[Chris Alger]

Thanks for an excellent cache of quotations.

If one really tried, they just might find some Clinton flack in Congress challenging the patriotic merits of the people quoted and those saying similar things. But it was never the staple, standard-issue argument that the right uses to brunt virtually any criticism of military policies they like.

Throughout the right-wing press, such as the pro-war columnists and the talking heads on Fox, any criticism or questioning of the cost and manner of how the war is fought amounts to subversion if not outright treachery, typically on the grounds that it might demoralize the troops and thus "give aid and comfort," etc. There are lots of examples of this (Sinclair media's decision to drop the famous Nightline segment that rattled off the names of the dead, Hannity's constant complaints about Senators who question the tactics of the war, the whole myth about TV news unpatriotically undermining the Vietnam cause, etc.).

When conservatives talk about "character" (as in Peggy Noonan's Reaganite valentine, "When Character Was King"), it's important to note that their real world actions define "character" as including the rankest dishonesty and hypocrisy. It's another indication that what separates left and right increasingly reflects not any difference in values but the difference between right and wrong.

On the question of who should rule, today's "conservatives" have virtually abanonded Burkean skepticism about concentrated power. Real-world conservatism increasingly means a preference for centralized authority and its associated inefficiency, regimentation, conformity and arbitariness. At the same time liberalism has increasingly parted company from its faith in the possibility of benevolent paternalism that reflects the "popular will."

There's also a growing difference between left and right over what constitutes acceptable, ethical behavior. Traditionally, it's been hard to discern a difference, but today America's lefties increasingly wear the white hats while conservatives, at least conservative leaders, are more likely to be hypocrites, demogogues, liars and all around scoundrels.