctly the response would have been better. Liberals didn't blame Bush for the hurricane. They blame Bush for the failures related to the cleanup.

Goldberg on Conservative ideas: alive and well, even though Republicans are on the ropes. I agree. In fact, I'm still taken by how much I agree with Barry Goldwater's ideas, although I really think he missed the boat on the civil rights act. But is this because I'm becoming more conservative or because the political landscape has shifted so far to the right that a conservative now looks liberal. This really isn't my point. Goldberg suggests that liberals are just plain crazy and always have been. He suggests that he is still conservative, but the republicans have lost their way. My argument is that conservatives may have lost their way, but so have liberals. I don't think that you can say that a 2000s "liberal" is the same as a democrat or is the same as a Truman liberal, New-Dealer, or even a New-Frontier liberal. The vanguard of both sides aren't very representative of the rank and file. And this is why no one votes in elections (imho).